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Any club player looking for an opening repertoire for the Black pieces should give a long look at International Master Christoph Scheerer’s Play 1…Nc6! – and I do mean long. It’s a thick book, with a whole lot in it. A look at the contents shows that Scheerer focuses on a couple of slightly-offbeat openings, covering other attempts by White, as well: Bibliography At the grandmaster level, Nimzowitsch’s Defence, despite the play of such GMs as Miles, and Chigorin’s Defence, despite the lead taken by GM Morozovich, have remained out of the mainstream, with at least slightly suspect reputations. For the average player, however, they have the dual benefit of being both somewhat unknown and yet productive of positions that give Black many chances to play (and win) his own type of game.
Play 1…Nc6! has several qualities I prize in an opening book. First off, the author is enthusiastic about his recommendations. Not dizzy or manic, mind you - enthusiastic. He believes in the lines he presents, and he explains them well. More importantly, he plays the lines. Then he improves on them. There is an inherent integrity to the volume that you won’t find in a book titled, say, Play The Jerome Gambit! but secretly subtitled “so I can beat you the next time we meet.” The Bibliography (!) makes it clear that Scheerer has looked through the classics, and it includes relevant books, chess software and journals, as well as CDs and websites. For example, he refers to Hugh Myers’ (a long-time ND explorer, innovator and author) Nimzovich Defense Ultimate CD; and while Play 1…Nc6! came out before the author had access to The Chigorin Defence According to Morozevich he makes good use of Bronznik’s Die Tschigorin-Verteidigung and Berdichevsky & Kalinin’s Modern Chess Openings 1…Nc6!? The book is organized around 77 main annotated games (24 for the Nimzowitsch, 36 for the Chigorin, 17 for the rest), with a Summary and breakdown of lines at the end of each chapter. Everyman Chess does it’s great job of layout, with an average of a couple of diagrams per two-columned page, and good use of fonts, bolding and white space. Players new to 1…Nc6 will find enough in Play 1…Nc6! to get started immediately. Those familiar with the defences will still find plenty of surprises. Here are a few that caught me. Anyone looking for coverage of the “Bozo-Indian” line 1.d4 Nc6 will be disappointed, as Scheerer prefers to answer 1.d4 with 1…d5 and then get in the Chigorin …Nc6. (No big deal.) Followers of the Nimzowitsch Defense may be used to answering 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 with 3…Bf5, but the author recommends instead the oft-overlooked 3…f6, as played by Nimzowitsch himself. And imagine the look on your opponent’s face when he answers 1.e4 Nc6 with 2.Nf3, figuring to finesse you into regular double King pawn opening lines, only to see you play 2…Nf6!?, the author’s remedy. (Worth the price of the book, alone.) I give Play 1…Nc6! a hearty two thumbs up. If this is really Scheerer’s first book for Everyman Chess, I can’t wait to see what they’ve got him working on now. Before closing this review, I have to present a throw-away line from the Preface which has promise in and of itself:
I just might
try that, too. From the Publisher's website: Christoph Scheerer (previously Scheerer) is an International Master from Germany. He has a string of tournament successes to his name, including winning the 2001 Kiel Open, and has been a regular competitor in the exceptionally strong German Bundesliga. He’s also an experienced coach, having taught at the Internet Chess Club, the World's largest online chess facility, for six years.
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