Chebanenko's move 4...a6 in the Slav Defence has grown into one of the main systems for Black. It is an extremely flexible and almost uni­versal weapon against the Queen's Gambit.

The Chebanenko Slav is very popular among top players such as Victor Bologan, the author of this book, and Alexey Shirov. Club and internet players like it because it offers Black solidity as well as active coun­terplay in all lines.

But this book also pays homage to the colourful inventor of this varia­tion: Vyacheslav Andreevich Chebanenko. This enigmatic teacher was the master brain behind a generation of strong players.

Our generation (Viorel Bologan is just half a year older than me) have enjoyed all the benefits of 'technical progress' in chess. We were still very young and fresh when the use of databases and analysis engines became the most convenient form of working on chess and the experi­ence we had before prevented us from underestimating the human touch, so the work with new technologies could be­come especially effective. But I think the nostalgic memories of times when every­thing was done with the desire to dis­cover new things, when the search for the truth in chess was sometimes absorbing, those memories simply can't be taken away. As well as memories of people who never knew the modern times.

The year 1997 was sad for both Viorel and me. The chess community lost two personalities who had devoted all their life into chess investigation - the Latvian Alvis Vitolinsh and the Moldavian Vyacheslav Chebanenko. I was supposed to write a tribute to my countryman but I haven't done it yet - who knows when I will be able to. Therefore it's important for me to see that Viorel has done so to­wards his former trainer and spiritual guru. And I should say that the 4...a6 Slav is still only a small part of Chebanenko's contribution to chess, his other system 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4 3.Nd5 Be7!? imme­diately comes to mind as I played it a few weeks ago against Levon Aronian in Morelia 2008 and achieved a better posi­tion! His old ideas in the Rossolimo Vari­ation (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d3 etc.) are very impor­tant too, practically the whole modern theory of that system is just the continua­tion of old Moldavian investigations.

I first heard the name of Chebanenko be­cause of the 4...a6 Slav. A Latvian of my age, Kaspars Ramma (he was a fine posi­tional player in his youth but then sud­denly stopped competing), successfully employed it in the second half of the eighties and once he annotated his best effort for the Riga magazine

At the beginning Vyacheslav Chebanenko was like a ghost for me. He never left his hotel room. During some junior compe­tition I even mistook Boris Itkis for him, because Boris was visible with Moldavian youngsters but he was unknown to me, while Chebanenko's name would always be mentioned when one was preparing against the Moldavian players. I got to know Vyacheslav Andreevich personally in 1988 when he was helping Oratovsky in his match versus Kramnik in Moscow and I attended the meeting of Botvinnik with Jeroen Piket at the same time and venue. Of course, the place I first met Chebanenko was his hotel room and we immediately started analysing the Slav with 4...a6 which I tried to 'refute', but in vain.

Vyacheslav Chebanenko would normally try not to let his knowledge be spread outside the Moldavian chess school, but with me he made an exception, perhaps because I was Viorel's friend. He also in­troduced me to his girl students and one of them was my girlfriend for a short while. I wouldn't mention this if it were not for the fact that later on in some of my games I employed a move that he had taught the girl (6...Bg4 after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Bf4 Nc6 6.e3), so the Moldavian school definitely had a certain impact on my chess.

So, I should say that Vyacheslav Chebanenko was a nice and a quiet man in daily life and a true workaholic in chess research, and one of the most re­markable trainers of his time. He left this world too early but his systems are still alive. Even though he was not a tactician at all, his chess strategy has passed the test of time and technology.

Finally I should thank Viorel Bologan for a tremendous job of unifying the modern discoveries in the 4...a6 system with its historical background. Now the reader has everything he needs to know - the old strategic ideas and the latest concrete nuances. And the fact that sometimes pieces don't get exchanged before move 20 shows how fascinating and complex the opening is.

Play 4...a6 in the Slav! I used to think it was a loss of tempo but it is not!