Modern Defence

Rating:
Summary: best book on the modern in print!!!
Review: a great job on the the modern defense, not just reams of analysis. the authors are interested in teaching the nuances of the modern with the importance of move order in attaining a viable position. not just wins for black either, you feel as if this is an objective treatment of the modern, different than a lot of others where black has no problems. highly recommended!!!

Rating:
Summary: Indirect aproach and a diferent strategy.
Review: After reading the other comments on this book i can conclude some things regarding the taste of several players.
As a veteran in tournaments i learned to appriciate the factor of psicology, you get that when you surprise your enemy or when after several weird moves that look bad then you get to a better position or to a equal position. The advantage of the modern defence in this area is that is completly weird and very positional and if white dosent know how to establish a good plan the initiative will be all yours. Remember somehting: this defence is not a very popular defence, not to much people plays it and most of the time white will just develop without knowing what the black is doing. If you are a hard line sicilian then you will find these opening a little boering but if you like positional and strategic positions and the psicologic advantage buy this book, read it, think of it and even if you dont like the defence you will enjoy several good strategic games.
I am a 1800, and recently with this opening i got a +2-0=1 in my last tournamet, one of the victories was aginst a Fide Master that just didnt know how to confront the accelereted Gudernidze and it was pure psicology since the first moves.
I do recomend this book to the Liddle Hart Chess fans, also read a military book that is called "Strategy" and learn about the indirect aproach so you will get a better idea of the modern defence. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent opening, excellent book, all you need as black
Review: Believe it or not but there is a single opening that allows you to meet, E4, D4 C4 or virtually anything else that can be thrown at you. Yes its the Modern, why its not a lot more popular escapes me perhaps its because you have to play a passive first 7 to 10 moves. Maybe it falls in the gap of knowledge that you need to understand when to counterattack, which comes only with experience. The Co-author Jon Speelman was a world championship semi finalist and continues to be one of England's best GMs. There are 51 full games, players include Gulko, Anand, Petrosian, Yusupov, Gurevich, Polgar, Shirov all top class players. The Modern is full of ideas and easy to learn but I suspect hard to master at the highest levels. At the GM level you want an aggressive attacking opening with deep lines that allow you to introduce an innovation on move 18 and ambush your opponent! Opening books fall into two categories, lots of full games and limited variations or partial games and a mass of variations. This book follows the first approach, which is why you should use MCO or NCO as well to flesh out the variations. Better still use "Winning with the Modern first" or jointly (Like I did). Key variation is 3) , c6 this avoids the Austrian attack (With all its theory) and still retains excellent chances. What this book delivers is a master strength opening that will allow you to perform 100 Elo points above you rating if playing someone who does not know how to meet the Modern. At the very least you will be in an opening that you will be more familiar with than your opponent. At the higher levels there are more popular openings but in terms of maximizing your time this book will give you a solid opening with the minimum effort. Book quality is excellent as is lay out, most pages have two diagrams per page. In my opinion the book as a games collection is worth the price especially if you are paying $6.99. A little bit about myself, I am returning back to chess after a long lay off, three of the guys from college that I used to beat very easily are now Fide Masters so I figure that once I am booked up I should by at the IM level shortly. 4 Stars as I feel you need to use MCO to fully implement your knowledge from this book.

Rating:
Summary: Roman the bad opening buster returns
Review: The book would be okay if it had the antedote to the line: e4 g6 d4 bg7 nc3 c6 nf3 d5 e5 because after h5 which they reccomend, white justs gets the advantage. They call it the main-line, but they dont have any original analysis of how to neaturalize white's inititive. IF you play for the tournament its fine, but for correspondence chess, you'll just be lead to a bad position.

Rating:
Summary: modern defense
Review: This book would be alot better if it had detailed analysis.Like most books today,it presents the opening thru games.Unlike pirc alert by lev alburt which presents games pluss they why's and why not's.

Rating:
Summary: Nice book!
Review: What a boon to players of the Modern, to have this excellent collection of modern annotated games by wuch gifted writers as Speelman and McDonald. This is a most welcome addition to my "Modern" library, which includes the two works by Stephen Gerzadowicz, Winning with the Modern by Norwood, and Chee Master Meets Chess Amateur, also by Norwood. I am well-equipped to play my favorite opening, and it is one that I will be able to play as black probably 80% of my games!

Rating:
Summary: Nice book!
Review: What a boon to players of the Modern, to have this excellent collection of modern annotated games by wuch gifted writers as Speelman and McDonald. This is a most welcome addition to my "Modern" library, which includes the two works by Stephen Gerzadowicz, Winning with the Modern by Norwood, and Chee Master Meets Chess Amateur, also by Norwood. I am well-equipped to play my favorite opening, and it is one that I will be able to play as black probably 80% of my games!