Review of the German edition:
The German IM Christian Seel concentrates in this exciting repertoire book on the good old Antoschin variation with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4. The Philidor has a fame to be an opening that is out of fashion, but on the other hand, if you know how to handle it with black then it is a very hard nut to crack! To handle the Philidor with 4 ... exd4 makes much sense and is much more logical that lines as for example 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 4.d4 Nd7 where black is forced to creep around the edges. From Euwe I have learned to play 4.Qxd4 but Seel has then dig up the interesting pawn move 4 ... a6!

The statistics are very good for black in this line and that could be a good reason that Anand went for the new playing line with: 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 and now 5 ... d5 5.. Be7? 6.c4 0-0 7.Nc3 c6 8.Be3 Re8 9.Qd2 d5 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.Bb5 Bd7 12.e5 Bxb5 13.Ndxb5 a6 14.Nd4 Nfd7 15.f4 Nb6 16.b3 N8d7 17.0-0 Rc8 18.Nf5 Bb4 19.Bd4 Nc5 20.Qe3 Rc6 21.Rac1 Qc8 22.Nxg7 Kxg7 23.f5 h6 24.e6+ Kh7 25.Qe5 Rg8 26.exf7 Rg5 27.Qe7 and white won, Anand - Nisipeanu, Bundesliga 2005. Maybe the best move order for white is the old-fashioned Bilguer move 3.Bc4 but does black has to fear 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Be7 4.0-0 Nf6 5.Re1 0-0 6.c3 c6 7.Bb3 d5 8.d3 dxe4 9.Nxe5 exd3 10.Qxd3!? as Holzke played so successful against the author of this book! Altogether the young Christian Seel has managed to create a very exciting openings book which leads the reader through safely and sharp positions.

Conclusion:

A very interesting written openings book!