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Chess Explained: The French
Two experts explain the workings of a profound opening complex.
"...the authors clearly know their subject and, as you would expect from Eingorn, have an eye for the slightly unusual moves that might improve upon the main games and keep the variations alive for both sides. They also have a healthy respect for White's strengths in the French, and show them in detail." - IM John Watson, TWIC
Chess Explained books provide an understanding of an opening and the middlegames to which it leads, enabling you to find the right moves and plans in your own games. It is as if you were sitting at the board with a chess coach answering your questions about the plans for both sides, the ideas behind particular moves, and what specific knowledge you need to have.
The French Defence is one of the most important chess openings. Its qualities are such that it appeals to a wide range of chess temperaments: it is solid yet uncompromising, and with a variety of chaotic variations to appeal to the most bloodthirsty of players, but also offering more tranquil lines to those seeking a quieter existence. While it is hard for White to avoid at least some imbalance in the position, he also has a wide choice. In some of the most critical lines, he accepts major structural weaknesses in return for piece-play and dynamic chances, while he can also seek to establish a modest space advantage without such heavy positional commitments.
"…if you are considering utilizing the French as a weapon against 1 e4, then this book is a very good and inexpensive way of deciding if the opening is for you. It will give you a solid grounding in fundamental positional ideas and typical tactics in the French." - Munroe Morrison, Open File
Viacheslav Eingorn is an extremely experienced grandmaster from Ukraine. He played regularly and successfully in the Top League of the USSR Championship in the 1980s. International Master Valentin Bogdanov has over thirty years' experience as a chess trainer, and is also from Ukraine. His pupils include Moskalenko, Savchenko and Drozdovsky, and he has acted as a second for Eingorn since the late 1970s.
"Altogether we have a very instructive book on the French Defence with a unbelievable amount of instructive text!" - John Elburg, chessbooks.nl
"...the authors clearly know their subject and, as you would expect from Eingorn, have an eye for the slightly unusual moves that might improve upon the main games and keep the variations alive for both sides. They also have a healthy respect for White's strengths in the French, and show them in detail." - IM John Watson, TWIC
Chess Explained books provide an understanding of an opening and the middlegames to which it leads, enabling you to find the right moves and plans in your own games. It is as if you were sitting at the board with a chess coach answering your questions about the plans for both sides, the ideas behind particular moves, and what specific knowledge you need to have.
The French Defence is one of the most important chess openings. Its qualities are such that it appeals to a wide range of chess temperaments: it is solid yet uncompromising, and with a variety of chaotic variations to appeal to the most bloodthirsty of players, but also offering more tranquil lines to those seeking a quieter existence. While it is hard for White to avoid at least some imbalance in the position, he also has a wide choice. In some of the most critical lines, he accepts major structural weaknesses in return for piece-play and dynamic chances, while he can also seek to establish a modest space advantage without such heavy positional commitments.
"…if you are considering utilizing the French as a weapon against 1 e4, then this book is a very good and inexpensive way of deciding if the opening is for you. It will give you a solid grounding in fundamental positional ideas and typical tactics in the French." - Munroe Morrison, Open File
Viacheslav Eingorn is an extremely experienced grandmaster from Ukraine. He played regularly and successfully in the Top League of the USSR Championship in the 1980s. International Master Valentin Bogdanov has over thirty years' experience as a chess trainer, and is also from Ukraine. His pupils include Moskalenko, Savchenko and Drozdovsky, and he has acted as a second for Eingorn since the late 1970s.
"Altogether we have a very instructive book on the French Defence with a unbelievable amount of instructive text!" - John Elburg, chessbooks.nl
- GenresChess
389 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 26, 2008
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 12, 2014
I normally would never review a book that I didn't read in its entirety, but I'll make an exception here - I didn't go through every variation here.
I was very excited to get this book. While I'm switched openings with White and played a bunch of things against 1.d4, I have always played the French when confronted with 1.e4 I thus have a bizarre longstanding love affair with the French, one that it is totally out of proportion with the opening's effectiveness.
This book seems to market itself as somewhere between a "Starting Out..." book and a detailed monograph. It is not a repertoire book - it aims to provide a reasonable overview of the opening. This means that the authors cannot delve too deeply in any given variation. That's okay. My one-star review is thus not due to any disappointment with the book's aims.
