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Chessville
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The Reviewed by Andy Howie
By Rev. Tim Sawyer © 1999 Pickard & Sons 404 pages, Softcover
If you like your openings slow, closed and unexciting then this book will do nothing for you. Stop reading now and go on to the next review! If, like myself, you like to make your opponent sweat from the word go, let me welcome you into the magical world of the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. As I am sure many of you know, 1.d4 is usually considered defensive, leading to closed lines and multiple headaches from trying to decide if the sacrifice will work or not! 1.e4 is considered the choice for the attacking player. The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit (BDG) tries to turn this philosophy around - it is a 1.d4 opening all right, but one with an attacking bite from the word go. The BDG stems from the following moves: 1.d4 d5 2.e4!? dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3
From this position, all merry heck can break loose. The main aim for White is to get the light-squared bishop to c4 or d3 and castle kingside. This leads normally to fatal pressure on the f6 and g6 pawns and a quick decisive victory. My OTB opponents this year have found that this theory holds quite well and many of them have gone down in 25 moves or less! The author, who is a great exponent of the opening, has the following to say in the introduction: “The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit is not a boxing jab; it is a knockout punch - and White gets to throw the first punch! Stop playing for the endgame; play to end the game! Be a winner. Play the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit!" The book is fairly bulky but robust; the format is two columns per page with clear, easy to follow text (using figurine algebraic notation) and copious diagrams to help you visualise the position. Within the book are 100 featured games along with variations (normally shown to completion) as well as over 2,000 games in the notes accompanying each game. This is a major study of the BDG opening! The book is organized into 2 “pre-chapters” and 7 main chapters. The two pre-chapters are “BDG Concepts” and “BDG Theory”. These cover the basic tenants of the opening, what to aim for, where to aim the pieces, etc. There is an interesting snippet in the Theory section which states that of the games examined in Megabase, 66% were won by white, with one of the variations (strangely the one I have came up against the most) having a 78% win rate for White. Chaper 1 is titled “The Blackmar-Diemer Avoided”. To date I have found this the most useful chapter as some of my opponents just want to avoid 1.d4 d5. There are 21 main games in this section and each move is thoroughly analysed with suggestions and analysis of other moves that could be made. On average each game takes 3 pages, that’s 48 column-inches of analysis. One of the many complaints about opening books is that they do not give enough analysis. This one certainly gives analysis with interest! Chapter 2 is titled “The Blackmar-Diemer Declined”. This is the other way that people can take you from your pet opening. This contains 17 main games in 69 pages and is split roughly in half with one section covering the failure to take the e-pawn and the other, the failure to take the f-pawn. As with the first chapter, there is copious material with each move as well as detailed descriptions of what the moves are and why they are made. Chapter 3 is titled “The Blackmar-Diemer Accepted: Various Lines”. It might seem strange that the author has put, what would normally be the final chapter, in the middle. Not so - to make sure that the most often played variations can be accessed quickly, the variations have been put in reverse order of popularity; because of all the introductions and theory, it saved having to look at pages and pages to find the variation you want. This means that the most popular variations are at the back where they can be found easily. This chapter contains 13 games and 50 pages. I have found from playing this opening, it is unusual for a player to find themselves in the “various lines” category and as yet I have not really had to study them to any depth. They are there however for the sake of completeness. Chapters 4 through 7 cover examine various Black options at move five after 1.d4 d5 2.e4!? dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3:
Chapter 4 is the variation that I most like to find myself in, the Euwe Variation. It is named after former World Champion GM Max Euwe who recommended this variation. The characteristic position arises after: 1.d4 d5 2.e4!? dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6
The chapter contains 11 games and 42 pages. Again, the variations are covered in detail and there are many “sub-games” in the notes. Chapter 5 covers the Bogoljubow Variation, named after the Russian GM Efim Bogoljubow (as in interesting aside, his most famous quote was "When I am white, I win because I am white; when I am black, I win because I am Bogoljubow."). This chapter contains 12 games and 52 pages of complete analysis. The variation follows: 1.d4 d5 2.e4!? dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxe3 g6
Chapter 6 contains the Gunderam Variation. Gerhard Gunderam spent many years playing over 100 postal games with Emil Diemer exploring various possibilities of the opening. The idea of this variation is for Black to be able to get both the bishops out early to help defend. This chapter contains 12 main games and 45 pages. The variation arises out of: 1.d4 d5 2.e4!? dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxe3 Bf5
The final chapter is titled “The Teichmann Variation”, after Richard Teichmann (whose most famous quote was “Chess is 99 percent tactics.”) This takes up 15 games and 55 pages. As with all the other chapters analysis and suggestion abound. The variation is: 1.d4 d5 2.e4!? dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxe3 Bg4
I find this variation the one I play against the most, I certainly enjoy this one as it is a challenge with Black instantly trying to win back the initiative. At the back of the book there is an index of variations, useful for checking a game against afterwards and there is also a voucher for money off a Megabase CD with all the games on it. Considering the number of games that there are, this is certainly worth getting. In conclusion, I have found this book very useful with my studies of openings. It has allowed me to add a very dangerous opening to my repertoire and has converted me from always opening 1.e4 to always opening 1.d4. That in itself is a strong recommendation, since if by reading a book and playing through some of the games, you decide to make a radical change such as that, then the book must be exceptionally good! The explanations of the variations are excellent and there is more than ample material to reinforce the point. If you are player who want to try attacking chess, then I would highly recommend buying this book.
Buy this book at the Amazon closest to you by clicking on the flag above. |
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