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Learn the Opening the Easy Way: The Colle-Zukertort System Reviewed By Michael Jeffreys
“A player
who specialises in the Colle System needs to spend only about a tenth of
As if all that weren’t enough to keep her busy, she somehow has found the time to put out several chess books as well as an entire series (currently up to 10!) of DVDs. While most of the DVDs are aimed at beginners, the one we will be looking at in this review is geared more for lower rated club players, somewhere in the 1200-1600 range. Learn the Opening the Easy Way is sort of video version of Susan’s Opening Secrets column that appeared in Chess Life a few years ago. Each month she would take a different opening and explain the basic strategic goals for both sides, then show some games/variations featuring that opening, and then give her conclusion. (In fact, you can find Susan’s coverage of the Colle-Zukertort Variation in the May 2006 issue of Chess Life.)
On the other hand, 5.b3 (named after the strong Polish GM, Johann Zukertort) stops Black from playing c4 and makes a square on b2 for the dark squared bishop. Here is a screen shot from the DVD of Susan explaining the basic Colle-Zukertort set-up:
The Colle-Zukertort set-up Some of White’s plans in this opening include dropping a knight into e5, playing f2-f4, lifting a rook from f1 to f3 to h3, playing g2-g4, and going for a big king-side attack. The point of putting the bishop on b2 is twofold: If Black ever takes the knight on e5, the pawn on e5 will be supported by the b2 bishop. Secondly, White has the option of playing dxc5 at some point opening the long diagonal for his dark squared bishop, which when combined with other threats could lead to the demise of Black’s king. Of course, the exact move order with which these moves are carried out will depend on what Black does, but these are the general ideas. The thing that makes this opening so appealing to class players or those who don’t have a lot of time to study is that you can play this plan against many Black set-ups. Here is the game that Susan says inspired her to take up the Colle-Zukertort:
Yusupov, Artur (2565) - Scheeren, Peter
(2445)
One feature I like about the DVD is that it cuts between shots of Polgar talking with the board over her shoulder (as in the screen shot above), and close-ups of the board itself (as in the screen shot below), making it easy to follow the action.
White has just played g2-g4 Susan’s commentary throughout the video is very instructive for the class player. For example, in the above position she points out that the reason g2-g4 is playable by White is because the center is blocked. If the d5 pawn were gone, then such a move would be very dangerous due to Blacks light squared bishop. She also mentions that anytime Black has to put his/her queen on f8, that’s usually a bad sign! The above game was played in 1923 between the Hungarian GM Maroczy and his opponent Blake, and is the first game featured on the DVD. Obviously White has a strong attack, and indeed does go on to win. And while Polgar does show several more moves and possible variations, she doesn’t actually show the conclusion of the game. Rather, she ends sort of abruptly saying, “White has a winning position and the rest of the game is not interesting.” Personally, I would have liked to see the entire game right up to its conclusion. However, I understand that this is an openings DVD, and as such once White has gotten a substantial edge—usually well into the middle game—she wants to go on to the next game. A nice feature of the DVD is that each game is a separate chapter, so finding a particular game is quite easy. The video is divided up as follows: Introduction by Paul Truong and Susan Polgar – 4minutes History of the Colle-Zukertort – 3 minutes Typical Games & Ideas - 1 hour & 38 minutes (which includes the following games:)
Various Black Responses 28 minutes c7-c5, Nc6, Be7 c7-c5, Nc6, Bd6 Nbd7 Conclusions for White and Black As you can see, Susan goes over 14 games in total, so you are definitely getting a lot of “bang for your buck” on this DVD. The Bottom Line Susan Polgar is an excellent teacher and has created a first class product. The production value is excellent. Seeing the pieces move on the color board over her shoulder is vastly superior to any other teaching method I have seen to date, and I hope it becomes the new standard for chess DVDs. One advantage of Polgar’s line of DVDs is that unlike ChessBase DVDs, you don’t a have to run it on a computer, but can play it on any DVD player. I should mention that while Susan’s English is quite good, there is no getting around the fact that she does have a thick Hungarian accent. However, I personally find it quite charming and thus don’t mind it. Also, I often play her beginner videos for my chess classes and the kids have no problem understanding her.
If you are looking to learn an easy to play
opening that will give you good attacking chances and doesn’t require a lot
of study, you are going to want to check out this DVD. As someone who
plays the Colle, I can tell you that I have had more than a few opponents
underestimate its latent power. On a scale of 1-10, Learn
the Opening the Easy Way: The Colle-Zukertort System gets a 9.
Judit, Sofia and Susan
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Although
all three of the famous Polgar sisters grew up, got married and had kids,
their lives have gone in completely different directions. Sophia, the
middle sister stopped competing many years ago. Judit, the strongest,
only plays in elite tournaments, although less frequently than she used to.
And Susan, the eldest, has become both an ambassador for chess all over the
world as well as a marketing machine. Together with her manager, Paul
Truong, she works tirelessly to promote chess and more specifically
scholastic chess for girls, via her chess school The Polgar Center, her
As
most of you reading this already know, when you play the Colle Opening
(named after the Belgian master Edgar Colle), you have a major decision to
make on move five. After the moves: 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Bd3
c5 do you play 5.c3 (The Koltanowski variation) or 5.b3
(The Zukertort variation)? With 5.c3 you are creating a retreat square
on c2 for your bishop should Black play 5…c4. The downside to this is
because your b1-knight will go to d2, your dark squared bishop on c1 stays
hemmed in for the early part of the game. (By the way, I play the
Colle-Koltanowski variation from time to time and in fact beat my first
expert with it at the 2003 US Open. You can see that game