I have two problems with the book. First, while the authors cannot provide comprehensive coverage of all the lines, there is an inexcusable number of important omissions. Most glaringly, there is no coverage whatsoever of the popular Exchange Variation. That's just crazy. I get that many people feel that the EV is too basic to bother providing detailed coverage. That's still no excuse. If Black can equalize in a trivial fashion, the popularity of the opening demands that the authors at least provide a couple of games - not necessarily well-annotated - demonstrating that fact. I can very grudgingly accept a lack of coverage of lines such as the King's Indian Attack (although Fischer himself used to use it...), but neglecting the Exchange is just way too much. Less glaring but disappointing omissions of other important sub-variations are present throughout the text.
The second problem is that the annotations veer dangerously close to being a database dump much of the time. Again, I know that this isn't a "Starting Out" book. Maybe the authors thought that being too verbose would be unnecessary given their target audience. But all too often the authors say something like "White can also play...", follow it up with a 14-ply variation, and give no assessment whatsoever at the end of the line. Well, great, I'm sure White can play that. So what? All too often I didn't understand (a) who was better, (b) what the plans were, and (c) in the event that one player was clearly better, where the opponent went wrong. Sure, I could try to figure all this out on my own, but that defeats the purpose of buying the book. I do try to figure this stuff out on my own when going over games in my database; I bought the book for instruction, not a heads-up that other lines exist. Now compare this with John Watson's excellent (repertoire) book, Play The French. (I have the 3rd edition; I assume that the 4th is just as good) PtF is not geared towards beginners; there are reams of analysis with little explanatory text. Yet Watson keeps the analysis pertinent and always clearly indicates his assessment of the position at hand. That type of approach could and should have been used here. It is possible to write a Watson-quality book that sacrifices Watson's depth for a greater deal of breadth.
All in all, this book was a big disappointment. I write things and know that criticism sucks, so I'm uncomfortable piling on, even in an anonymous review. I just don't like the book and I can't think of anyone, novice or expert, that I think would benefit from reading it. :-(
I was very excited to get this book. While I'm switched openings with White and played a bunch of things against 1.d4, I have always played the French when confronted with 1.e4 I thus have a bizarre longstanding love affair with the French, one that it is totally out of proportion with the opening's effectiveness.
This book seems to market itself as somewhere between a "Starting Out..." book and a detailed monograph. It is not a repertoire book - it aims to provide a reasonable overview of the opening. This means that the authors cannot delve too deeply in any given variation. That's okay. My one-star review is thus not due to any disappointment with the book's aims.
I have two problems with the book. First, while the authors cannot provide comprehensive coverage of all the lines, there is an inexcusable number of important omissions. Most glaringly, there is no coverage whatsoever of the popular Exchange Variation. That's just crazy. I get that many people feel that the EV is too basic to bother providing detailed coverage. That's still no excuse. If Black can equalize in a trivial fashion, the popularity of the opening demands that the authors at least provide a couple of games - not necessarily well-annotated - demonstrating that fact. I can very grudgingly accept a lack of coverage of lines such as the King's Indian Attack (although Fischer himself used to use it...), but neglecting the Exchange is just way too much. Less glaring but disappointing omissions of other important sub-variations are present throughout the text.
The second problem is that the annotations veer dangerously close to being a database dump much of the time. Again, I know that this isn't a "Starting Out" book. Maybe the authors thought that being too verbose would be unnecessary given their target audience. But all too often the authors say something like "White can also play...", follow it up with a 14-ply variation, and give no assessment whatsoever at the end of the line. Well, great, I'm sure White can play that. So what? All too often I didn't understand (a) who was better, (b) what the plans were, and (c) in the event that one player was clearly better, where the opponent went wrong. Sure, I could try to figure all this out on my own, but that defeats the purpose of buying the book. I do try to figure this stuff out on my own when going over games in my database; I bought the book for instruction, not a heads-up that other lines exist. Now compare this with John Watson's excellent (repertoire) book, Play The French. (I have the 3rd edition; I assume that the 4th is just as good) PtF is not geared towards beginners; there are reams of analysis with little explanatory text. Yet Watson keeps the analysis pertinent and always clearly indicates his assessment of the position at hand. That type of approach could and should have been used here. It is possible to write a Watson-quality book that sacrifices Watson's depth for a greater deal of breadth.
All in all, this book was a big disappointment. I write things and know that criticism sucks, so I'm uncomfortable piling on, even in an anonymous review. I just don't like the book and I can't think of anyone, novice or expert, that I think would benefit from reading it. :-(
Displaying 1 of 1 review