For decades, the chess world has run down the reputation of the Colle-Zukertort (a.k.a. the Rubinstein Attack) as an unassuming opening, claiming it did not exact the full measure of pain from Black in the quest to equalize.

If such is the case, why do strong players (as Black) avoid the Zukertort? Instead, they opt to play any of several pet defenses rather than deal with the constriction and onslaught from the main line.

A WHOLE NEW SYSTEM OF JUSTICE: ZUKE 'EM

In Zuke 'Em: The Colle-Zukertort Revolutionized, Rudel explains the basics of the Zukertort and then provides plenty of new ideas to address these various pet defenses that cowardly opponents may choose. In this book you will also find:

• Introductory chapters for those who would not know the Zukertort from a Lemon Torte
• Analysis in real English from the perspective of someone who has played the opening exclusively for over a decade
• A barrage of never-before-published answers and extensive commentary on common lines
• A training section to help you retain and test your understanding of the opening

The Colle-Zukertort opening system is generally seen as a way for White to avoid having to learn lots of opening theory. Indeed it was this opinion that attracted me towards playing the opening on a regular basis. White, I thought, can bash out his first 8 or 9 moves and get the sort of position he is familiar with. Then it was a case of using my better experi­ence in the line to out-maneuver my opponents. It took a while to iron out some of the wrinkles but eventually it turned into an opening I was happy to play against GM's with fairly good results. The culmination of this was when I decided to write a White repertoire book, A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire, based on the Colle-Zukertort and other slightly offbeat White systems in 1996. One of the drawbacks of writing a book like this is that your competitors can immediately see the systems that cause you the most trouble and start remorselessly using them against you. One particularly irksome move order was 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 g6. And to be honest I never truly found a way I was completely happy with to overcome this problem. I eventually moved onto new opening pastures.

Forward wind 8 years and in 2004 I received an e-mail from David Rudel suggesting a creative solution to the 3...g6 prob­lem that had previously eluded me. I congratulated him for his vision and thought no more of it. However, David evidently did a great deal of thinking about the Colle and the result is the book you have in your hands. One of the things that im­mediately impressed me about the book is how much thought and effort has obviously gone into it. Although it is possible to just bash your moves out in the Colle-Zukertort without much thought, a savvy opponent will make your life very difficult in­deed if you pay no attention to move order. In this book David takes you on a journey avoiding the trapdoors set by sneaky opponents and into a middlegame where you have a fair idea of what you are trying to achieve. He doesn't shirk from using game statistics to tell you if a particular line doesn't score well and you can look forward to learning the role of each piece as the position evolves.

All in all if you are looking for an offbeat way to surprise your opponents and yet at the same time keep a solid founda­tion from which to attack, then this just might be the perfect book for you.

Aaron Summerscale

London, April 2008

Content:
005 Foreword

007 01 Why?

020 02 Introduction: The Enigmatic Zukertort

035 03 The Cast

046 Zukertort Principles, Wisdom, and Guidelines

047 04 The Mainline

075 05 Classical Variation — A Thematic Treatment

094 06 Early Bishop Deviations

130 07 The Slav Defense

147 08 The Queen's Indian and Benoni Defenses

162 09 The Sneaky Grünfeld

174 10 The Queen's Gambit Reversed

191 11 Various Oddities

212 12 Extra Analysis

238 13 Training

245 14 New Ideas Index

250 15 Players and Variation Indices

253 16 Bibliography

254 About the Author

256 Colophon