Wednesday, September 2, 2009

More Norwegian Stonewall Reviews

There is a new Norwegian review of 'Win with Stonewall Dutch' at Nettavisen's chess pages.
There also was a review in the new issue (4/2009) of 'Norsk Sjakkblad'.
Unfortunately I am extremely pressed for time these days so I will not attempt to quote, translate or comment on these for some days.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In your book "Win with the Stonewall Dutch", what do you recommend against the London System?

Sverre Johnsen said...

It offers the game Diachkov-Ulybin Maikop 1998 (a non-Stonewall set-up with ...Be7 and ...b6) based on a minor re-evaluation of a line (10.d5) from 'Win with the London System'.

The book's main advise regarding the London and other quiet non-theoretical lines is to treat them with respect but not spend too much time preparing lines in detail. You simply must accept the fact that the real fight will start in the middlegame.

One strength of the Dutch is that Black sets his mark on the position just as much as White does with the London system.

Anonymous said...

I have a suggestion for your next opening book. I remember you wrote that for your next opening book you wanted to complete your "Win with the" series with a defense to 1 e4 so I am suggesting a book on the Open Ruy Lopez. Gambit doesn't have a book on the Open Ruy Lopez yet so I am sure they would let you write a book on it. Also, I think a book on the Open Ruy Lopez would sell well because it is a popular variation and the last book written on this variation was Glenn Flear's "Open Ruy Lopez" which is really dated now because it came out in 2000.

Sverre Johnsen said...

Anonymous,

That's a very good idea which somehow has escaped my attention. The more I think of it, the more I like your suggestion:
* The fact that I know relatively little about the Open Ruy Lopez is actually more of a pro than a con.
* You are right that Gambit probably would like to have a book on the Open RL.
* As you say there are no good and recent books on the line.
* The Open RL is relatively popular and has been played by some top players.
* The line may be somewhat underestimated by theory.
* Studying this branch of the RL would add to my general chess education.
* Black's play is quite natural - he secures some central space and develops quickly.
* There is some minor overlap with "The Ruy Lopez: A Guide for Black" but that's no real problem. It will be easy to find alternative lines for Black against the Exchange and the early Worrall.
* The book would have to include lines against White's alternatives at move 2 and 3, but that's no problem - actually I need to work a bit on these.

For the moment I can think of only two snags:
- Yusupov might produce a competing book which would steal most of the market.
- I am not sure that I can find a good co-author. Leif Johannessen - my co-author for "The Ruy Lopez: A Guide for Black" is the first person that comes to mind. However, I don't think he has played that particular branch of the Spanish and - more importantly - I suspect that he is fairly busy these days.

On a final note: If I wrote somewhere that my next authoring project is a third book in the "Win with ..." series, I have to modify that statement. Presently I am toying with quite a lot of chess projects but there are only two that I am really determined to see through to a published book:
1) A chess opening book written without any co-author (but possibly with a GM advisor).
2) A third book in the "Win with the ..." series, providing a repertoire against 1.e4.