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Andrew
Martin: The Open Ruy LopezNimzowitsch-Larsen Attack (DVD) by Nigel Davies, ChessBase, Playing time: 4 hours 40 min. $30.95 (ChessCafe Price: $24.95)
Whenever you see the name Nigel Davies attached to a chess product these days, you can expect a high level of quality on all fronts. In the case of a trainer that means objective, "just deep enough" analysis; an emphasis on ideas, and a good presentation style. Every Davies trainer I have reviewed has met these standards, and this is no exception.
Davies calls the line 1.Nf3, followed by 2.b3, the Nimzowitsch Attack; and 1.b3 the Larsen Opening. He notes that the opening complex has been "rather neglected by the theoreticians." I would believe that is because it is the type of opening that is hard to pin down in terms of "lines," but it is well-used by players who want to innovate. Larsen himself called it, as I remember from the pages of his column in Chess Life in the 1970s, the "Baby Orang-Utan."
This is an opening that is used both by attacking players (Ljubojevic, Planinc, Minasian, and Fischer) and positional players (Petrosian, Taimanov, and Bagirov), and it is a fun opening to play.
Davies shows the pluses and minuses for both sides here. It is not one of those "snake-oil" trainers where the presenter does his best to convince you that the opening is great by showing only victories for one side. I've always believed that the best approach for Black, if he wants to win, is to adopt the classic approach of occupying the center with pawns on the dark squares. However, after viewing Davies' commentary, this sort of approach, which does nothing to contest White's dark-square control, must be wrong:
And those are just a few ideas he presents with that very instructive game. Here is one of his own, a victory for the black side, where White tries to play hyper-aggressively. He provides extensive analysis of alternate lines here for White and Black. I give only brief annotations directly related to the game.
And that is just a smattering of the rich fare Davies provides. For any player who has reached the level where they have a basic positional understanding, and wants to try an opening where plans and ideas trump memorized lines, this is a phenomenal trainer.
My assessment of this product: Excellent (six out of six stars)
