Ideal for those wanting to understand the basics of the Grünfeld

The Grünfeld is an energetic and popular defence to queen's pawn openings and is a favourite of the world number one Garry Kasparov. From the start of the game Black allows White to build an apparently strong centre but then attacks it with all his forces. Play can become extremely sharp and theoretical and this opening very much appeals to dynamic players. In this book, International Master Jacob Aagaard revisits the fundamental principles of the Grünfeld and its numerous variations. Throughout the book there are an abundance of notes, tips and warnings to guide the improving player, while important strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.

- User-friendly design to help readers absorb ideas

- Concentrates on the main ideas of the Grünfeld

- Ideal for the improving player

Jacob Aagaard is a International Master from Denmark who has earned himself a deserved reputation as an industrious and no-nonsense chess author. His previous works for Everyman include Queen's Indian Defence and Meeting 1 d4. He also authored Excelling at Chess, a recent winner of the ChessCafe.com Book of the Year award.

This book on the Grünfeld Defence is part of the Starting Out series books by Everyman Chess. These books were originally meant to target beginners and less experienced club players who wanted to obtain some kind of overview of the opening, but it has turned out that even very strong players have found this series beneficial. We all need a well explained and guided introduction when we begin to study a new opening, and seasoned professionals can be on the international tournament circuit for years without finding the time to delve deeply into the basics of a particular opening. A main reason for this is that many players now prepare a new opening for each game, with the hope of catching their opponents off guard. In this way true depth is seldom obtained.

This book is not meant to be exclusive but inclusive. It is not written with any specific target audience in mind, but with an intention of being as clear and basic as possible.

What this book is trying to do is to give you a good introduction to what the Grünfeld Defence is all about, what lines there are and how they have been played. This is not a standard theoretical work as much as it is an introduction, both historically and theoretically. In the choice of games a great emphasis has been paid to the instructive and entertainment value rather than whether the actual line is completely critical. The reasons for these choices are simple: theory will continue to move fast and evaluations change from year to year, but the typical concepts of the opening change more slowly and the glory of brilliant games will never fade. The idea is that this book will also make sense in five years time.

As with previous books in the Starting Out series, there are numerous features designed to help the reader absorb important ideas. These include the following:

NOTES, TIPS and WARNINGS : These contain important points about a particular variation, the opening as a whole or chess in general.

Statistics: The statistics throughout this book are calculated by ChessBase and based on the available games from ChessBase Online in May 2003. Note that usually White has a score of 55% in modern games, so a 48% score for Black in a variation is quite okay, while 43% is close to normal as well, and certainly not low enough to make anybody nervous about playing the line for Black.

Theoretical?: A short discussion on each variation about how important it is to remember the theory and how much can be found at the board.

Finally, I would like to thank Danny Kristiansen for reading large parts of the book and giving me a chance to correct several mistakes. For those remaining the only defence which I can think of here and now is that Danny went on a fishing expedition shortly before the deadline.

Thank you, Danny.

Jacob Aagaard, Copenhagen, December 2003