The Berlin Wall: The Variation That Brought Down Kasparov [Paperback]

John Cox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2008

The Berlin variation of the Spanish Opening is one of the best and most popular openings among world-class chess players because there are relatively few forcing lines. Black can play a completely sound chess opening based on understanding, rather than memorising theory. The Berlin was Vladimir Kramnik's major weapon with Black when he defeated the great Garry Kasparov to become World Champion.

Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Quality Chess (December 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9185779024
• ISBN-13: 978-9185779024
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,099,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb opening instruction, August 20, 2009

By 

Goosemeyer (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Berlin Wall: The Variation That Brought Down Kasparov (Paperback)

I am completely in awe of the author's accomplishment.

How many times have you read about an opening book claiming to focus on ideas and been disappointed? Well, this time you won't be. Cox spends some 130 pages on deep deep explanatory material before he even starts talking theory. Now this isn't an easy opening and it's going to take alot of work to absorb all the positional motifs and endgame subtleties and piece evaluations, but the material is there for you. The book has done its job to perfection - the rest is up to you.

You learn which pieces are valuable and for what reason, which trades are advantageous, what plans White will likely adopt and how to counter them, which pawn moves are appropriate in which cases, how to position your King, how to coordinate your pieces to blockade White's pawn majority, specific recurrent tactical motifs, and I could go on and on.

Cox offers repertoire coverage of three systems of development after the initial position, Kramnik's ...Bd7 against Kasparov, Kaufman's ...Be7, and the contemporary ...Ne7, each of which has a different character. He does not offer coverage of divergences before 3...Nf6 but refers you to Mihail Marin's Beating the Open Games (outstanding itself, but in a different style).

Now I mentioned that it is not easy material. Some of the endgame discussions, for example, assume you have a clue, which in my case was a bit optimistic, but even in those cases it offers great material for study and analysis so that you can come to understand his points as you improve. The third endgame study, to offer one example, passes over a long corresponding squares sequence (I think) without comment. There is still enough simple material though for modest players to get their money's worth many times over straight out of the gate.

The Berlin is one Ruy that you might actually get to play, given that it has a short entry sequence. If you don't get that far then Mihail Marin's wonderful book has your back. The combination is a remarkable collection of material that will help any player learn and play the open games seriously and with growing confidence. You really couldn't ask for more.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough in opening theory as well as positional themes, July 28, 2010

By 

James Wagner - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Berlin Wall: The Variation That Brought Down Kasparov (Paperback)

Cox explains in great detail the various plans white and black have in the Berlin Wall variation of the Spanish.

In the first part of the book he examines the various endgames that may arise - the pawn ending, rook ending, double rook, knight vs bishop, bishop vs knight, other bishop vs knight, etc.

However, the Berlin Wall doesn't directly lead to these endgames, but to a queenless middlegame. Thus the next part is devoted to showing numerous examples of typical positional themes and tactical blows.

The final chapters deal with the opening theory - and Cox looks at alot of lines and variations, practically all of black's (and white's) tries get a look.

The only small problem I had was that often, in the notes to a game, punctuation would be forgotten, which sometimes makes it a bit hard to understand where Cox is coming from. But overall this book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the Berlin Wall defense.