The Pirc in Black and White: Detailed Coverage of an Enterprising Chess Opening (Everyman Chess) [Paperback]

James Vigus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2007 | Series: Everyman Chess

The Pirc is an ambitious counter-attacking response to White’s most popular opening move, 1 e4. James Vigus provides an up-to-date appraisal of the Pirc and its many variations. Using illustrative games, he examines the traditional main lines, the fashionable alternatives and the tricky sidelines, while outlining the typical tactical and positional ideas for both White and Black. A study of this book will allow the reader to begin playing the Pirc with confidence in his or her own games.

*Essential coverage of a dynamic opening
*Written by a Pirc expert
*Ideal for club and tournament players

Editorial Reviews

Review

THE PIRC IN BLACK and WHITE is, without any doubt, the best book on the Pirc ever written. It's up to date, filled with original analysis by the author, offers interesting move orders that avoid some problem lines, and gives a very useful summary at the end of every chapter. I said it earlier and I'll say it again: this is a MUST BUY if you play the Pirc, or if you open with 1.e4. An outstanding piece of work! Jeremy Silman

From the Back Cover

The Pirc is an ambitious counter-attacking response to White’s most popular opening move, 1 e4. Black’s philosophy is based around allowing White to build a large and impressive-looking pawn centre, only to plot its downfall by attacking it with pieces or timely pawn strikes. When it works, the results can be spectacular, but of course this method of play carries with it some danger; if Black is not careful he runs the risk of simply being swamped in the centre. Such a provocative approach has found favour with a line of uncompromising Grandmasters including former Soviet Champion Alexander Beliavsky and Mikhail Gurevich.
In this book James Vigus provides an up-to-date appraisal of the Pirc and its many variations. Using illustrative games, he examines the traditional main lines, the fashionable alternatives and the tricky sidelines, while outlining the typical tactical and positional ideas for both White and Black. A study of this book will allow the reader to begin playing the Pirc with confidence in his or her own games.

*Essential coverage of a dynamic opening
*Written by a Pirc expert
*Ideal for club and tournament players

FIDE Master James Vigus is a former British Junior Champion. He’s a regular book reviewer and contributor to British Chess Magazine and was editor of Dragon (Cambridge University Chess Magazine). This is his first book for Everyman Chess. Outside of chess, he’s completing a PhD in English Literature at Cambridge.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 381 pages
• Publisher: Everyman Chess; 1st edition (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857444329
• ISBN-13: 978-1857444322
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #849,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Pirc Bible is here!, December 13, 2007

By 

"Franky" "chess nut" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pirc in Black and White: Detailed Coverage of an Enterprising Chess Opening (Everyman Chess) (Paperback)

This is not a book you will read cover to cover. It is a highly technical and comprehensive resource book for this Hypermodern chess opening. If the library treated it like other books, it would be in the "reference" section and they wouldn't let you check it out! For the same reason the library makes you use Atlases, Dictionaries, Thesaurus, etc on premises. You would have keep the book there, because it's simply too valuable to allow one person to take it home. If you use this opening as Black or fight against it as White, you simply must have this. It's a very THICK book because it is providing broad and deep coverage of one of the most confusing, slippery and dangerous opening motif's in all of chess. You won't be sorry you invested in this critical resource!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good in depth study on the Pirc defense, January 27, 2009

By 

couldbeyou - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Pirc in Black and White: Detailed Coverage of an Enterprising Chess Opening (Everyman Chess) (Paperback)

Looking for a good opening with black? I'm a low to average rank player and this book was excellent. A lot of in depth coverage analyzing each and every move and then lengthy analysis on what other moves should or shouldn't be made.

Like all of the everyman books they cover the opening very well. This one is exceptional because of the in-depth analysis on the pirc. Need to know the Austrian Attack over 100 pages alone with heavy analysis on how to play this line. He covers the classical, accelerated classical, the 150, odds and ends Bc4, Bg5, (which he says are rare but at my level are played quite often.

If you like to get white into your game with d6 for black this is your book. Finally, you can tell by the page length that this is heavy in detail. If you don't like the austrian you may not like this book as extensive coverage is on that line for good reason.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Little Nasty Surprise for 1.e4 Players, July 8, 2009

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top opening reviewer (Texas) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Pirc in Black and White: Detailed Coverage of an Enterprising Chess Opening (Everyman Chess) (Paperback)

So, you want to play the Pirc? Well, this is the best book on the Pirc to date. I have supplemented this fantastic work with Lev Alburt's Pirc Alert! in order to get a better understanding of key themes, ideas, and pawn structures. Then when I was ready to wade through the heavy duty theory, I got this. Pretty much this requires work. Hard work. But if you put in the time, you get results. PERIOD. I am currently demolishing 1.e4 players into oblivion because of my knowledge, but as well as my better understanding of the position at hand, thanks to Pirc Alert! If you are looking for an easy to play opening where you don't have to put any work in, then work elsewhere... But if you are tired of defending passive positions with black against 1.e4 and ready to give these little cheeky players a good old fashion *** whooping, then the Pirc is the way to go. Both books Pirc Alert! and this, will utterly render you untouchable.

By the way, If tactics are not your strong suit, then I'd suggest you study up on tactics because the positions by nature are quite sharp, especially in the Austrian Attack.