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An Attacking Repertoire for White Reviewed by Rick Kennedy
Chess openings! Despite the well-meaning advice of modern Grandmasters such as Hort, who once explained that the goal of the opening is to reach a playable middegame, or past masters such as Teichman, who believed that chess is 99% tactics, the club chess player of today still spends a whole lot of time – some would say way too much time – studying the openings. Nobody is really happy with the situation, either. Top players shake their heads and say: learn the basics of opening play, pal, then concentrate on winning the middlegame and understanding the endgame; booking up on openings comes later. The average club player ignores this, however, perhaps remembering younger days when he succumbed to an early trick or trap, and went down in flames in an ignominious miniature. Regardless, he feels ever compelled to study openings: but there is so much to do, if you please – isn’t there some way to cut down on all of this work that I have to do (other than stopping, of course)? Hence the attractions of chess opening repertoires, otherwise known as “I’m going to play this, this, or this, and my opponent will be stuck with that, that or that line.” Some players go for the economy of a forcing system: after 1.b4 or 1.g4, for example, they’re very likely to get their kind of game each time out. Others employ something flexible like 1.b3 or 1.g3, figuring they can transpose into favorable lines regardless of how their opponent replies. Most try a balance, opening with the King’s pawn or the Queen’s pawn. A primitive rule of thumb here is that quantity often goes with quality, that is, the less theory that exists and has to be studied on a particular opening or variation (a desirable thing for the club player) – the less reputable the debut is likely to be (not so desirable, although this depends in part on the level of competition: the lower you fly below the radar, the wackier your system can afford to be). Again, an effective repertoire would strike a balance between study time and realistic chances for success. The demand for books on opening repertoires has brought forth many titles. There is An Opening Repertoire for the Attacking Player (two, actually) and An Opening Repertoire for the Positional Player. There is a Gambit Opening Repertoire for White and a Gambit Opening Repertoire for Black. Perhaps a Hypermodern Opening Repertoire for White can face off against An Explosive Opening Repertoire for Black – although maybe against the latter a better match would be A Startling Chess Opening Repertoire, or even A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire. You can find Attacking with 1.e4 and Meeting 1.e4, as well as Attacking with 1.d4 and Meeting 1.d4. If you’re in a hurry there’s always the 24 Hour Opening Repertoire, and if you’re confused about all these repertoires, and many, many others, don’t be: there’s always How to Build Your Chess Opening Repertoire. Into this arena steps Sam Collins, with An Attacking Repertoire for White. Collins is an FM from Ireland (Champion 2002, two Olympiads) who both teaches and writes about chess. Happily, all of this is apparent in his book. – as well as is his pleasant sense of humor. The author presents a repertoire based on 1.e4. Since choosing the currently popular main line of every opening would lead to writing a very large book (or more than one volume), Collins opts instead for a selection of lines regularly played by strong players, only slightly out of the mainstream. He benefits from the use of 51 model games (instead of presenting variation upon variation) in that the reader can follow the play into the middlegame and endgame, which is sometimes necessary and often instructive. As the Introduction notes:
The openings are tied together in this repertoire by their “attacking” nature, not by a particular shared pawn structure or piece placement (although there is some overlap). You will need to be able to handle Isolated Queen Pawn positions, blocked positions with the d4 & e5 vs …d5 & …e6 pawn chains, and central positions without pawns. The author is fair in his assessment that if you learn his openings, you will learn a whole lot about the rest of the game of chess, too. This is almost like the ulterior goal of a personal chess coach, and gives added value to An Attacking Repertoire for White. Collins starts off with 47 pages devoted to the Sicilian Defense, which he says makes up 1/3 of his games when he plays White, noting: "Your success against the Sicilian determines your success with 1.e4." He recommends 1.e4 c5 2.c3, an approach he admits that he underestimated until he was smacked around with it by McShane in 2002, and Motwani in 2003. In his analysis he shows familiarity with Gallagher’s early Beating the Anti-Sicilians (1996), the more recent Anti - Sicilians: A Guide for Black (2003), by Rogozenko, and master games as recent as 2004. He provides three pawn structure diagrams to hang his work on:
The Typical 2…Nf6 Structure
The Isolated Queen’s Pawn
Chop, chop: the dxc5 Structure
(The line can also transpose into the French Defense, Advance Variation, with 1.e4 c5 2.c3 e6 3.d4 d5 4.e5 – the author’s choice for meeting 1…e6.) Nine commented (more than just “annotated”) example games put the flesh over this skeleton. Collins is not promising a naive “White to Play and Win,” here, he is offering current lines which put – in a reasonably-sized package – the initiative and chances for White’s advantage into the reader’s hands. How complicated this can be is illustrated by Game Six, Kosintseva – Paehtz, Istanbul 2003 (which produces the third structure, above): 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.dxc5 Qxd1+ 7.Kxd1 e5 8.b4 e4 9.h3 Bh5 10.g4 Nxg4 11.hxg4 Bxg4 12.Nbd2 exf3
...where Collins notes:
“Well,” some club players might sniff, “Here is where Rogozenko might start – but Here is where I’m out of!” – and move along, with starry eyes, to the latest Winning with… title instead. That Collins demands work from his readers (who most likely will be top Class players, Experts or Masters) is again illustrated in the following diagram:
The reader is not on his own, however; he has the illustrative games, and Collins’ suggestions and explanations to get him started. Against the French Defense, Collins recommends the Advance Variation, 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 – another so-called stodgy byway that is dangerous in the right hands (he recommends the games of Movsesian and Grischuk). Since the chapter runs down the main lines here, which are largely positional – bypassing, of course, the iffy Milner-Barry Gambit (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3) for example – and Black has many defensive tries, it takes 33 pages, with 11 example games, to deal with it all. I noticed that Collins likes to recommend h2-h4 in a variety of situations. Again, he is serious about the advantages he seeks, not promising pie-in-the-sky.
Sometimes the games have a bit more zip, as in: Grischuk – Bareev
Should Black respond to White’s 1.e4 with 1…e4, he will face the Scotch, after 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4, exchanging at c6 after either 4…Nf6 or 4…Bc5. Not the Goring Gambit, mind you, with 4.c3, or the Scotch Gambit, with 4.Bc4. Collins prefers the main-line Scotch because of its “outrageous” positional demands, and notes:
Collins backs this up with 10 games in 34 pages. In some lines White’s bishops wind up on b2 and g2, in others the Queens are off the board, and it’s useful for the first player to know what to do in the following Scotch Endgame:
The line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 ed 4.Nxd4 Bb4+ has been a challenge (“White has been scoring very badly here…”) but after 5.c3 Bc5 6.Be3 Bb6 Collins likes the aggressive 7.Qg4. Further, after 7…Qf6 8.Qg3 Qg6 9.Nd2 Nge7 (Mashinskaya – Zaiatz, Elista 2003) he prefers the untested 10.0-0-0!? Nxd4 11.Bxd4 0-0 12.Bd3, with White for choice because of his central control and development. By the way, he is dismissive of 4…Qh4, which he calls “risky to the point of stupidity,” and annotates Van der Wiel – Pliester, Dutch Championship Playoff 2003 (1-0, 47) warning “Bloodthirsty readers should check the notes for extra violence.” Anyone using this repertoire will eventually run across the Petroff Defense, 1…e5 2.Nf3 Nf6, “one of the greatest pains in a 1.e4-player’s life.”
