The Queen's Indian: Detailed Explanation of an Important and Popular Chess Opening [Paperback]

Jouni Yrjola (Author), Jussi Tella (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2003

This book provides detailed coverage and strategic explanation of all lines of the Queen's Indian, with particular focus on the most critical and topical variations. The Queen's Indian is one of the most important modern chess openings. It was one of the key battlegrounds of the Kasparov vs. Karpov world championship matches. It is renowned for its resilience, but is nevertheless a good choice for those seeking to win with either colour. Both White and Black have plenty of ways to complicate, and there are few lines where either side is forced to exchange pieces off into a dull endgame. The Queen's Indian is the 'companion' opening of the Nimzo-Indian, and was also a brainchild of the great chess thinker Aron Nimzowitsch. Black establishes his light-squared bishop on the long diagonal, and if White is not careful, this can form the basis of a devastating attack. In the critical lines, White contests this diagonal, either by trying to block it with a pawn advance, or by opposing Black's bishop with a fianchetto of his own.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jouni Yrjölä is a grandmaster from Finland. He has won the Finnish Championship twice, and regards Sochi 1984, where he shared third place with the legendary Mikhail Tal, as his best tournament result. He was awarded his grandmaster title in 1990. Jussi Tella is also from Finland. He is an international master and an experienced chess trainer. They also wrote the Gambit book An Explosive Chess Opening Repertoire for Black.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Gambit Publications (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1901983900
• ISBN-13: 978-1901983906
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,483,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a milestone in chess openings books, November 10, 2003

By 

Di Marino Maurizio "talgarik" (Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Queen's Indian: Detailed Explanation of an Important and Popular Chess Opening (Paperback)

Gambit strikes again: here it is one more opening book you - >2000 chess player - can't live without. The book presents 288 pages, divided along 11 chapters, an introduction and an index of variations. The first chapter is a strategic introduction highlighting 8 situations who are peculiar to this defence: it will be very useful to the lower rated players. Respect to the typical Gambit presentation, the introduction is the novelty here, it says that this British publishing house intends to gain the attention of lower rated players usually attracted by the more simple frame presented by Everyman books: as a fact the detailed explanation part isn't confined to the introduction, but all along the book you'll find words explaining what's goin' on.
The two finnish authors talk about the state of the art in all the main variation not forgetting the so-called Nimzo-Indian Hybrid who is actually very popular among White players desiring to avoid main theoretical lines, you'll find 40 pages about it.
As usual with Gambit opening books, we have plenty of stuff, tons of games and analysis. You won't find complete games, of course: this is the gambit style who allows their authors filling books with a lot of strictly opening theory, you can find complete games anywhere.
Overall this is a great book and it will be the starting point for every chess player interested into the QID for many years to come, a rare accomplishment in the era of huge databases.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, May 4, 2005

By 

P. Rechmann "PR" (NRW) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Queen's Indian: Detailed Explanation of an Important and Popular Chess Opening (Paperback)

This is an excellent opening book that provides a very good balance between variations and verbal explanations. Most importantly: The authors do not shy away from making clear judgements about the different lines - which one is good or bad, which one drawish, etc. This exercise is in fact the only justification for producing an opening book in the age of the databases.