The Slav (Queen's Gambit)

A ‘Remastered’ Edition of a Standard Opening Text

“As with many other of Burgess’s efforts, this one will surely become the leading source on the opening.” - IM John Watson, The Week in Chess

One of the main replies to the Queen’s Gambit, the Slav has been played by 14 of the 16 World Champions, and is often used by the stars of modern chess, including Caruana, Aronian, Shirov, Ivanchuk and Morozevich. Its great popularity is due to its extreme solidity and abundant possibilities for dynamic counterplay.

This book provides detailed coverage to help players as both White and Black face the challenges of this tough yet rewarding opening. All lines after 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 are discussed, except those that transpose to the Semi-Slav.

The sharpest tactical lines of the Slav receive especially detailed coverage. These include the critical piece sacrifice in the main line (5...Bf5 6 Ne5 e6 7 f3 Bb4 8 e4 Bxe4), the Steiner line (5...Bg4) with 6 Ne5 Bh5 7 h3, and the possibly dubious but highly dangerous Geller Gambit (5 e4), which was a favourite of the young Kasparov. The trendy ...a6 lines are also covered systematically for the first time in chess literature.

This ‘remastered’ 2022 edition has been systematically rechecked and features hundreds of revisions to the analysis, in addition to brief summaries of the current theory in a number of especially topical variations. There are also vastly more diagrams than in the original edition.

Graham Burgess holds the world record for marathon blitz chess-playing. He is a highly versatile chess writer, whose previous books range from general guides for relatively inexperienced players to high-level theoretical manuals. His Mammoth Book of Chess (now in its fourth edition and available on Gambit’s Chess Studio app) won the 1997 British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award, while Nunn’s Chess Openings, of which he is a co-author, established itself as the leading modern one-volume openings encyclopaedia. He won the Val Thorens international tournament in 1988 and is a former champion of the Danish region of Funen. Nowadays he lives in Minnesota, USA.



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