I have returned to my book from a few years ago, to an opening that at the time was a rare guest among books as a topic – and not only among books, but also in tournament practice. In the intervening years it has become very popular to use this old and somewhat forgotten method of playing and I have found lots of interesting new games.
This time though I have focused mainly on Colle-Zukertort type positions, plus some transpositions to Queen’s Indian-type play, so this is not a repertoire book like the previous one, but rather you can look at it as an opening book. Of course, Slav reactions with …c6 are covered as well, and also early and quick …c5 and …g6 reactions. Due to increased popularity, I have dived into specifics which we can consider now as a renaissance of this old line.
Another important thing, and it is indeed an especially important detail, is the organization of material into logical sections, because this system is often transpositional. Therefore, it is important to do this because reading this book should be an easy and joyful experience.
There are positions in this book that have stood the test of time, but I have also focused on the most recent ideas as I didn’t want to simply repeat the same ideas as before – I wanted to include as much as possible new plans. I also tested these ideas numerous times in my own practice.
So, what you have here is a completely redesigned and modernized system compared to only a few years ago, when this system was virtually forgotten. One very important thing to have in mind is that chapters 1 to 4 start with the following move order so that readers can more easily assimilate follow-up material: 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. Bd3 From here you will find a further branch in the following chapters.
Milos Pavlovic,
September 2024
