To read and review a good book takes a while, but it may be worthwhile to discover what this author has to say!
I tried it for 6 months, nearly a year in various tournaments, but the results were definitely bad. I realized one mistake I made was my lack of understanding how I should study an opening. For example, one error was relative to the amount of games I should have watched and played, before using it in a tournament. I had to become more mature as player in order to use it. Now, I'd like to give it another try, because often I play the same players in the state where I live, and play some of these players even in matches, consequently I do need to be able to vary my openings. This is the reason I got this volume, to see if I will be able to play it successfully in tournament. The author begins the book telling us why is a good idea to play the English, the main reasons are: avoiding to study tons of theory, since it can be used like a system, similar to the London, and Black players tend to spend more time studying and preparing for 1.e4 and 1.d4, instead of 1.c4. But the most important point, which made me decide I wanted to read the book, was at page 8: "Most of the existing English opening repertoire books offer White systems involving an early g2-g3. Most notably, the seminal works by Tony Kosten and Mihail Marin are based on playing 1.c4, and 2.g3 against any of Black's replies. One key decision I made early on was not to follow in their footsteps..." and then he continues: "the theory after 1.c4,e5; 2.g3 which Marin covered in close to 500 pages in 2009, is the very domain that has exploded most dramatically." the author makes the example that at the Moscow Candidate tournament 2016 a 20% of the games were 1.c4,e5; with White playing 2.g3. Cummings is trying to teach us how to avoid the most fashionable path, used by all the Top GMs at the moment, and which would be known by our opponents who pay minimal attention to the video commentary of the main tournaments.
Let's begin with an overview of Chapter 1, the author dedicates about 8 pages to explain the theory, and the reasons behind the moves he proposes for his repertoire. Then he begins to show some games. This position is reached after the moves: 1.c4,e5; 2.Nc3,Nf6; 3.Nf3,Nc6; 4.e3,
Next, he continues to explain the theory till a quite distinct crossroad which happens at move 8, when White takes on F6. 1.c4,e5; 2.Nc3,Nf6; 3.Nf3,Nc6; 4.e3,Bb4; 5.Qc2,0-0; 6.Nd5,Re8; 7.Qf5 (the author explores in Chapter One also some alternatives) 7...,d6; 8.Nxf6,
Now I'd like to show you one game, because the story behind is quite funny. The author chose as first game in the book a loss by Giri as Black against Grischuk in 34 moves, played in 2013. Now the game you are going to see, is a win, by Giri as White, in 2015, in 30 moves, using the same opening Grischuk used against him in 2013! As we can see, one can learn from the losses, and eventually use them against new opponents who will lose too!
In the first chapter there are a total of 5 games heavily
annotated to show possible alternatives for both colors.
The second chapter
deals mainly with 5...Bxc3; and White's responses, while also outlining some
alternatives to 5...Bxc3.
After 1.c4,e5; 2.Nc3,Nf6; 3.Nf3,Nc6; 4.e3,Bb4; 5.Qc2,Bxc3;
Also this chapter, like Chapter One, follows the same
pattern, 2-3 pages of theory, followed by 4 games heavily annotated.
While I follow this book, I also use other tools to keep my
research updated. For example thanks to Megabase 2017,
which I update every couple of weeks, I can discover if games
with the lines explained in Chapter Two, were played lately, and I discovered
the following game, just played a little over a couple of months ago.
Chapter 3 is dedicated to the alternatives to Black's fourth
move 4...Bb4 examined in the previous chapter. The author examines 4...Be7;
4...d5; 4...g6; 4...d6;
Of these 4 alternatives the one we must really pay attention to is: 4...d5; because it can lead to an open Sicilian with reversed colors.
Practically after the moves: 1.c4,e5; 2.Nc3,Nf6; 3.Nf3,Nc6;
4.e3,d5;
we must take in d5 with 5.cxd5,Nxd5; now the author proposes
to continue with 6.Bb5.
Often in books we just see games in which the opening we are
going to play is winning. This is the reason why I use the Megabase 2017, with
nearly 7 million games on it, I found out less than 500 games were played in
this line in over 140 years! I gave a quick look at all the games with
names of important players, independently from the result, in order to better
understand what are the pros and cons of playing this particular line. This is
an example of a game between two big names of the past:
The book finishes to treat all possible deviations on 2nd
and 3rd move to 1.c4,e5 in chapter 4.
The next 5 chapters are dedicated to the symmetrical
English. In Chapter 5 the author makes a really nice introduction to the
symmetrical English giving some simple
rules to remember in order to fight Black possible different move orders. I
think chapter 5 is essential, and shows why one cannot really study an opening
like the English without an experienced guide like David Cummings.
(image symmetrical_english)
The rest of the book is based on 7 chapters, where the
author analyzes different setups Black can use to throw us off-guard and lead
us into our opponent's theoretical preparation. Therefore Cummings develops the
chapters with the names of the major openings used by Black like: anti-slav
system, anti-nimzo system, anti-Grünfeld, King's Indian, Dutch etc. The book
ends with the index of the variations, and the index of the complete games.
In conclusion: I think the English is a very important
opening that everyone should try to learn and use for at least a couple of
years in their chess lives, also if they don't like it, or it is not part of
their nature, because the pawn structures, ideas, and plans, learned from the
English can be used in other openings as well. David Cummings did a good job in
synthesizing all the material, and a good game selection for a total of 44
games! The annotation of the games helps the learner to see more sidelines and
ideas on how to contrast Black's plans. The English is the kind of opening
which can be used to surprise the opponent, or transpose into other openings we
know well, avoiding our opponent's preparation, obliging him to think from the
beginning.
Nice review - though I do not recommend the e3 English as it seems that essentially one does not fianchetto light-square-bishop to g2 (from the review). Essentially, White is then playing a reverse Kan setup, which, in my opinion, is "passive".
ReplyDeleteBest,
~Acerook