Customer Reviews

Play the Grunfeld: Detailed coverage of this Kasparov favourite

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With "Play the Grünfeld", Yelena Dembo has made her debut for Everyman.
At first, admittedly, I was a bit disappointed when holding the book in
my hands for the first time, because of those rather slim 192 pages. In the last months, Everyman has published "Play the Ruy Lopez" by Greet and
"The Pirc in Black and White" by Vigus both of which had much more than
300 pages for the same price. But okay, you cannot expect to have everything, though a 300 pages-book on the Grünfeld alone would have been rather cool...

Dembo writes the introduction rather enthusiastic and calls the Grünfeld
rather a counterattack than a defence, just as Adorjan did ages ago.
This makes the reader feel inspired at the very beginning already.

Then we have the variations. When I say variations, I mean it. Dembo has
avoided the usual sample games-format, but opted for the rather uncommon
tree-format. I have to admit that I was delighted by this choice as you
can find the critical variations much faster this way.

Against the modern mainline with 7. Nf3 and 8. Rb1 Dembo advocates Svidler's favourite move 9. ...b6 which is quite a good choice for a repertoire book. Its much easier to play than taking this hot pawn a2 and black has fair chances to play for a win.

Then we have 7. Nf3 followed by 8. Be3 where Dembo makes her case for
8. ...Qa5, 9. Qd2 and now 9. ...O-O. She says 9. ...Nc6 is an equal alternative that has led to equal play or perhaps even more, but does not analyze this move any further. Being played by grandmasters such as Kasparov, Svidler, Navara, Krasenkow and Sutovsky, 9. ...Nc6 seems to be the favourite choice among grandmasters. And the database-statistics seems to prove that the knightmove to c6 is the better choice indeed, regardless whether white continues with 10. Rb1 (according to Dembo the critical choice, but theoretically perfectly okay for black) or 10. Rc1. Perhaps, its even easier to play?!

Now we come to the old mainline with 4. cxd5 followed by e4, Bc4, Ne2 and Be3. Dembo counters this line giving two mainlines, the first being 10. ...Na5, the second one 10. ...Bd7, both of which seem to be very much okay for black. It is a pity that she seems to underestimate 10. h4!? giving the old and famous game Naranja-Portisch 1970 as a refutation as so many other authors did before her. This game was won rather prettily by black. But the game Li Shilong-van der Weide 2006 shows how White can improve dramatically upon the Portisch-game and pose some novel problems for black's whole concept. Of course, it must be said that there is a
solution for 10. h4 out there...

The russian system with 4. Nf3 and 5. Qb3 is the next one to talk about.
Dembo follows in the footsteps of GM and philosopher Jonathan Rowson by
recommending 7. ...Nc6 which is quite a good choice for a repertoire book
as well. It cuts down the sharp theory resulting from either 7. ...Na6 and
7. ...a6 and gives black a free game with piece play as Grünfeldeers are
used to. She gives similar good advice on how to counter most of the other
choices, but she fails to mention the line 4. Bg5 Ne4, 5. h4!? as
recommended in one of the recent SOS-books.

I got a little disappointed by her choice of the line 4. Bf4 Bg7, 5. e3 O-O (?!). Dembo argues that Black does not need to fear the pawn-grab
6. cxd5 Nxd5, 7. Nxd5 Qxd5, 8. Bxc7 because of 8. ...Na6, 9. Bxa6 Qxg2.
What is true in the line with 4. Nf3 and 5. Bf4, may not be true in this case. Following 10. Qf3 Qxf3, 11. Nxf3 bxa6 black seems to be alright because of the bishop-pair. But practice has shown that Black often has to go a long way just to reach a draw because of his structural weaknesses and the fact that it is hard to open up the position for the bishops by f6 and e7-e5. A look into the databases and recent GM-games (e.g. Radjabov-Ivanchuk) confirms just that. For those content with a draw, perhaps even against a lesser opponent, this might be alright, otherwise you will have to investigate further on your own.

Apart from this, Dembo has written quite a good book on the Grünfeld: she
has analyzed old lines in a new and fresh way and has come to different
conclusions. This alone is worth the prize for the book and deserves praise. If she is on the right track with the lines I mentioned above, only time will tell. Perhaps the readers of her book will show in their own games that Black is in good shape in all those lines?! Dembo is to the point and explains what to look out for and when to avoid drifting into passivity. Unfortunately, sometimes you feel as if she has just mixed up Adorjan, Rowson, Davies & Co. to a kind of "Best of" without always hitting the most reliable lines for Black.

