The Grunfeld Defence (Everyman Chess)

Rating:
Summary: A book for strong and experieced players
Review: I like very much opening books by Everyman, because they give an idea of the middlegames arising in a particular opening. On the other hand, these books have too little pages and sometimes don't succeed in covering all the necessary lines, especially if they want to cover a whole opening. This is particularly true with this book, that simply doesn't give enough information about some variations that are important at club level. For example, only 14 pages are devoted to the 7.Bc4 variation and 13 to the Bf4 systems, which are, according to my personal experience, the main lines in tournaments below rating 1900.
Much of the space is given to the Russian System (quite the same that is devoted to ALL the lines of the Exchange Var.!), with many variations suggested to the Black side (that makes me think that this book is written mainly for White, as it gives black alternatives). In conclusion I think it is a little bit unbalanced.

About the contents there's nothing to say: the material is of high quality and the author is very good (I strongly reccommend his other book The Alekhine Defence). However, this book can't be recommanded for players who want to play the Grunfeld Defence as Black for the first time: they should look for other good books (the best choice is Understanding the Grunfeld by Rowson, and the classic book is the one by Adorian). Players above 1900 and/or players that have been playing the GD for a long time ,instead, can get very useful information (especially for the Russian System), as the comments are very well written, the games are relevant, and last but not least because experienced players know exacltly what they have to look for and don't get confused by the author's strange choice of the chapters.

Rating:
Summary: Nigel Davies: Please! stop writing opening books!
Review: lets summarize the technique:

-get all the grunfeld books
-review the main lines and what kasparov and kramnik are playing
-make few conclusive or thoughtful statements
-when you do make a statement, give very vague varaiations so people are left wondering, did he really think this was okay or did he miss this move?

specific variations: 7.bc4 in the exchange variation after 7...c5 8.ne2 nc6 9.be3 0-0 davies forgets 10.Rc1 and only lists 10.0-0 for white, not even mentioning the h4 idea.

I could list probably five more without thinking, but its not worth the time.

It may be the newest book, but dont bother, get rowsons book, he at least thinks before he writes.



Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: There are three Grunfeld books worth owning- this book, Winning with the Grunfeld (1987) and Lalic's Grunfeld for the Attacking Player. Davies book has 73 complete annotated games mostly from the past few years, including eight of Kasparov's recent games.