Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #157483 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 221 pages

Customer Reviews

Well Thought Out
Having had it shipped from the UK to the US prior to the book's release here, and having spent a few concentrated days with it, my impressions are very favorable indeed. The content is sound. The helpful textual commentary is consistant throughout. The organization, both with respect to the layout of each chapter as well as the efforts to harmonize what was a joint project by three contributors, is strong.

The book feels just the opposite of the typical opening manual rush-job -- the countless examples where it seems that the author has gathered just about enough theoretical content to merit a book length treatment but then rushes to the finish line with little consideration given to the best manner to present the material. (Why should chess books be different than other nonfiction writing where the writing process is MOSTLY about the steps that come after the author is in possession of the factual content?)

Sometimes I think that all opening books would be better, more useful, and certainly more slender, if all the theoretical analysis after about move 14 or 15 was omitted. At that point the authors could review the trajectory of the game to that point, give an evaluation of the resulting position, offer recommended general plans and, if necessary, warnings about potential vulnerabilities. For 99% of chess players, particularly with respect to less than routine openings such as the Stonewall Dutch, any attempt by authors to add to theory after 15 moves - let alone moves will beyond move 20 - is solely an academic exercise.

Notwithstanding this view, I also appreciate that opening books like this one that follow the entire course of representative games are useful even if much of the analysis beyond some early point in the game has little to do with the principal objective. To some degree, Win with the Stonewall Dutch provides the best of both worlds by providing a more limited "Theory" review at the end of each chapter.

One of the great strengths of this book, I think, is the chapters in the middle of the book on the less critical lines where White does not play g3 and Bg2. These chapters have at least equal practical application for most players and the lines covered therein can objectively be OK for White. Indeed much of the theory results in a slight edge for White (although nothing special). The fact that the top 20 players in the world may be less likely to enter these lines (although Karpov often did) makes little difference to mere mortals.

The practical perspective adopted in those chapters on the non-g3 lines is perhaps lacking in the Staunton Gambit coverage. I am not sure I am fully satisfied with the general advise to go headlong into the tactical main lines of the Staunton Gambit(and related 2.g4 lines). From a practical club player's view, if you do not as White face the Dutch often, you can always play 2. e4 or 2. g4, in which case you then need to know nothing else. Black on the other hand, needs to know the entirety of the content of the subject book. Hence White is quite likely to have the upper hand in theoretical knowledge and experience. Maybe that's just life - the benefit of the White pieces that can't be denied - but it would be nice if Win with the Stonewall offered some basic continuation for Black that de-fanged the gambit and took White out of book, or at least took White out of the wide open style game he seeks. This would be useful even if, from a theoretical perspective, Black is not doing his absolute best to press for an immediate edge. While such an approach would be less useful for someone like co-author Bern, a corespondence specialist, it would certainly come in handy for most readers.

As an aside, one of the authors of this book has a blog that attempts to create a useful forum for readers of the book to interact with said author. The author suggests that Gambit Publications Ltd has a policy of not permitting him (or anyone else) to place on the web non-annotated PGN files of the book's exemplar games. In other words, this publisher is claiming intellectual property rights over the games of others merely because the authors included the games in their book. Said coauthor also suggests that this questionable and customer-unfriendly assertion of rights is enforced by threat of legal action. Potential consumers of Gambit Publications Ltd should be aware of this remarkable inconvenience.