Bibliography

This page provides a list of useful books relating to particular topics discussed on this website, along with some hopefully useful commentary on them.

1 Nf3 Repertoire

In my 1 Nf3 Repertoire series of posts, I discussed how to create a repertoire based on the move 1 Nf3 that exploits to the full the possibilities offered by the move (see this post for an overview). This section contains the books I have found most useful in working out such a repertoire.

The primary resource for building a repertoire based on 1 Nf3 is Alexander Khalifman’s series of books “Opening for White according to Kramnik”. This set out a repertoire based on Vladimir Kramnik’s treatment of 1 Nf3, and mostly sticks to the systems that Kramnik himself has employed.

The first edition of the series consisted of the following five volumes:

• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 1 (Chess Stars 2000). This deals with the King’s Indian (Classical), Anti-Gruenfeld, and Old Indian.
• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 2 (Chess Stars 2001). This deals with the Anti-Nimzo-Indian, Anti-Queen’s Indian, Hedgehog, Double Fianchetto, Symmetrical English without …Nc6, Symmetrical English with …Nc6, and Black Knight’s Tango.
• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 3 (Chess Stars 2001). This deals with the Maroczy Bind, Symmetrical English via 1…c5, Modern, Dutch, and miscellaneous systems.
• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 4 (Chess Stars 2002). This deals with the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Slav, Semi-Slav, and miscellaneous lines of the Queen’s Gambit.
• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 5 (Chess Stars 2002). This deals with the Queen’s Gambit Declined.

The second edition of the series is still being published. The volumes that have been published so far are:

• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 1a (Chess Stars 2006). This deals with the Old Indian, Anti-Gruenfeld, and the less important King’s Indian (Classical) lines.
• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 1b (Chess Stars 2006). This deals with the more important King’s Indian (Classical) lines.
• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 2 (Chess Stars 2008). This deals with the Black Knight’s Tango, Romanishin System, Anti-Queen’s Indian, Hedgehog, Double Fianchetto, Symmetrical English without …Nc6, and Semi-Tarrasch with g3.
• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 3 (Chess Stars 2011). Symmetrical English with …Nc6, and Symmetrical English via 1…c5.
• Khalifman, Alexander. Opening for White according to Kramnik – Book 4 (Chess Stars 2011). Maroczy Bind, Modern Defence (1…g6) and Wade Defence (1..d6).

The second edition generally supersedes the coverage in the first. However, there are a couple of places that Khalifman has (or will) analyse different systems, so the first edition may still be of interest for some systems. These changes are:

• Khalifman has switched from advocating the Queen’s Gambit to the Catalan Opening. The coverage in book 5 of the first edition will therefore be completely replaced in the equivalent volume in the second edition.
• As a consequence of this, he now advocates 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 g3 rather than 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3. Therefore, the section in book 2 of the first edition that covers 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 (and others) is still of interest for people who opt for an approach based on the Queen’s Gambit.
• Khalifman has switched from 1 Nf3 c5 2 c4 Nc6 3 d4 to 1 Nf3 c5 2 c4 Nc6 3 Nc3. Book 3 of the first edition contains coverage of 1 Nf3 c5 2 c4 Nc6 3 d4.
• Khalifman has switched from 1 Nf3 g6 2 c4 to 1 Nf3 g6 2 e4. Apparently he now believes that 1 Nf3 g6 2 c4 Bg7 3 e4 e5 is fine for Black.

The other main series advocating 1 Nf3 for White in this style is “Wojo’s Weapons”, by Jonathan Hilton and Dean Ippolito. This repertoire is based on the systems employed by the late Alexander Wojtkiewicz (“Wojo”). As he was grandmaster who played in many open tournaments, his openings were much more geared towards the practicalities of scoring heavily against weaker opposition, than the purist approach of Kramnik. As a result, it offers some useful alternative systems that may be more attractive to many players.

Two volumes have been published in this series so far:

• Hilton,Jonathan and Ippolito,Dean. Wojo’s Weapons – Winning with White: Volume 1 (Mongoose Press 2010). This deals with the Catalan Opening, and the Queen’s Gambit.
• Hilton,Jonathan and Ippolito,Dean. Wojo’s Weapons – Winning with White: Volume 2 (Mongoose Press 2011). This deals with the King’s Indian (Fianchetto).

As White quite often transposes to 1 d4 openings following 1 Nf3, there are a number of books that deal with these 1 d4 openings that are as a result useful.

For instance, Boris Avrukh wrote a two volume series “Grandmaster Repertoire 1 d4″, which contains coverage of a number of series that might be reached via 1 Nf3:

• Avrukh,Boris. Grandmaster Repertoire 1: 1.d4 Volume One (Quality Chess 2008). This contains coverage of the Catalan Opening and Queen’s Gambit that is largely compatible with 1 Nf3.
• Avrukh,Boris. Grandmaster Repertoire 2: 1.d4 Volume Two (Quality Chess 2010). This is more of a mixed bag for the 1 Nf3 practitioner. The coverage of the Dutch Defence and the King’s Indian (Fianchetto) is definitely useful.

The following other 1 d4 books may also be useful:

• Cox,John. Starting Out: 1 d4 (Everyman Chess 2006). The coverage of the King’s Indian (Classical), Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Slav, and Semi-Slav is of interest.