1...b6: Move by Move

I'm a semi retired player, but I still love to read about chess and to expand my chess horizons to stay "chess cultured". I think it's absolutely essential to have a wide palate for different openings - not only are you making yourself a more dangerous chess player, but you're increasing your understanding of different structures and different plans. That's going to make you a better player, regardless of whether you end up playing the opening.With that throat clearing, I've always been fascinated by 1...b6! I largely purchased this book for its Owen's section - it also covers the English Defense (1...b6 against 1.d4 or 1.c4). It appeals to the rest of my opening sensibilities - I play the English/Reti, so I'm used to a "hypermodern" approach to the opening. I also find opening surprises quite appealing - I gave up the Najdorf, Ruy Lopez, and Gruenfeld of my childhood because I was tired of vomiting up 30+ moves of opening theory just to stay afloat in a game. Even with this excellent work from Lakdawala, the Owen's really does remain an unexplored horizon - there's plenty of room for people to play a fresh game of chess!Lakdawala, in this book, does an excellent job of laying the basic groundwork of common plans and tactics of the Owen's. All of the lines Lakdawala chooses are thematically connected - the Owen's tends towards a light squared strategy, and this thematic approach stretches across the repertoire he advocates. The games he chooses are spot on for their explanatory power, and are all highly thematic for the sort of games you'll get from the opening. I also appreciate the honesty he displays with his evaluations - for one of the critical lines of the Owen's (which involves a quick e5 and Ng5) he freely admits that Black has to play super precisely to stay in the game. I appreciate this honesty - don't blow sunshine at me when I need to have my hard hat on!I cannot find any fault with Lakdawala's analysis - his lines seem thorough, and he retains a practical touch that emphasizes the playability of the position. For weekend tournament players, this is a huge boon - one downside to an author such as Avrukh is that he focuses solely on the theoretical standing of a line and not whether it can be played for a win. All of Lakdawala's lines have plenty of life which can be translated into wins, which is all that matters for weekend Swiss warriors.The only little quibble I have with Lakdawala is his writing style. I've disagreed with this style far more vehemently on other occasions - vehemently enough to earn a tongue lashing from Jeremy Silman. Reading a Lakdawala book is like reading no other book - there are lots of metaphors. Lots. Maybe a bit too many :P I will say that he has reined himself in quite a bit since he published his Kramnik book, and it's a huge improvement. I didn't have any moments of eye rolling as I have had in the past - this book is too good to be defeated by writing style.

Good book to get theory from for the opening.

I play B6 a lot and have many books on this opening. I enjoy it for its shock value, and for taking my opponent out of memorized lines. I play this opening in rapid chess tournaments as my main defense against most of whites openings and I have had great success with it. While 1...B6 is not considered a great defense at the grandmaster level, at lower levels many are not booked up on this opening and it ends up being a great defense. This book is excellent for someone looking to take up the opening, I would recommend this as your second book and not your first book when first learning this opening. The reason is the book winning with the english defese (the b6 defense) by Andrew Soltis is a good primer on the opening and once you have gone through that book, then this book should be next. This book will discuss games that have been played and describe the reason for each move. It will explain why a certain candidate move is bad, why another is better, where to focus your forces where to look out for counter attack, and what your position should look like. The book is well written and has many question and answer format as well. For example after 1e4 b6 2nc3 Bb7 the book will ask you a question on why the "natural" move Nc3 is bad. As you read the answer you find out that the move allows black to set up a nasty pin and a potential trap.So as you play through the games you will learn a lot at each step of the opening. This is an excellent book. Again I would use this as my second book to study, if I was learning it for the first time. And the every man version as the third book to study. The reason is Soltis book on the opening is a small book but gives you the main candidate replies and moves, you can finish the book in a week or less and have a good idea of the common replies. Envetually you want to learn the reason for the moves and this is where this book works well, you will play through games have the moves explained. Finally when you are done with this book I would move on to everyman chess book on the opening, Play B6 (the one written by Christian Bauer) the last book has a great deal of subvariations that you want to learn after you have the core of the opening down.

great item

Le livre est très bien structuré, avec question et réponse tout au Long des parties, c'est très éducatif et plaisant.