This is an excellent repertoire book for those interested in taking up the highly pricipled and dynamic Gruenfeld Defense. The book is very well organized, and the writing is both engaging and lucid. The specific recommendations, which another review has already explained in some detail, are highly topical and intelligently chosen. Dembo's writing is pointed, fresh and friendly.

Given the comprehensiveness of its coverage and its fairly frequent suggestion of alternative tries for Black, the relatively short length of this book should certainly not be considered a fault. It's not the purpose of a work such as this, after all, to be an encyclopedia. Indeed its conciseness makes it even more useful as a playbook, suitable for being carried to tournaments and being reviewed before critical rounds, or for taking to work and studying at lunch hour.

The tree of variations presented here, and such ideas as are presented verbally, will be quite useful to any moderately strong club player on up through IM or GM. It is not true that this is a work only for IMs, but it certainly is not intended to be a first Gruenfeld book for the weaker class of club player.

The book's admirable brevity has been achieved by omitting much of the verbal explanation that might well have included in a more elementary work. For example, the author will say of some rather complicated terminal position, "Black is equal" or "Black is better," but she will rarely indicate the relative strengths and weaknesses, or point to the respective plans of the two sides. For another example, the introduction is devoted not to the basic ideas of the Gruenfeld, or even why anyone might want to play it, but to a quick survey of the opening's historical development. How many amateur players, one wonders, need to know that three great regional "schools," the Hungarian, the Czech and the Israeli, have contributed to the Gruenfeld's theoretical development?

Dembo is probably right when she claims that anyone who knows and understands the lines she presents here will be as well prepared to play the Gruenfeld as any IM. But for many less expert players, this work alone will be insuffient for them to achieve quite that much understanding. But even so, it will be useful.

In balance, Dembo is to be thanked for doing putting together, and presenting clearly and concisely, a comprehensive tree of variations sufficient to anyone's taking up the strong and exciting Gruenfeld Defense, even at a high level.

This is a great book, It covers everything that you need to know to play
the Grunfeld with confidence. I did not like to playing against Queen
pawn openings until I found the Grunfeld. It leads to very sharp aggressive play, I really liked the tree format for the variations instead of complete games, was much easier to memorize and understand.

I almost didn't buy this book because I saw a review that said it is to advance for the intermediate player, but I had no problems and my rating is about 1450. Great book highly recommended along with "Understanding the Grunfeld" by Rowson. These two books are a great place to start, And still advanced enough for the more seasoned player.

I started out playing the Grunfeld last year and I have consulted this book many times. True some of the lines need to be updated like 10 ... Na5 in the Classical Exchange with the set up Bc4, Ne2 and Be3. The line that has been challenging 10. ... Na5 is Topalov's innovation which he used against Anand in the World Championship Match in 2010 which is

1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 g6
3. Nc3 d5
4. cxd5 Nxd5
5. e4 Nxc3
6. bxc3 Bg7
7. Bc4 c5
8. Ne2 Nc6
9. Be3 0-0
10. 0-0 Na5
11. Bd3 b6
12. Qd2 e5
13. Bh6!

And the last game played in this line was between Bacrot and Caruana which Bacrot won. Looking over the games involving this line I couldn't help but feel that Black is forced into passivity in this line.

Thankfully a lot of new lines cropping up in Classical Exchange of the Grunfeld tend to congeal together very well. The main ideas for the Grunfeld in the Classical Exchange lines as of late as explained by Mrs. Dembo to play e5 and an eventual f5-f4 and conduct an initiative on the kingside in the spirit of the King's Indian with the added benefit that White's forces are uncoordinated and are unable to conduct a breakthrough on the queenside and center thanks to the Black Knight on d6 blockading the d5 pawn and protecting the b5 square. You will see this idea a lot in the Svidler variation which Dembo provides as an alternative and in other works such as the GM Repertoire series by Avrukh who advocates for ... Qc7, ... Bg4 and responds to f3 with ... Bd7 with the idea of playing an improved version of the Svidler variation.

After going through this book you should have no problem playing other recommendations from other books such as The Safest Grunfeld and Avrukh's two volume GM Rep tomes for the Grunfeld.

