The Slav

Rating:
Summary: Explanations thin, layout hard to reference
Review: .
There is too much grade inflation in these Amazon review ratings of chess books, with most getting the maximum 5 stars. 3 stars means average. What does this book have to earn being rated better than other opening books?: nothing.

The moves recommended in this book are fine. But any opening book would achieve that. To be above average, an opening book must explain the ideas and effects of every pre-middlegame move. Burgess' explanations are thin and minimal. Most other opening books have at least this much explanation, though frustratingly few make the effort to give more. Only a textless Informant would have sparser explanations.

Example 1: "5...Bf5!? 6 Qb3 Nxd5 may well be an interesting alternative, but there's no need for this"

Other examples include lines being assessed a simply "pleasant" or "unpleasant" for Black: gotta love that deep middlegame forethought.

Example 2: "b23) 8...e6 9 g4 (9 Qb3 should probably be preferred, even though 9... Nxe5 10 dxe5 Nd7 11 Qxb7 Rb8 12 Qxa6 Rxb2 looks satisfactory for Black)"

Example 3 (showing this book at its rare best, explanatory text writing about 4...a6 at the beginning of a chapter, -- means text bypassed): "This little move has several ideas. Most obviously, Black prepares ...b5, which grabs some space and also forces White to act on the queenside, which often stabilizes that part of the board, or else give Black counterplay. Black also prepares to develop his queen's bishop, since after ...a6 (and possibly ...b5), White's attack on b7 (by Qb3) has less sting. -- Also, by waiting for a move, Black makes it easier for him to determine where to put his queen's bishop: if White plays e3, then ...Bg4 -- One further point is that Black's idea of ...dxc4 is now slightly more of a threat --".

Another reviewer wrote this book gave him a good post-opening position against a GM, but that he proceeded to lose due to flawed middlegame moves. A good opening book discusses the relationship between its particular opening and the middlegame themes likely to arise. This book lacks such depth of discussion, and thus seems terribly average to me.

This book's layout makes it hard/time consuming to find a specific variation. Reading through long pages of text looking for section "f22)" or "b)223" is ridiculous. Scientists and accountants would do not present their data this way, for good reason. Tables of variations are the clearest way to index and organize variations. Plus there are numerous unnumbered variations in the textual analysis - good luck referencing those. Tables and text are not in conflict, they compliment each other.
There is a clunky Index of Variations in the back of the book. But it is incomplete at merely 1 sheet in size, and its layout is a tedious eyesore. It is a poor substitute for proper tables.

Opening books do best when they focus on playing just White or Black. When I am playing as Black in a given position, I do not need 6 moves to choose from, when 2-3 are clearly better than the other 3-4 alternatives. Covering 6 just adds noise when studying to play as Black, and takes space and depth from other discussions.

This book says nothing about the endgames likely to arise from the Slav. No full games are given, so no relationships between the opening and ending are traced or discussed. Nor does this book have any organization around the stable pawn structures likely to arise in the Slav.

Rating:
Summary: Explanations thin, layout hard to reference
Review: .
There is too much grade inflation in these Amazon review ratings of chess books, with most getting the maximum 5 stars. 3 stars means average. What does this book have to earn being rated better than other opening books?: nothing.

The moves recommended in this book are fine. But any opening book would achieve that. To be above average, an opening book must explain the ideas and effects of every pre-middlegame move. Burgess' explanations are thin and minimal. Most other opening books have at least this much explanation, though frustratingly few make the effort to give more. Only a textless Informant would have sparser explanations.

Example 1: "5...Bf5!? 6 Qb3 Nxd5 may well be an interesting alternative, but there's no need for this"

Other examples include lines being assessed a simply "pleasant" or "unpleasant" for Black: gotta love that deep middlegame forethought.

