Winning With the Kan (Batsford Chess Library)

Rating:
Summary: you can find it cheaper now
Review: i would agree with the reviewer above about the price, but this book can be found used now and for 12-15$......well, the first two chapters alone are worth that if you play the kan. there are newer books out now, but those first two chapts will pay dividends for anyone who plays the kan (and some other hedgehoggish positions) (forget subas book on the hedgehog and look no further). mortazavi provides some of the clearest strategic instruction on how to play those positions that i have ever seen. i highly recommend it

....actually i highly recommend mortazavi work on a new one with gambit press......if anyone is listenting....really someone needs to write a set on taimanov-kan and scheveningen....make it a repetoire book if you need to cut down on pages :)

Rating:
Summary: This would be a fine book at a (much) lower price
Review: It is too bad that one cannot assign stars in two categories; content and value. Winning With the Kan would be worth three to four stars based upon its content, but at $22 it is too pricey. At 141 pages and 32 annotated games, WWTK does not compare to most other opening guides. Gary Lane's Beating the French ($16.95), for instance, weighs in at 160 pages and 44 games and Murray Chandler's The Complete c3 Sicilian ($22.50) has 232 pages of text and 70 deeply annotated games. Aside from the price, this is not a bad little book. It influenced me enough to take up this flexible line. Certain variations of the Kan may not be rugged enough for use at the very highest levels of chess (2700+), but for the rest of us patzers, the Kan (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 a6) can be a workhorse. Mortazavi does a nice job of covering the ideas behind the opening moves with several game fragments that show both what to do and what not to do. He does less well at showing the head-spinn! ing transpositional qualities of this opening, especially Sheveningen set-ups and the idea of 6 g3 and Bg2 for White. If your Pelikan, Najdorf or Four Knights is taking a beating and you don't mind Maroczy Bind/Taimanov formations, take a look at this book -- but try to find it at a reduced price!