Chessville Reviews - Chess Explained: The English Opening - by GM Zenon Franco

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Chess Explained: The English Opening
by S. Evan Kreider, February 2007

by GM Zenon Franco

Gambit, 2006

ISBN: 190460059X

112 pages, softcover

figurine algebraic notation

Gambit Publications is clearly interested in developing its new Chess Explained series (no doubt to compete with Everyman’s Starting Out series), as evidenced by how many titles is has put out recently and how many more are on the horizon. In this review, I’ll take a look at Chess Explained: The English Opening, a title I’ve been more than a little curious about, given that the English is an opening I myself play on occasion.

According to the table of contents, the book covers the following:

Part 1: Symmetrical English: 1 c4 c5                     [Page]
1 The Hedgehog                                                           7
2 The Double Fianchetto                                               25
3 Symmetrical: Miscellaneous                                        34
4 The Rubinstein System                                               43

Part 2: Reversed Sicilian: 1 c4 e5
5 The Reversed Rossolimo 55
6 1 c4 e5: Miscellaneous 78

Part 3: Nimzo-English: 1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e6
7 Nimzo-English and Mikenas Attack 91

There is also a short (about one and a half pages) introduction, a list of games, and index of variations, and the usual other stuff (bibliography, dedication, etc.)

As with other members of the Chess Explained series, there is a healthy dose of explanatory prose, identifying the typical strategies and tactics of the opening. For example:

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.O-O Be7 7.Re1 d6 8.e4 a6 9.d4 cxd4 10.Nxd4 [diagram]

We reach one of the main positions in the Hedgehog. Of course, not all hedgehogs are the same – the placement of White’s king’s bishop can vary, and this has a profound effect on both sides’ plans. In the Sicilian it is often on d3, where its influence on the kingside is greater. From g2 it has more control over the center, although this does not rule out an assault on the kingside.

Black’s strategy appears relatively simple: he has to await White’s actions, striving for timely breaks with …d5 and/or …b5. If White doesn’t take any specific action, Black will generally maneuver his pieces on his first two ranks, with the aim of staying flexible, ready to meet the variety of plans White can adopt. A common idea is the transfer of the e7-bishop to g7 to bolster the kingside – as long as the weakness of the long diagonal doesn’t become a greater problem or the d-pawn suffers because of its absence. Under certain circumstances the e7-biship has another destination on the h2-b8 diagonal, as we shall see later on.

10…Qc7

A typical error is to forget about the loose b7-bishop, by playing, for instance, 10…O-O?, losing to 11.e5.

11.Be3 O-O

Being so far behind with development, the greedy 11…Qxc4? is bad. There can follow 12.Rc1 Qb4 and now, among others, 13.e5! dxe5 (as on many occasions, if 13…Bg2 then 14.exf6, winning) 14.Nc2, followed by Bxb7.

The quality of the text is excellent, but the coverage is questionable. Right off the bat, it should be clear that this is not a repertoire book. If you want to play the English as White, you’ll still be left wondering what to do against several of Black’s attempts to avoid main lines. For example, Black sometimes tries to enter Slav or QGD set ups with moves like 1…c6 and 1…e6. However, White typically responds either by playing 2.d4 and entering the main lines of those systems, or by using a Reti-style approach, both of which are clearly outside of the realm of the English proper. Thus, the author can certainly be forgiven for omitting such systems.

Black also has options such as 1…f5, 1…g6, or 1…b6, but it’s reasonable that the author chose not to cover such lines, since (again) this isn’t really meant to be a repertoire book.

Other omitted lines are a bit more serious, though. For example, there’s nothing on the ultra-symmetrical 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.O-O O-O, unless it occurs in the text somewhere by transposition and I’m just missing it. Also, after 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6, we get 4.g3 and 4.e3, but not 4.d3 or 4.d4 (again, unless I missed a transposition, which is always possible in a flexible opening such as the English).

This all leaves me wondering exactly who this book is for. If you’re looking for a repertoire book, you’d definitely need something else (such as Tony Kosten’s The Dynamic English, which I recommend). If you’re looking for a broad overview, then Neil McDonald’s Starting Out: The English is probably the way to go (and also recommended). If you need in-depth theory of specific lines, then you’ll have to go to any of a variety of more specialized monographs. The current text, while quite good, doesn’t seem to fall into any of those categories.

If I were to see the glass as half-full (and frankly, I’m just that kinda guy . . . ), I’d recommend it to someone who already has a good general feel for the English, but isn’t quite ready to hit the specialized theoretical texts yet – it’s a quality effort, but it’s a strange kind of “in-between” text. (A “zwischen-book”?! Sorry, that was bad . . . )

Chess Explained: The English Opening

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From the Publisher's website: Zenon Franco is a grandmaster from Paraguay who now lives in Spain. He is an experienced chess trainer, his most notable pupil being Paco Vallejo, now one of the world's top grandmasters, whom he taught from 1995 to 1999. Other books by Franco include: Chess Self-Improvement, Chess Explained: the Modern Benoni, Winning Chess Explained.

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