The Modern Benoni is a bold answer to 1.d4 and GM Marian Petrov shows it is possible to play this line confidently without memorizing extreme levels of theory.
This book aims to arm White players adequately against Black’s most dangerous answer to 1.c4 – 1…e5. It is written from White’s standpoint, but it should also serve Black players since the authors often discuss several alternatives to the main lines. The focus is on the modern variations 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.e3 and 4.d3.
This volume completes the coverage of the Modern English with a repertoire against 1...c5, 1...Nf6, and 1...e6. It is based on active fight for the centre by e3 and d4. It is written from White’s standpoint, but it should also serve Black players since the authors often discuss several alternatives to the main lines. The book follows the acclaimed Chess Stars structure with three sections in each chapter – “Main Ideas”, “Step by Step”, and “Annotated Games”.
The Modern Philidor Defence consists of seven chapters, dealing with different move-orders. Each chapter comprises of a “Quick Repertoire” then a thorough theoretical study in the part “Step by Step”and “Complete Games”.
This book presents a repertoire against 1…d5, based on the Reti
The Scotch Game is the most “open” of all the Open Games. In fact this is the only really Open Game, in its essence, which matches the traditional terminology. The move 3.d2-d4 breaks immediately the symmetry. White tries to occupy the centre and gain additional space. Rapid contact between the opposing forces takes place, in fact much quicker than in the other open (and not only open...) games, which increases the value of every move and requires from both sides tremendous accuracy at a very early stage of the game. Positions with opposite castles arise much more often in the Scotch than in all the other Open Games put together.
The Modern Tiger offers an enterprising repertoire for Black using the Modern Defence.
This book presents the Triangle set-up, which arises after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3/Nf3 c6. This move order avoids many unpleasant systems for White, notably the Catalan, the Exchange Slav and the Botvinnik Variation. It leads to sharp strategically unbalanced play and brings Black excellent practical results. Semko Semkov is a chess journalist and theoretician. He has co-authored the famous books The Modern English, The Most Flexible Sicilian, Attacking the English/Reti, Attacking the Flexible Sicilian and Understanding the Queen’s Gambit Accepted.
The Vienna set-up aims for very aggressive play, which often includes sacrifices, but White prefers to be on the safe side, without burning all the bridges and to try to justify his actions from the point of view of positional play as well. This is how this usually happens. At first, he deploys his minor pieces to active positions, then he advances the thematic move f4, castles (usually on the kingside) and begins an attack only after all this.
A complete manual on how to play the Benko
When I set out to write this book, I was clear on certain aspects, like keeping the moves simple and giving as much explanation as possible at the critical moments, as I wanted to ensure that someone interested in learning the intricacies of the Berlin doesn’t get swamped by long theoretical lines, but acquires a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the positions. If you manage to grasp the dynamics of these lines, then you can play not just the systems recommended in the book, but also other popular Berlin variations that have not been covered in this book for the Black side.
This book is written for the Black side, though new ideas for White are suggested and old ones occasionally improved. It contains not only the author’s personal take on how to deal with all major White tries after 1.e4 c6, but also a range of alternatives for Black to cater for different types of Caro-Kann player.