by Evgeny Sveshnikov (Edition Olms, 2007)

Volume 1: The Basic Course
White Repertoire for Tournament Players. With a Foreword by Anatoly Karpov. 2007. 176 pages.   
 
‘I consider this book to be a real manual, original in its conception and excellent in its execution. It not only teaches you how to play a specific variation of the French Defence, but it also helps you understand many strategic ideas and their practical application in the middlegame, which for the majority of players is even more important.’ - Anatoly Karpov, 12th world chess champion

The well-known grandmaster and theoretician Evgeny Sveshnikov has used the Closed Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5) more than 150 times in tournament play with a score of more than 70%. Many theoretically important games have been excluded by the author from ‘official’ chess databases, and here they are exclusively published for the first time.

Volume 1 (Basic Course) contains the following main chapters:

• Historical overview of the Closed Variation
• Plans for White and Black on the basis of thoroughly annotated games
• A lesson on the blockade
• 70 test positions: what would you play?

Volume 2: The Advanced Course
White Repertoire for Tournament Players. With a Foreword by Anatoly Karpov. 2007. 152 pages.   
 
Volume 2 (Master Course) contains the following main chapters:

• 61 theoretically important games for independent analysis
• Encyclopaedia of variations
• Summary of the 3.e5 system
• Games for further study
• Latest theoretical developments

This two-volume work is intended for a broad range of chess enthusiasts. The author guarantees that anyone making a thorough study of the available material can expect an improvement in his playing strength in this system of approximate 200 Elo points.