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Tiger’s Modern Reviewed by Rick Kennedy
In my early chess years, a Fred Reinfeld book gave the first moves of a game 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 and then praised Black’s “fighting defense.” I remember laughing out loud: White has a four-to-nothing advantage in pawns-in-the-center, and Black is “fighting”? It’s easy to see that my understanding of development and King safety was lacking at the time, and I showed no awareness of a hypermodern approach to opening play. Nevertheless, a devotion to large pawn centers carried me safely through most of my junior high school games – except when my pal Ricky Manganella’s single- or double-fianchetto defenses would carve them up like so many little turkeys. This was a decade before people began talking about and playing the “modern defense” 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7, and I understood none of it. Since then Raymond Keene and George Botterill have written their ground-breaking 1972 The Modern Defence, (available in reprint from Hardinge Simpole Chess Classics, or try searching used bookstores or the internet) and while not everyone is currently a True Believer in “1 …P-KN3: A Universal Panacea to 1 P-K4, P-Q4 or 1 P-QB4” most chess players are familiar with the opening. Other treatments have come, with several more recent being Modern Defence by Speelman and McDonald (2000), and Starting Out The Pirc/Modern by Gallagher (2003) but I think the best of the bunch – in terms of enthusiasm, new grandmaster analysis, sparkling play and good old delightful-to-read text – has got to be Tiger Hillarp Persson’s Tiger’s Modern. The Grandmaster from Sweden likes to play 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6!? against masters and GMs – in fact, the first section of Tiger’s Modern, “Variations where Black plays 4…a6” makes up more than half the book. You can see that a rough-and-tumble affair is guaranteed, and Hillarp Persson believes that those who follow his lead will have a double advantage, as there is not much available on the variation, and what can be found (before this book) is often wrong. Starting with an Introduction (“Stop caressing that e-pawn or I’ll throw you out of this chapter!”) the author lays out the defense’s main ideas, gives some rules of thumb and makes his case for both playing the Modern Defence and for playing …a6. He is as committed and as fervent as Polugaevsky was to his own variation in Grandmaster Preparation (1981), and he does not sugar-coat the task or make overblown promises like from 1…g6 on until mate!
Chapter One dives right into the Austrian Attack, “by far the most brutal way to meet the Modern.” After 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.f4 a6 there are 15 games (2/3 by the author) with deep explanations about what was going on (or what should have been going on) in the opening and middle game. Across the 35 pages, Black “defends successfully” although several lines seem to lead to even or unclear positions – perhaps the more knowledgeable player, the one more familiar with the pawn structure, tactics and strategies of these lines will have an edge. An important note: Hillarp Persson is not afraid to suggest improvements for White’s play, as well. The next two chapters (about 40 pages) focus on the “Flexible Dragon” formation 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6:
Again the games are complex (9 of 13 by the author) – at one point in Shabalov - Benjamin, Connecticut 2000, there is the note “I believe Shabalov was happy, now that both sides have pressed the chaos button. However, objectively Black should be better.” – but the defender (better: counter-attacker) always has play. Chapter Four covers the Hippopotamus – in enough detail and with enough thought that I would recommend Tiger’s Modern to anyone who plays that opening for those 26 pages alone! The author addresses an idea that has been attached to both the Modern and the Hippo: it is not as necessary to memorize reams of opening analysis as it is to understand basic setups and play. As a snarky British Chess Magazine reviewer once opined:
Hillarp Persson takes a more positive slant (3 of 10 games in the chapter are his):
(As an aside: somewhere, Pafu, author of The Beginner’s Game, must be smiling.) Chapter Five, the Classical Variation, starts with 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.Nc3, when 4…Nf6 would be the Pirc, but Tiger’s Modern has 4…a6 and then 5.Be2, which is met by either 5…b5 or 5…e6. Given thirteen pages and four games, the Classical does not worry Hillarp Persson. An interesting twist is that White can out-wait Black with 4.Be2!? or 4.h3!? when the author suggests plunging into the Pirc with 4…Nf6 after all. He describes the first situation as leading to “a rather toothless variation” for White, and the second as giving Black the chance for a properly timed …a6 after all. Chapter Six features 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Bg5 a6, which is covered in seven pages and where the author believes Black, is fine. White clearly can make things difficult with 5.Bc4!?, though, and even though there is a suggestion given for counter play, Black’s subsequent arrival at an “unclear” position seems a success mostly because he’s bypassed some rather bad ones. Still, that is the nature of sharp openings in general, especially when analysis is presented in a balanced fashion, rather than the ever-popular Play X And Win! style. Of course, transposition to the Hippo along the way is another possibility. The seventh chapter is the first one featuring lines where Black does not play …a6. It is labeled the “Mad Dog”, where White plays 4.Bc4 after either 3.Nc3 or 3.Nf3. An evaluation in one of the games seems to describe Black’s fate in general: “you should achieve a very complicate game with mutual chances.” Here is a slice of the game Hoffman – Jansa, Muenster 1992, to give you a taste of some of the possible play, as well as Hillarp Persson’s in-depth treatment: Hoffman –
Jansa
You get the idea. Another signature Hillarp Persson quote from the 21-page, 7 game chapter: “However, this is what chess should be like: rich and difficult.” Three brief chapters follow. Chapter Eight covers the Fianchetto Variation, 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Nge2 (or 4.g3) Nd7 5.g3. Conclusion: Black has excellent chances. Likewise, in Chapter Nine’s “Lazy Variation”, where White plays c2-c3 instead of Nc3, it seems Black has no worries. Chapter Ten has Unusual Lines featured in games – 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.f4 c5, 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Be3 c5, 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 (3.f3 and 3.h4 in the notes) d6 4.h4 – which only goes to show that even someone playing an unorthodox line may have to face some unorthodoxy; but without fear. Starting off the final chapter, the author admits:
You can see the author working and sweating all the way through Chapter Eleven, the Averbakh Variation, 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.c4 d6 4.Nc3 e5 (19 pages, 6 games), where the notion of “chessic dumpster diving” came to my mind, but what he turns up – often not in the main lines – fulfills his promise to the readers. Black does not fear an exchange of pawns on e5 followed by an exchange of Queens at d8; and should White lock the center, there is always the plan (from that other defense) of advancing the pawns on the Kingside. Tiger’s Modern finishes up with two games indexes and a variation index. There is a short Bibliography in the front, before the Introduction.
Tiger’s Modern is an outstanding book, equally full of “heart” and
“brain”, and one readily recommended to chess players of expert strength or
above (although I suspect most in that group who play the Modern already
have their copies). Strong club players who are willing to put in the
time learning from Hillarp Persson and then analyzing their own games
(preparing for the next), and who are willing to sometimes stand in the eye
of the storm – occasionally to be blown away – will find the …a6 Modern to
be a very powerful all-around defense. Admittedly, the defense is not
always easy to play. Then again, not every chessplayer is looking for
“easy.”
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