Example 2: "b23) 8...e6 9 g4 (9 Qb3 should probably be preferred, even though 9... Nxe5 10 dxe5 Nd7 11 Qxb7 Rb8 12 Qxa6 Rxb2 looks satisfactory for Black)"

Example 3 (showing this book at its rare best, explanatory text writing about 4...a6 at the beginning of a chapter, -- means text bypassed): "This little move has several ideas. Most obviously, Black prepares ...b5, which grabs some space and also forces White to act on the queenside, which often stabilizes that part of the board, or else give Black counterplay. Black also prepares to develop his queen's bishop, since after ...a6 (and possibly ...b5), White's attack on b7 (by Qb3) has less sting. -- Also, by waiting for a move, Black makes it easier for him to determine where to put his queen's bishop: if White plays e3, then ...Bg4 -- One further point is that Black's idea of ...dxc4 is now slightly more of a threat --".

Another reviewer wrote this book gave him a good post-opening position against a GM, but that he proceeded to lose due to flawed middlegame moves. A good opening book discusses the relationship between its particular opening and the middlegame themes likely to arise. This book lacks such depth of discussion, and thus seems terribly average to me.

This book's layout makes it hard/time consuming to find a specific variation. Reading through long pages of text looking for section "f22)" or "b)223" is ridiculous. Scientists and accountants would do not present their data this way, for good reason. Tables of variations are the clearest way to index and organize variations. Plus there are numerous unnumbered variations in the textual analysis - good luck referencing those. Tables and text are not in conflict, they compliment each other.
There is a clunky Index of Variations in the back of the book. But it is incomplete at merely 1 sheet in size, and its layout is a tedious eyesore. It is a poor substitute for proper tables.

Opening books do best when they focus on playing just White or Black. When I am playing as Black in a given position, I do not need 6 moves to choose from, when 2-3 are clearly better than the other 3-4 alternatives. Covering 6 just adds noise when studying to play as Black, and takes space and depth from other discussions.

This book says nothing about the endgames likely to arise from the Slav. No full games are given, so no relationships between the opening and ending are traced or discussed. Nor does this book have any organization around the stable pawn structures likely to arise in the Slav.

Rating:
Summary: OK for a reference book. Not a good first book on the Slav.
Review: I been playing the Slav for a couple of years and have worked through Matthew Sadler's excellent book. I purchased this book to continue my studies. I find that it is not well laid out. Actually, if you are trying to learn to play the Slav, the introduction is the best part of the book. I have been able to pick through and study-up on the lines I try to play, but this is more of a reference book, not a text book on the Slav. If you are trying to learn the opening, buy Sadler's book. If you already know what you are doing and just want to go deeper into some variations, (notably the exchange variation and the ...a6 Slav) then you might get some use out of the book. Otherwise, your money is better spent elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: A Good, Reliable Opening
Review: I like this book. The material is pretty up-to-date. Of course, the Slav can get kind of boring if White is unambitious; therefore, some people avoid it as Black. Nevertheless, it is as solid a defense to 1.d4 as one can imagine. It's great to play against stronger opponents, or if you don't mind the drawishness of the Exchange variation.

The author is reliable and a credit to the good name of Gambit Books.

Rating:
Summary: Really recomended for everyone.
Review: I started playing the Salv with this book one month ago and my results are getting better and better. The book covers the classical line 4.- ...-a6 and the variation is very intersting. I have been playing this variation in chess blitz and the results are very good. Since the book is brand new then you can surprise some good elements and achive psycological advantage since the first moves, one off those advantages is 4...-a6. Get this book and see how easy is to learn this opening. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Opening books don't come much better than this one
Review: This is a dense but quite easy to read opening guide with very high quality. And the opening that it covers is one of the more interesting and versatile openings there is.

The book strikes a good balance between analysis and verbal descrption. It is useful to any player, although I do recommend Matthew Sadler's Slav book for the <1800 player as the first introduction to this opening.

The first black Slav game I played after studying this book was against a Grandmaster who is rated 400 Elo higher than myself. I equalised from the opening, and soon even reached an advantageous middle game (according to my own and Fritz' analysis). I attribute this to the quality of organisation of material in this book, which makes the lines and ideas easy to remember.

BTW, I lost the game against the GM. That should tell you that middlegame study will improve your play much more than opening study.