Against the 8. Rb1 Modern Exchange Dembo recommends 9. ... b6. As a another review noted, "it's a good choice for a repertoire book." Dembo gives the reader three different ways to play against this variation after 9. ... b6. I personally don't like this move because it isn't really in the spirit of the Grunfeld but based on the recommendations given by Dembo in terms of analogy, I would say her recommendations has a lot in common with either Lasker's Defense (liberating one's own position through exchanges as well as extinguishing White's initiative (which becomes a little dry at times and the Karpov Caro-Kann (in the variation where Black plays e6 and fianchettos the lightsquared Bishop). There is nothing wrong with these variations but in order to win in these positions one needs to be willing to be patient so that his queenside majority can exert influence into the end game. And another sign of warning which is shown through the example of Dembo, the Grunfeld is characterized by flexibility of it's pawn structure, therefore will transpose into positions where you have to fight for a color complex of squares. You will eventually have to sacrifice an exchange so that you can maintain a foothold in the center. Thankfully you have still have chances in the end game thanks to your queenside majority. In all honesty 8. Rb1 is dropping in popularity because Black found resources in the main line in which Black pawn grabs on a2. That line goes

1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 g6
3. Nc3 d5
4. cxd5 Nxd5
5. e4 Nxc3
6. bxc3 Bg7
7. Nf3 c5
8. Rb1 0-0
9. Be2 cxd4
10. cxd4 Qa5+
11. Bd2 Qxa2
12. 0-0 Bg4
13. Bg5 h6
14. Be3 Nc6
15. d5 Na5
16. Bc5 b6!
17. Bxe7 Re8
18. d6 Nc6
19. Bb5 Nxe7!
20. Bxe8 Rxe8

And Black holds the balance for the exchange (although pointwise Black is equal). Avrukh also recommends this variation as well.

Although I don't like playing the Dembo's recommendations in this line it is probably equally as good as Avrukh's recommendation when playing for a win. Basically if you want to play something more strategic against this line for Dembo's recommendation, but if you want to memorize (some people like doing that) I recommend Avrukh's interpretation of the line. Neither Avrukh's or Dembo's recommendations have been refuted yet, so pick whichever one. I personally have never found a line I liked playing as against 8. Rb1. If I had to pick I would choose Dembo's recommendations.

In the Bf4 lines Dembo recommends that we castle after 5. e3 and offer a gambit. I believe another reviewer here questioned Dembo's decision to offer the gambit and that structural defects and a loss of a pawn do not constitute the value of the Bishop pair. I would agree with that reviewer but there are many games in those lines where Svidler ends up using the Bishop pair and lead in development by offering the gambit to win. I don't personally like that gambit but fans of Svidler's interpretation of the Grunfeld might like it. I have given the gambit a whirl a few times and I must say if you like to play energetically this is a good recommendation indeed. Avrukh recommends that you play 5. ... c5 right away instead of castling. Both continuations are lively and energetic and of course, sound.

True, I have highly praised Dembo's Play the Grunfeld but honestly, it is a very well written book. You can't doubt her for 10 ... Na5 needing to be updated because this book was published in 2007! That just goes to show that opening books have a limited life span but she did provide an alternative which isn't currently under a cloud that is 10... Bd7. 10. ... Bd7 still being regularly played by Navara and Svidler sparsely jumps between 10. ... Bd7 and 10. ... Qc7. Everything else I feel would still be able to get you up to date on the Grunfeld today. Of course in some parts coverage is quite sparse or not to your liking, so I will direct you to Avrukh's two volume GM Rep books. I feel that having both books will help you immensely against 1. d4.

I haven't read The Safest Grunfeld yet by Delchev and Agrest but I hear it is quite a good book and will help you assimilate ideas in the Grunfeld. There's also a repertoire against 1. c4 and 1. Nf3 in there. They have also updated on the 10 ... Na5 Classical Exchange and recommend it as a back up, so if you're interested in playing that line The Safest Grunfeld might be what you're looking for.

I was disappointed by the book as it I thought it was for beginners and intermediate players. However its geared to IM level and above.

The reader is told by Dembo that you will get the an International Master level repetroire from the book, this is probably so if you are already an IM. She uses a variation tree approach rather than the full game approach. Whilst this allows adequate coverage of the Grunfeld within the limited 192 page constraints, the resulting middlegame and endgame structures and annotations are not explained. Not good for beginners and intermediate players to get a tactical and positional understanding of the opening.

Only one major line is given for black often without detailed alternative explainations. this severly limits the readers options and means that if one of the lines is proven weak at a later date the reader has no means to resucitate his repetoire.

Often obscure variations are given to limit the need to learn variations and cut down on the mass of theoretical work required. Whilst this is great from a workload aspect it can lead to key weaknesses in the readers repetoire.

Denbo gives a very good overview of the various schools, Hungarian, Russian , Israeli etc... that have nurtured and sustained the opening through the years. However the opening is high risk high reward, perhaps expalaining why she has herself has sparingly used the opening herself being primarily a King Indian Defense player.

If you are an IM looking for a new opening to supplement your main response to D4 this would probably suit your needs. However if you are a beginner/intermediate player for the 192 pages you get a limited repertoire that looks hard to use in practical play and difficult to learn.

Highly recommended for all current Grunfeld players, for new Grunfeld players there are better alternatives, until you have an advanced knowledge of the opening