Taking your opponent out of his comfort zone is a good idea to start your game with.
Grandmaster Sergey Kasparov pushes this concept one step further: lure your opponent onto the slippery paths of the Philidor Swamp!
After 1 ... d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5, White is confronted with a stark choice: either to continue on the road of a calm Philidor Defence, or to immediately gain almost two tempi by forcing Black into an endgame that looks better for White, if not close to winning.
This second option, however, is a treacherous road strewn with pitfalls, as Kasparov demonstrates in his fresh, humorous and persuasive style.
White will walk into the Philidor Swamp in which he runs a big risk of getting stuck.
Sergey Kasparov does not bother the amateur reader with variations of 15 or 20 moves deep, but concentrates on the plans and counterplans for both Black and White.
Kasparov provides dozens of entertaining and instructive exercises to test your understanding.
Content
006 Explanation of Symbols
007 Introduction
011 Part I: The Treacherous Ending: 4.dxe5 dxe5 5.Qxd8+ Kxd8
012 Chapter 1: The Principled 6.Bg5
036 Chapter 2: Pressure on f7: 6.Bc4
037 Section 1: 6...Be6
050 Section 2: 6...Ke8
075: Part II Flexible Development: 4.Nge2
095 Part III: The Rare 4.f3
105 Part IV: Transposing to the Philidor: 4.Nf3
106 Chapter 1: The Surrender of the Centre (...exd4) on Different Moves
107 Section 1: 4...e5xd4
117 Section 2: 5...e5xd4
124 Section 3: The Manoeuvre ...Nd7-b6
140 Section 4: 8...e5xd4
161 Chapter 2: Rare lines on White’s 5th move
191 Chapter 3: Attack on the f7-Pawn
192 Section 1: The Sacrifice 6.Bxf7+
201 Section 2: Black Plays ...a7-a5
235 Section 3: The Flexible Structure (a6, b6, c6)
286 Section 4: Black Doesn’t Play ...c7-c6
303 Exercises
310 Solutions on Exercises
323 Conclusion
325 Index of Variations
331 Index of Players |