Publisher's Foreword

Creating the Grandmaster Repertoire series seemed a natural idea. There is a glut of opening books at the Starting Out level. These books have certainly been refreshing, but they have almost completely replaced high-level opening books.

As chess fans, we felt we were missing out, and because we can, we decided to do something about it.

The books in the Grandmaster Repertoire series are written by grandmasters, edited by grandmasters, and will certainly be read by grandmasters. This does not mean that players who are not grandmasters cannot read them. We have worked hard to make our books clear in their presentation and to make it possible for the readers to decide the depth to which they want to study them.

When we were young and trying to be up-and-coming, we understood that you do not have to remember everything in an opening book in order to use it. It is our hope that those readers who find this repertoire too extensive and detailed, will ignore many of the details. Even now that we are grandmasters, we see the bolded moves as what we want to memorize, and the notes as explanations and illustrations.

It is our conviction that you will eventually be more successful by playing the main lines, simply because they are based on better moves. Instinctively most players know this, but they fear losing to a prepared line and thus turn to unambitious systems, or unhealthy surprises. The opponent will not be able to use his preparation but, sadly, will not need it. These sidelines generally end in uninspiring positions almost automatically.

Possibly the main reason why high-level opening books have disappeared is the rise of databases. It has been assumed that there is no point in having traditional opening books anymore, as you can look it all up in the database. Some rather lazy authors have a system: collect a few hundred games from the database, give Fritz a few moments, then hit Print. Such books add nothing to chess literature. We have seen enough of them and have never wanted to add to that pile.

In these days of multi-million game databases, we all have access to information, what is lacking is understanding. In the Grandmaster Repertoire series, very strong players will share their understanding and suggest strong new moves that are in no one else's database.

We are excited about this new series and hope that the reader will share some of that excitement.

John Shaw & Jacob Aagaard

Content:
006 Key to symbols used & Bibliography

007 Foreword by Grandmaster Boris Gelfand

008 Bibliography

009 Foreword by the Author

The Bogo-Indian Defence

013 4...c5

019 4...Bxd2+

030 4...a5

036 4...Qe7

The Budapest Gambit

059 Farajowicz Variation

066 Classical Variation

Benoni Systems

092 Catalan Benoni

102 Snake Benoni

108 Benoni without ...Nf6

113 Reluctant Benoni

126 Czech Benoni

144 Old Benoni

164 Modern Benoni

201 Benko Gambit

The Dutch Defence

221 Stonewall Variation

243 Classical Variation

262 Leningrad Variation

289 St Petersburg Variation

The Grünfeld Defence

297 Dynamic Variation

337 Solid Variation

The King's Indian Defence

367 6...Bg4

370 6...Nc6 & 7...Bg4

379 6...Nc6 & 7...Bf5

387 6...Nc6 & 7...e5

400 6...Nc6 & 7...a6

414 6...Nc6 & 7...Rb8

426 6...c6

460 6...Nbd7

491 9..Qb6

The Modern Defence

501 Wade Defence

521 The Modern Defence

Minor Systems

538 2...b6

542 b-pawn Systems

556 English Defence

572 Black Knights Tango

578 Old Indian

587 Queen's Indian Attempt

593 Odd ideas

601 Index of Variations