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The Queen’s Indian Reviewed by Mike Rosensaft
The Indian defenses entered modern mainline theory at the turn of the twentieth century, championed by players like Alekhine. Because Black’s pieces get into the game so early, the Indian defenses often involve sharp counterattacks (or, at least as sharp as you can get for d4 openings). The Queen’s Indian Defense is no exception, led by the early fianchetto of the Queen’s bishop, fearlessly fixing its sights on the most common hideout of the White king before the king even gets there. It begins with the moves: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6.
There has hardly been a major tournament where the Queen’s Indian didn’t appear at least once, and several world championships have featured the defense prominently. In recent years, the Queen's Indian has appeared frequently in the highest levels of play. In his book How to Play the Queen’s Indian, Eric Schiller claims that the Queen’s Indian is “easy to learn for the beginner.” With all due respect to Mr. Schiller however, the amount of theory that piles up on a weekly basis in this defense is simply massive, threatening to overwhelm a poor unsuspecting club player. Anyone wanting a working knowledge of this defense will have their work cut out for them. In addition, the Queen’s Indian is not normally a player’s only defense to d4 because it is not aggressive enough if White plays Nc3 before Nf3. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 b6 is sharply met by 4.e4, allowing White too much control in the center. That is why the defense is often paired repertoire-wise with the Nimzo-Indian (3. ... Bb4), unfortunately requiring even more study. With such a regal beginning and an exhaustive amount of theory, it is not surprising that only a very few comprehensive Queen’s Indian Defense books have been published in recent years. GM Bogodan Lalic came out with an uninspiring book in 1997 (although, to be fair, it was a solid try for his first book); and Danish IM Jacob Aagaard attempted the task in 2002 with much better results, but really just scratched the surface of most lines and not even including a few others. Grandmaster Jouni Yrjola and International Master Jussi Tella have attempted to give a comprehensive treatment to the Queen’s Indian without creating something that simply collapses into a very large opening tree. To make matters more difficult, they also sought to create a book that would be useful to a club player with explanations comprehensible at that level. I am happy to say that they did an excellent job. For the most part, they effectively walked that thin tightrope between education and comprehensiveness, with only a few missteps along the way. This book was published by Gambit Publishing, and their method of organizing the book around an opening tree rather than full games is really the only way to handle the Queen’s Indian in a comprehensive way. Aagaard’s previous book on the Queen’s Indian followed the Everyman Chess format of including full games. I usually prefer this format when studying an opening, but the amount of theory on the Queen’s Indian is just too massive – one would have to include hundreds of full games to be comprehensive. Aagaard had to limit the number of games for each major line and leave a few lines totally out. Therefore, with regard to comprehensiveness, Yrjola and Tella’s treatment is a bit better. Not having complete games to play through often leaves the player without examples of how to win once they have made it past the opening, but the authors have made up for this by writing extremely helpful essays on the major plans for each side in each chapter of the book. These essays are really the gems in this book. Chapter One has an extremely helpful strategic introduction to the entire defense. Explaining that the opening does not really have many forcing variations, the authors devote seven full pages to discussing the common strategic themes that will occur in most Queen’s Indian middlegames. They discuss the pawn formations that can result from the Queen’s Indian Defense including how to handle hanging pawns, isolated pawns, and doubled c-pawns. There is also a short discussion of the Benoni and Hedgehog structures that typically result from some lines. Consider one piece of advice the authors give in a section devoted to the hanging pawns that Black often has (pawns side-by-side on semi-open files that cannot be supported by other pawns): It is in White's interest to put pressure on the pawns as early as possible. If one of the pawns has to advance too early, they lose their flexibility and there is a base for a white piece in front of the other pawns. Especially the advance of the c-pawn to c4 can be a disaster because White occupies d4 and the b7-bishop dies. Maybe a bit dramatic, but the authors writing style, where they often personify pieces, makes the book an enjoyable read. This chapter is very well written and really helps anyone trying to understand the Queen’s Indian. Additionally, the authors continually refer back to these structures at the start of each chapter and generally throughout the book,reinforcing the reader’s knowledge. Each chapter starts out with a discussion of the different variations in much greater detail than most opening books. For example, in the chapter on the Petrosian variation (4.a3) they explain that “In a Benoni structure, black is usually happy to exchange the light squared bishop” and then give circumstances where this rule may not apply. These explanations are extremely helpful and make the book digestible for a club player. It is impossible to list every variation of the Queen’s Indian Defense in 288 pages, but the authors do a good job of covering all the main lines and most serious minor variations. They even