Because of this, Collins is willing to move a bit further out of the mainstream: he recommends 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3. After Black captures on c3, White will play Bf4, Qd2, and 0-0-0 with an edge. This is covered in 6 pages and 2 games. (How mind-boggling is modern Petroff preparation? Consider that Anand once lost a six-move game in this line: Zapata – Anand, Biel 1988: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Bf5 6.Qe2 1-0. What was he thinking? Or: What? Was he thinking?) Coverage of the Philidor Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6, or coming out of the 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 move order) is provided in a couple of games, and is the typical squeeze when Black doesn’t exchange pawns on d4 (pawns at e4 & d4, Bishop on c4, Knights on Bishop Three, a2-a4 to counter Black’s intended …b7-b5) and Queenside castling and a pawn storm against the enemy King when he does. In six games Collins advocates the Panov-Botvinnik attack against the Caro-Kann, 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.ed cd 4.c4, aiming at attacking Isolated Queen Pawn positions, as in his lines against the Sicilian. As always, he is striving for the advantage, even when he reaches the following position (from Marin – Engqvist, Rilton Cup 2002, after move 18 for White)
A note on the …g6 positions (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.ed cd 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6); the author likes 6.cd and hanging onto the “big fat extra pawn” until it causes the most mischief to give it back. Against the Pirc/Modern, Collins notes that the “150 Attack” (Be3, Qd2, exchange of Bishops after Bh6) is popular, and he recommends a modified 150, with the Bishop going instead to g5. Because the defense is so slippery, he has some good advice about having a good understanding of what you want to do as White and sticking with it, in the face of whatever Black throws at you. (Three games, eleven pages.) To deal with the Scandinavian Defense (“objectively this line looks less adequate than mainstream defences to 1.e4” despite Anand’s use of it against Kasparov), there is the sharp 1.e4 d5 2.ed Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 c6 6.Bc4 Bf5 7.Ne5 e6 7.g4!? Against 2…Nf6 Collins recommends 3.Nf3, avoiding 3.d4 Bg4!? on one hand, and declining 3.c4 (heading for the Panov-Botvinnink Attack of the Caro) because of the “dubious” but “somewhat nasty” Icelandic Gambit that comes after 3…e6!? (Three games, eleven pages.) The Alekhine Defence is dealt with using the straight-forward 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 and White has his edge after 4…Bg4, 4…g6 and 4…de. With Baburin, Whol and Ponomariov playing the black pieces in the example games, the defense clearly can’t be waved off. (Three games, eleven pages.) Finally Collins deals with “Garbage,” in a chapter with that title – another subtle indicator that the book is aimed towards higher-skilled players, as regular club players might call the stuff “Headaches” and more novice players, “Nightmares.” Owen’s Defense (1.e4 b6) is dismissed in one example game, Nimzovich’s Defense (1.e4 Nc6) in another, and the Latvian Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5) in a third. The St. George (1.e4 a6), the Elephant (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5) and Damiano’s Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6) all get tossed in the notes. Such light treatment may one day put the practitioner at risk when facing a specialist, especially with the Nimzovich Defense; or when wrestling with a fanatic, as with the Latvian Gambit – but if the player is strong enough to benefit from Collins’ repertoire in the first place, he is likely strong enough to overcome the surprise, unorthodoxy, or (heaven forbid!) slight advantage that a trip into the Twilight Zone gives his opponent – and allow plenty of chances to wrest the full point in the middlegame or endgame that follows. There you have it. If you
confine your chess to the occasional casual game at lunch, or over a few
glasses on the odd evening or trip to the Club, facing mostly opponents who
play for fun – re-read my review on Romantic D-Pawn
Openings, and contact Dr.
Björkqvist for a copy of his swash-buckling repertoire. If you take your
chess a bit more seriously, and face steadier competition, you might still
wish to prowl the used book stores for one of the original repertoire books,
Levy and Keene’s An Opening Repertoire for the Attacking Player
(1976) – it has some holes in it that you could drive a truck through, but
you won’t be facing many Teamsters, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun. However, if you’re thinking of playing serious chess at a higher level, and
you want to get the goods on others who are at least as serious as you – I
urge you to “hire” Sam Collins as your openings “coach” and work your way
through An Attacking Repertoire for White. Your whole game should see
positive results. (And it certainly makes me wonder what his
forthcoming Understanding the Chess Openings, due out this year, will
be like!)
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