Customer Reviews

The Botvinnik Semi-Slav

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pedersen has surpassed himself. This is a timely coverage of a topical opening. Upto now I've been using Wells' 'The Complete Semi-Slav' which itself deserves accolades. However it is beginning to show its age since it came out about five years ago. A book on the Semi-Slav by Sadler came out 3 years ago, but though not bad, it can't be called a treatise. It was oriented towards the average club player. The book by Pedersen gives all the latest dope on some of the most critical and fashionable lines, and does a good job of explaining what's going on. This is no database dump. The author has devoted a lot of thought to the lines and taken pains to explain his thinking.

To give but one example, there's 23 pages devoted to the Anti-Moscow variation: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dc. This line gets about a page-and-a-half of coverage in Wells (the line wasn't so much in vogue at the time).

IM John Watson wrote his book "Play the French 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edditions" and the third eddition has been widly regarded as the "French Player's Bible". Here, Steffen Pedersen presents to you the "Botvinnik Semi-Slav Players Bible". It out-does Glenn Flear's book "The Slav and SemiSlav" by miles. The most amazing this though is that it was written in the year 2001, while Flear's book was written in 2005(!)
Steffen Pedersen is a highly capable author, and did a magnificent job writing this book. He covered some very awesome stuff. He shows the main line: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. nc3 e6 4. nf3 nf6 5. bg5 dc4 6. e4 b5 7. e5 h6 8. bh4 g5 9. ng5 hg5 10. bg5 nbd7 11. ef6 bb7 12. g3 qb6 13. bg2 c5 14. d5 0-0-0 15. 0-0 b4 16. Na4 Qb5 17. a3
This is the main line, which he covers in depth. Then he looks at the Uhlmann line 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. nc3 e6 4. nf3 nf6 5. bg5 dc4 6. e4 b5 7. e5 h6 8. bh4 g5 9. ng5 hg5 10. bg5 nbd7 11. ef6 bb7 12. g3 qb6 13. bg2 c5 14. d5 0-0-0 15. 0-0 b4 16. Rb1 - The idea being bc3 bc3 with an extremely strong attack; practice has proven that to be winning.
Then he covers alternatives, like if black wants to 12. ... Qc7 or Qa5. I don't suggest those, but they are playable. After that, he goes over white alternatives such as 6. a4, e3 ; 10th move alternatives, such as 10. Qf3 and a comple of other moves. Steffen Pedersen spends 180 pages on the Botvinnik Semi-Slav alone(!) He does a brilliant job annalyzing through all the razor sharp variations of the Botvinnik Semi-Slav.
Then, Steffen Pedersen decided that just the Botvinnik Semi-Slav wasn't enough; he decided to add in there the Moscow Semi Slav which is 5. ... h6 - covering the Bf6 and the "anti Moscow". Once against Mr. Pedersen did not fail me on this part either.
As to conclude my review, I would like to say This was a book that I spent countless hours annalyzing, and had a great time doing so; who said studying chess was always boring? This is an example of when it is not. I would like to conclude with some extra games of players to study to get in touch with the Botvinnik nowadays. It is very good study to study GM Alexei Shirov's games with the Botvinnik Semi-Slav, because of his razor sharp play, and his love for the Semi Slav. I am convinced that with careful study through this book, you will learn to play the botvinnik semi slav, and not only will you learn the opening, you will also learn some attacking ideas.
With the careful study of this book, you might even become a USCF 2000+ rated player through careful study; granted that you are an improving junior or even kid and are already a good player. Overall this book helped me become better at tactics and attacking chess, leawrn a brillant opening, and it was extremely enjoyable to study. Highly reccomended for players anywhere from 1200-2200 (this book), and the opening is highly reccomended from players 1200-2800! I hope this review helped you decide if you are going to buy the book or not.
Effort Rating: 5 stars
Helpfulness Rating: 5 stars
Overall Rating: 5 Stars

Do you play the Botvinnik Gambit? Are you a club player or a correspondence player and you are looking for a good line to play? Do you play in tournaments? Do you enjoy sharp and highly tactical chess? Do you want to study (and play?) one of the most exciting lines in all of chess opening praxis? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book may be for you.

First let me say something about the quality of this book, since many times in chess books, this is "iffy" at best. First-rate flex-cover, opaque pages, very good and clear diagrams, indexes, a good font, the main lines are in bold, etc. (Gambit publications usually does a more than adequate job here.)

Secondly, I GREATLY enjoy the book. (I don't play these lines, a student purchased this copy for me so we could study the opening together.) It is very well laid out. There is an introduction where the author covers some of the basic ideas of the whole variation, from the endings, to general ideas, outposts, sacrifices in this variation etc. (This is an area missed by many chess books, especially books on the opening.)

The author then begins with the main line of this variation:
(Chapter One, 17. a3.) He covers all of these lines thoroughly and in great detail. Then there are ELEVEN! (11) chapters that cover virtually every line and every variation that this opening generally encompasses. Then you get a BONUS: The author covers the "Moscow Variation." (Bg5, h6!?) This is a very close relative, but many books on the Botvinnik line DON'T cover the Moscow Variation, but Pedersen very thoughtfully has.

Most of the coverage in this book is excellent and in great depth. Virtually every line and every variation is covered in depth. Every player - from a weekend warrior, to the seasoned Master - will find the coverage in this book sufficient.

Now to a few things wrong with this book. NO player index. How are you supposed to find your favorite player? (There is a very detailed index of the variations, however.)

There are also NO deeply annotated games in this book. (In fact, almost no complete games of any kind.) Personally, if I am a `class player' trying to learn this opening, I would benefit greatly from 5-10 briefly annotated games at the end of each chapter.

The layout of the book is a little dense and the numbering of the variations is a little obscure. (A223, page # 95) Some of the analysis of a few of the sub-variations feature parenthesis within parenthesis ... and I have always found this a little hard to follow.

But despite my criticisms, this is a good book. It is MUCH superior to the average opening book on the market today, even the editor and proofreader of this project did a good job. (I found very few errors of any kind.)

If you play these lines in tournaments or postal chess, then you will simply HAVE to have this book. (If you don't, you are going to drop a lot of points to the people who do!)

My current chess rating, correspondence, is between 1900 and 2000. I found "The Botvinnik Semi-Slav", by Steffen Pedersen, to be well-written, with clear analysis,that is appropriate for my level. Key ideas are illustrated with diagrams and extensive discussion. This book appears especially useful to a correspondence chess player, to understand key concepts at critical points in the Botvinnik variation of the semi-slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4). I also liked Pedersen's coverage of the Moscow variation (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6), which according to Pedersen "usually leads to much more peaceful play than the Botvinnik System." I am still assessing this book, so did not feel comfortable rating it yet as 5 stars. Nevertheless, I very much like the book and highly recommend it ... Please note that it may be hard to find this book, which is out of print. If you can buy a used copy at a reasonable price, it is well worth buying.
p.s. I found this book (together with "The Meran System" by Steffen Pedersen) useful as an augmentation to "Play the Semi-Slav" by David Vigorito.