Countering The Queen's Gambit: A Compact (but Complete) Black Repertoire for Club Players against 1.d4

by Michael Prusikin

Overview

The Queen’s Gambit is easily the most talked-about chess opening since the immensely popular Netflix TV series of the same name became a hit. The screen adventures of Beth Harmon have inspired thousands to start playing the Royal Game but didn’t offer any information on this highly popular chess opening. This book fills that gap.

German Grandmaster Michael Prusikin presents a solid but dynamic opening repertoire for Black against the Queen’s Gambit. He wants you to understand rather than memorize what is important. His primary focus is on explaining the relevant pawn structures and the middlegame ideas behind the lines he recommends.

Prusikin deals with every single variation of the Queen’s Gambit in a way that is highly accessible for club players but at the same time surprisingly effective and concise: the Catalan, Tartakower, Carlsbad, London, Colle, Veresov, and all the others. As a bonus, the FIDE Senior Trainer also provides responses to openings such as the Bird, Réti, and Nimzo-Larsen. It may seem unlikely, and yet it is true: in less than 200 pages, Countering the Queen’s Gambit has Black covered for really every first move except 1.e4!

To test your newly acquired insights in the tactical motifs and strategic ideas of the Queen’s Gambit, you are invited to solve 36 exercises in carefully selected key positions from actual games.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789493257078
Publisher:	Continental Sales, Inc.
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Michael Prusikin is an International Grandmaster and a FIDE Senior Trainer from Germany. In 2009 he was the co-winner of the German Championship. Several times he has been voted German Chess Trainer of the Year. He writes the tactics column in the German magazine SCHACH. In 2021 he published Attacking Strategies for Club Players: How to Create a Deadly Attack on the Enemy King to wide acclaim.

Table of Contents

Foreword 7

Part I Typical pawn structures and general ideas 9

Chapter 1 The Carlsbad structure 10

Section 1.1 Attacking ideas for Black on the kingside 11

Section 1.2 The Capablanca Formula 21

Section 1.3 Combating Botvinnik's plan effectively 28

Section 1.4 Opposite-side castling 32

Section 1.5 Defending against the minority attack: typical ideas for Black 35

Chapter 2 Tartakower structures 45

Section 2.1 The isolated queen's pawn 46

Section 2.2 Hanging pawns 51

Section 2.3 The 'soft' Carlsbad structure 56

Section 2.4 The black pawn majority on the queenside 64

Section 2.5 Open c- and d-files 67

Part II Queen's Gambit Theory 71

Chapter 3 Carlsbad theory 72

Chapter 4 The Harrwitz Attack: 4.f4 c5! 81

Chapter 5 The 4.f3 variation: 4…a6!? 85

Chapter 6 The Tartakower Variation 95

Chapter 7 The Catalan 110

Part III Completing your repertoire 127

Chapter 8 Queen's pawn games 128

Section 8.1 The London System 128

Section 8.2 The Colle & Zukertort System 134

Section 8.3 The Hodgson and Torre Attack 141

Section 8.4 The Veresov Attack 151

Chapter 9 Other first moves 159

Section 9.1 The Réti and English Opening: systems without d2-d4 159

Section 9.2 Bird's Opening 170

Section 9.3 The Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack 178

Section 9.4 The Dunst Opening 180

Section 9.5 The Orang-Utan Opening & Grob's Attack 184

Part IV Final test 187

Chapter 10 Exercises 188

Chapter 11 Solutions to exercises 194

Index of variations 209

Index of names 217

Explanation of symbols 223