Alekhine’s Defence is a sharp and controversial opening in which Black attacks from the very first move, provoking White into lunging forward in the centre. White is often able to construct an impressively large central pawn formation, but Black’s hope is that this becomes over-stretched and disintegrates in the face of a vicious counterattack. Unsurprisingly, Alekhine’s Defence has always been a favourite amongst uncompromising players such as Fischer and Alekhine himself, while more recently it’s been utilised by the likes of Ivanchuk and Short. In this easy-to-read guide, openings expert and FM John Cox goes back to basics, studying the essential principles of Alekhine’s Defence and its numerous variations. Throughout the book there are an abundance of notes, tips and warnings to guide the improving player, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.
Review On Apr 23, 2006by Scott Thomson of New York, NY
Rating :
Title :
Comments :
As I think Alexander Baburin wrote somewhere, an honest publisher would call a book on this opening "Surviving With Alekhine's Defense" or something similar. This book comes pretty close. The author doesn't oversell the defense and doesn't hesitate to point out where Black has problems.
The book does an excellent job of pointing out Black's and White's strategic aims, and doesn't rely on lists of variations. It makes use of databases to assess lines and assumes that readers will have access to databases too, which I think is reasonable.
Generally I think club players (the audience for this book; this is not a master-level treatise spend too much time studying openings they won't get to play, while neglecting the tactical and strategic shortcomings that cost them of their defeats. But if you were going to get one openings book, this would not be a bad choice, because Alekhine's Defense is something you get to play every time someone opens a game 1 e4.
Only a few chess players work at chess to the best of their abilities.
Boris Gelfand
Puzzle Answer
1.Rd7! Bxd7 2.Qxd7 Qb6+ 3.Kh1 Re8 4.Rxe7! Rxe7 5.Bd6 Qxd6 6.Qxd6+- Gelfand-Salov, Madrid 1996 (Source: Anthology of Chess Combinations)
* USPS Media Mail or UPS Ground. Does not apply to Bulk, Foreign Orders, or Multiple-Issue Subscriptions. A 1.5% handling fee is applied to all domestic orders and a 2.0% handling fee is applied to all international orders.