include a large section on the old main line, noting that while GMs rarely play it, players at club level will. The book is well distributed, and should provide most of what you need to know to play the Queen’s Indian defense as a club player. Not to leave out higher rated players, though, the authors suggest new lines where appropriate, and include dozens of recent games with lengthy analysis. I did say that there were some “missteps,” though. While the analysis on a whole is superb, there are many times in the book when a lower rated player may get frustrated due to deficient explanations. This is to be expected – a complete Queen’s Indian Defense book could easily span two volumes without breaking a sweat. Still, some of the deficiencies stand out. For example, at the end of the chapter on the Miles variation, which begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.Bf4, the authors simply state that the position is unclear without saying why or mentioning the strengths of each side. This position may very well be unclear, but this conclusion doesn’t help the club player who is looking for concrete strengths and weaknesses. The authors, though, don’t include one single sentence. Another example can be found at the end of a variation in the Old Main Line, a chapter arguably written mostly for lower rated players since GMs rarely play it now. The resultant position, reached by Tal-Andersson in Næstved 1985, is:
The
position just gets a
It also bugs me sometimes in opening books when the author plays a certain opening move that is not obvious, but fails to explain why it is part of the opening. I think this often occurs when the authors assume too much knowledge. For example, again in the Miles variation, the authors list 6.Nfd2 as the main line in this position:
They discuss briefly one side variation with Nbd2, but give the move a "!?" without explaining why. The beginner is taught not to move a piece twice in the opening usually, so the move Nfd2 seems bizarre. I would probably naturally play Nbd2 or even the more aggressive Nc3, but the authors don’t bother with telling us why those moves aren’t considered. In fact, Nc3 isn’t even mentioned as a move, although the ChessBase archive lists it as being played in 50 games with a total positive score for White. I realize that the authors can’t list every variation, but at times they are not sensitive to the questions that a lower rated player would have. The lack of explanations at times promotes learning lines instead of understanding ideas. The biggest annoyance to me in the book, though, is the constantly repeated comment about 5...Be7, principally in the fianchetto variation. The authors refer to this as the “characteristic patzer move” because it is an obvious move for Black to make, but it is not considered good by opening theory. First, having played this move myself (albeit when I hadn’t studied the QID much), I resent being called a patzer. It is not clear even after the continuation the authors give why this is really such a bad move. In fact, in the ChessBase.com database, 937 “patzers” have played this move - including Paul Keres, Anatoly Karpov, and Igor Ivanov, albeit at younger ages. In fact, it was just played in the 2004 Corus Tournament by WGM Kateryna Lahno (FIDE 2419) in the third round (a game that she ultimately lost, but that was not due to the opening). Although I’m sure the authors would point out that WGM Lahno ultimately lost this game, it looked like she came out of the opening equal. The authors are right in that 5...Be7 is not part of mainline theory and is probably not the best move possible, but there is a big chasm between not playing the best move as settled by current opening theory and being a patzer. My qualms with the book, though, are really small compared to the Herculean task that the authors undertook. I have not seen a better comprehensive Queen’s Indian Defense book available. Despite my reservations above, the authors are generally good about directing the analysis and discussion towards a club level player. For example, consider the wisdom given to us in an analysis of the Old Main line about the move 5...Bb4+: The bishop check is an old idea: Black wins a tempo for his kingside development, exchanges a piece to ease up White’s pressure in the opening, and makes it possible to play the central plan ...d6 and ...e5 to control the dark squares. Could we ask for a better explanation of one move? The authors point out most of the obvious moves and cover the major traps of the opening as well. They don’t write with the grace that Peter Wells did in his recent Trompowsky book, but their explanations, while not poetic, are usually simple and straightforward. There’s an
old joke: Stupid, I can live with. Ugly, I can live with. But ugly and
stupid?! To reverse the joke, this book is both good looking and highly
intelligent. Club players will find it fairly easy to follow with the nice
layout and generally good explanations. The strategic essays alone are
probably reason enough to buy this book. Higher rated players will find new
ways to look at some of the variations in the Queen’s Indian Defense and
will have the most comprehensive treatment of the opening that one book
could probably give. I wouldn’t suggest that a novice take up this opening
or this book as it assumes a basic level of knowledge and sophistication;
but for the rest of us, this is a much needed resource that overall has been
done very well.
Now available from
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from the authors with no explanation why. It is certainly not obvious to me
why this position is a definite plus for White. I could make some guesses,
but I wish the authors would have told me why they make that assessment.
This is a constant problem that reoccurs at the end of many of the
variations.
