Contents: 004 Symbols 005 Introduction 008 1 Strategic Introduction 015 2 The Miles Variation: 4 Bf4 (and 4 Bg5) 021 3 4 e3 042 4 4 Nc3 Bb7: 5 Bg5 and Others 051 5 The Nimzo Hybrid: 4 Nc3 Bb4 5 Qb3 or 5 Bg5 092 6 Petrosian Variation: 4 a3 118 7 Petrosian Main Line: 4 a3 Bb7 5 Nc3 173 8 The Old Main Line: 4 g3 Bb7 215 9 4 g3 Ba6: Alternatives to 5 b3 242 10 4 g3 Ba6 5 b3: Miscellaneous 5th Moves for Black 262 11 The Main Line: 4 g3 Ba6 5 b3 Bb4+ 285 Index of Variations

Catalogue text: 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 color. 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. This is the first systematic study of the whole of this major opening for eleven years, making it an essential buy for the many players who use this opening as either Black or White. For all club, tournament, correspondence and internet players who play the Queen's Indian. Writing a book about a major chess opening such as the Queen's Indian in the database era is a huge task. There are thousands of games in the databases, and almost every week new grandmaster examples appear from recent tournaments. It is especially hard to write a book about the whole opening within the ideology of a 'complete' opening book, instead of a more lightweight book containing selected games and examples, without even trying to be comprehensive. For this book we have tried to find a delicate balance between educational values and completeness, between introducing some of the classic games and their standard ideas and plans in different variations of the Queen's Indian, and offering a survey of recent developments in the key variations. There are games in the Queen's Indian that every chess-player should know, played by the all-time greats in world championship matches and super-tournaments, and we have tried to keep these among the material as much as possible. However, much of the material is from the last few years, especially in the most popular variations today, such as the Petrosian line (4 a3). When deciding how to allocate space within the book, we have also incorporated some speculation about future trends. For example, 4 e3,. regarded as one of White's most peaceful options against the Queen's Indian, has been quite popular lately, and because of that we decided to give it slightly increased weight in the pages of this book. Also some fighting variations (4 g3 Ba6 5 b3 b5, for example), in which it is hard to see any major theoretical problems, get some extra space in the pages of this book. It is hard to predict how aggressively the Queen's Indian will be handled by top grandmasters in the next few years, but club players will probably value this approach when trying to find new fighting ideas for their Queen's Indian repertoire. History The Queen's Indian Defence starts with the moves 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 (D). The name of the opening comes from the fianchetto of Black's queen's bishop, and the fact that it is one of the 'Indian' defences, characterized by Black attempting to control the centre with his pieces rather than immediately establishing a pawn presence there. The Queen's Indian is a very respected opening at top level and many of the world champions and current top players have employed the opening to some extent in their repertoire. There are not many world championship matches without a single Queen's Indian. The basics of the opening were developed early in the 20th century, just after the first world war, by players like Alekhine, Bogoljubow, Nimzowitsch and Sämisch. At that time 4 g3 and 4 Nc3 were White's standard options. The extremely important a3 variations were popularized only in the early 1960s by Tigran Petrosian, although they had been tried earlier by players such as Flohr, Sultan Khan and Alekhine. It needs to be noted that the Queen's Indian does not on its own provide the full basis for a black repertoire against 1 d4. If White chooses 3 Nc3, 3...b6?! is not a good move because of 4 e4 and thus Black normally chooses the Nimzo-Indian (3...Bb4). These two openings together form a very solid and popular repertoire against 1 d4. The less popular choices for a Nimzo-Indian player against 3 Nf3 are the Bogo-Indian (3...Bb4+), Queen's Gambit Declined (3...d5) and Modern Benoni (3...c5). The Bogo-Indian is a kind of little brother of the Queen's Indian which does not demand so much theoretical knowledge but it is not quite so well respected either. Also, against 1 Nf3 or 1 c4 Black can start with the moves ...Nf6, ...e6 and ...b6 in almost any order, heading for similar position-types. Variations The historical main line has been 4 g3. 60% of the Geller book from 1991 was devoted to 4 g3 material. The allocation of space within our book was originally planned according to the popularity of variations during the last seven years. This has changed a lot and the percentage of 4 g3 games is now below 40%. Inside the main line 4 g3, the move 4...Ba6 has replaced the old main line 4...Bb7. If you are looking for the Queen's Indian main line the best candidate is 4 g3 Ba6 5 b3 Bb4+ 6 Bd2 Be7 7 Bg2 c6 but this line is also rather dull and getting rather exhausted theoretically. The drawing percentage at top level is 60% or even more. Of course 5 b3 is not the only move and alternatives such as 5 Nbd2 are increasing in popularity. This is why especially the Petrosian variations, 4 a3 and 4 Nc3 Bb7 5 a3, have gained a lot of popularity during the last twenty years. Also, some players like to avoid the Petrosian main line with the Nimzo-Indian hybrid line 4 Nc3 Bb4 and then 5 Bg5 or 5 Qb3. These variations have been popular because they lead to quite sharp play and offer winning chances for both players. The move 4 e3 has suddenly become much more popular during the last couple of years, probably because of the flexible nature of the play, focusing on the knowledge of the standard position-types of the Queen's Indian instead of memorized theory. There is also the rather rare line 4 Bf4, popularized by Tony Miles but also played occasionally by other strong players, which may suit those who like to avoid main-line theory. Related Opening Systems The following openings are related to the Queen's Indian in some way, or lead to positions that a Queen's Indian player would benefit from studying. 1) Nimzo-Indian Defence is the usual repertoire partner and there is the hybrid line that can arise from Nimzo move-order: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Nf3 b6. 2) Bogo-Indian Defence is a repertoire choice and there are some similar position-types or even straight transpositions in the 4 g3 line. 3) The Queen's Gambit Declined (1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6), especially the Tartakower Variation in which Black fianchettoes his queen's bishop, can lead to very closely related positions. Black often ends up with hanging pawns in the Tartakower. The popular line 4 Nc3 Bb7 5 a3 d5 6 Bg5 is the closest relative to the Tartakower. Also, there are lines (such as 4 g3 Ba6 5 b3 c6 6 Bg2 d5) which are pretty close to the Catalan. 4) The English Opening very often produces Hedgehog formations similar to Queen's Indian Hedgehogs. Some English Opening lines are suitable repertoire choices and there are some transpositions. Especially the following line is popular: 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 c5 4 g3 b6 5 Bg2 Bb7 6 0-0 Be7 7 Re1!? (7 d4 cxd4 leads to a kind of Hedgehog) 7...d5 8 cxd5 exd5 9 d4 and we have a Queen's Indian line. 5) The Modern Benoni is an active repertoire choice but also in the Queen's Indian it is surprisingly usual to have a possibility to go into a Benoni formation where Black has the queenside majority. In the following chapter we shall consider some typical position-types, before moving on to variation-by-variation coverage in the subsequent chapters. Introduction