The Modern (Robatsch) Defense

books:

	• Winning With the Modern (Batsford Chess Library) David Norwood Henry Holt & Co (P), 1994 - 145 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews
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Essential!

Norwood has written a treatise on how to play the Modern that is like an "insider's" guide. He know this opening, its ups and downs (and sideways). Even though it is called "Winning with," it is written objectively. In fact, it starts out with several lengthy chess quotes about he weakness of the king's finachetto. He tells you what to look out for, and teaches you the ideas and strategies for the most common lines. He discusses many important themes: transpositions, counterattack, restraint, and many others. This book has a nice index and is very well written. It is a gripping account of this wonderful defence. I have been so pleased since I tracked down and bought this book.

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The Modern (Robatsch) Defense

Provides a wealth of insight into one of the more off-beat schemes of defense for the Black pieces. The system features the moves g6, Bg7, and c6 or d6 for Black, is easy to learn, especially for kids, because the same basic moves can be played by Black against almost any opening played by White. My 8 yr-old son's USCF rating has climbed from 500 to almost 1000 in just 4 months using this system. In my view, it is for Black what such straight-forward openings like the Colle are to White.

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An unappreciated gem

David Norwood lives and breathes the Modern, and it comes through in this wonderful and highly unappreciated book. Norwood is a great writer, and better yet, he is cool. Not goofy cool, or "wow, isn't chess amazing" cool. Just cool. He gets it, and he knows how to teach it and how to express it. I love all of his works, and am sure that there are many chess fans out there who would love this book if they could only see it. There are lengthy explanations of the ideas behind the Modern, viewpoints of it, pro and con (for instance he quotes at length from a work of Akiba Rubinstein (1926) explaining why finachetto openings are not good.) I have never seen this type of frankness in a book like this. He really explains it well, and then shows how things work in many of his own games. If you like the Modern or the Pirc, you NEED this book, even if you already have Pirc Alert, Modern Defence (McDonald, Speelman), etc. This one is really great.

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