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Rating: 
Summary: I paid how much for that?!
Review: I have been looking for a good book on the Qh4 line of scotch opening for sometime now. It is certainly a wild choice for black! This book does a good job on spending time on each variation (Horwitz, Modern, Fraser, Qd3), but it does not explain them very well. The book gives the variation, a short explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of the move and then shows a game or two with that line. A great improvement of the book would be more explaination of the variations.Good values of the book: 1. A good number of diagrams for the line in discussion (a few more would be perfect). 2. All of the white and black choices covered. 3. Good for advanced players who want an indepth study of the Qh4 line. Bad points of the book: 1. The organization of the book is alittle awkward. (But understandably so due to the many variations) 2. The "covered" choices are not explained indepth ie( consequences, strengths) 3. Not good for inexperienced players. 4. Very expensive for what you get. This book certainly does cover the Qh4 line better than "The scotch game" by Peter Wells, who practically dismisses the move. In general, this book is only "ok". It could be improved on, and the price is too high. My opinion is, if you want to study the Qh4 line and are not on a tight budget, then buy this book because it is practically the only book on it.
Rating: 
Summary: The best there is on this line
Review: I have to disagree somewhat with the other review of this book. I agree that it is a bit pricey but it is also available at lower prices. Consider that the Scotch isn't that popular and combine that with the fact that 4...Qh4 is very unpopular and you have a very small sales potential for this book. Add to that that it is authored by a world class grandmaster and that it is an encyclopaedic tome of all variations that follow in this opening. Further, there is nothing else on the market that has the information contained in this book. It is hard to see how this book could be inexpensive since high volume sales is out of the question. Although the product details on this site list the book as 208 pages, it is actually 272 pages. The book itself is an exhaustive presentation of all the variations that can occur after 4...Qh4. Since this information is available nowhere else, this book is a treasure if you plan to defend with black or play against it with white. A couple of observations: The defense is quite seductive because it seems to give black the advantage in all but two of white's responses. It's fun to whip the Queen out to h4 and threaten the pawn at e4 and in fact white allows you to play Qxe4 in many of white's approaches to this defense. 5 Nc3 seems to be about equal. The problem for black is that 5 Nb5 is so strong for white. White can easily let black play Qxe4+, develop a piece defending the check and force black to play Kd8 to defend against Nxc7+. White is down a pawn but black has his king in the middle and his rook on a8 with dim prospects of entering the game. In my database, white wins about 70% of these games. To be fair, there are better ways for black to play than Qxe4+ in the Nb5 variation but the Nxc7+ threat is cramping and makes for an unpleasant game for black. In the end, Gutman finds drawing chances in even the most difficult lines of this very complex defense. This book is obviously not intended for the inexperienced player, it is for someone who is seriously working on their opening and is at the point where they are working on small parts of an overall plan. I feel that the short assessments of the variations provided by Gutman are sufficient and anyway the sort of explanation that would be required for beginning chessplayers would expand the size of this book to 600 pages or so. For someone committed to playing the Scotch as white, I think this book is a must. Most Scotch sources just gloss over the Steinitz variation and the variation can be very dangerous (it scores nearly 50% overall in my database). Much of the old published analysis is faulty. Gutman's 2001 book is the last best word. If you decide to play 4...Qh4 as Black you need this book. Gutman has been playing this defense in correspondence games and has included some (all?) of that information in the book. For awhile I have been playing the Nimzowitsch defense (1 e4 Nc6)and after the fairly common 2. d4 e5, if I face the fairly uncommon 3. Nf3 (dxe5 and d5 being by far the most common) , when I have nothing better than 3...exd4, transposing into the Scotch after 4. Nxd4. So I needed a defense to the Scotch. Someone whose opinion I respect suggested looking into the Steinitz. I have now done that. My conclusion: For my purposes it is too much material to try to learn for a variation I don't meet that often and playing against 5Nb5 is no fun. I opted for 4 Bb4+. This is a well organized, nicely produced book that delivers exactly what you should be expecting in a large book devoted to an obscure variation. If it fits your needs, a strong buy recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: The best there is on this line
Review: I have to disagree somewhat with the other review of this book. I agree that it is a bit pricey but it is also available at lower prices. Consider that the Scotch isn't that popular and combine that with the fact that 4...Qh4 is very unpopular and you have a very small sales potential for this book. Add to that that it is authored by a world class grandmaster and that it is an encyclopaedic tome of all variations that follow in this opening. Further, there is nothing else on the market that has the information contained in this book. It is hard to see how this book could be inexpensive since high volume sales is out of the question. Although the product details on this site list the book as 208 pages, it is actually 272 pages. The book itself is an exhaustive presentation of all the variations that can occur after 4...Qh4. Since this information is available nowhere else, this book is a treasure if you plan to defend with black or play against it with white. A couple of observations: The defense is quite seductive because it seems to give black the advantage in all but two of white's responses. It's fun to whip the Queen out to h4 and threaten the pawn at e4 and in fact white allows you to play Qxe4 in many of white's approaches to this defense. 5 Nc3 seems to be about equal. The problem for black is that 5 Nb5 is so strong for white. White can easily let black play Qxe4+, develop a piece defending the check and force black to play Kd8 to defend against Nxc7+. White is down a pawn but black has his king in the middle and his rook on a8 with dim prospects of entering the game. In my database, white wins about 70% of these games. To be fair, there are better ways for black to play than Qxe4+ in the Nb5 variation but the Nxc7+ threat is cramping and makes for an unpleasant game for black. In the end, Gutman finds drawing chances in even the most difficult lines of this very complex defense. This book is obviously not intended for the inexperienced player, it is for someone who is seriously working on their opening and is at the point where they are working on small parts of an overall plan. I feel that the short assessments of the variations provided by Gutman are sufficient and anyway the sort of explanation that would be required for beginning chessplayers would expand the size of this book to 600 pages or so. For someone committed to playing the Scotch as white, I think this book is a must. Most Scotch sources just gloss over the Steinitz variation and the variation can be very dangerous (it scores nearly 50% overall in my database). Much of the old published analysis is faulty. Gutman's 2001 book is the last best word. If you decide to play 4...Qh4 as Black you need this book. Gutman has been playing this defense in correspondence games and has included some (all?) of that information in the book. For awhile I have been playing the Nimzowitsch defense (1 e4 Nc6)and after the fairly common 2. d4 e5, if I face the fairly uncommon 3. Nf3 (dxe5 and d5 being by far the most common) , when I have nothing better than 3...exd4, transposing into the Scotch after 4. Nxd4. So I needed a defense to the Scotch. Someone whose opinion I respect suggested looking into the Steinitz. I have now done that. My conclusion: For my purposes it is too much material to try to learn for a variation I don't meet that often and playing against 5Nb5 is no fun. I opted for 4 Bb4+. This is a well organized, nicely produced book that delivers exactly what you should be expecting in a large book devoted to an obscure variation. If it fits your needs, a strong buy recommendation.
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