I leafed through it. It's either a reference work -- not to be read cover to cover, volume by volume -- or else it is WAY above my head. In any case, I strongly prefer the Donaldson book, which eschews the KID for a reversed Sicilian. That's fine by me, since I've gotten some uncomfortable games with the KID.

<White> I'll probably do a Version 4.0 at some point. Something a little more comprehensive. A little less spotty. And maybe something a little closer to the repertoire I actually play now. I should say, for the sake of full disclosure, that I'm just a patzer who likes the positions that come out of 1. Nf3. I'm not an authority.

Upbeat news, I beat a 1920 rated guy in under 20 moves with a very interesting English symmetrical yesterday. He went into some weird line with an early Qb6, and we both missed some critical moves around move 14-16. My mistakes (thankfully) were less egregious, and I came out considerably better.

Sadly, this guy was a terrible sport. He was like a 70 year old Russian, and he just refused to resign (although he was down two pieces, and I had two rooks on the 7th). He offered me a draw when he was totally lost. Changed the clock in the middle of the game, giving himself a little more time, and giving me a little less (AND his side was not wound, so he wasn't losing time -- and he was pissed off at me when I noticed and wound his side), and took ten minutes on each move. Horrible sportsmanship. Fritz gives the position at move 20 as +5. He played it out another thirty moves. Very tedious...

Anyway... regarding some criticism of the Reti and English -- I would simply respond that unless you are rated 2600+, a 1. Nf3 repertoire will not serve you poorly. I've lost very few games since I switched to it.

And as Kramnik, Vaganian, et al. have shown, 1. Nf3 can be very successful at the very top as well. It is, admittedly, perhaps not extremely sharp or exciting. But when people criticize Kramnik for his high draw percentage, they aren't criticizing his percentage with White, which, when he was playing 1. Nf3, was very high.

The fact is that 1. Nf3 will give you a solid advantage out of the opening -- in pretty much any line. It won't be a big advantage, and you'll have to play well to manage a win. But it's also pretty hard to squander the advantage. You'll have good places to develop your pieces, and the Black player will find development very awkward. If he tries to lash out (like in my last game), your solid position makes it pretty easy to punish his impetuousness.

At the top levels the Reti (and to a lessor extend the English) are somewhat under a cloud and haven't been doing too well. Above 2600 there is probably just not enough 'bite' to the positions, especially in the pure Reti.

Hmm... maybe I'll start playing this opening:

click for larger view

Blatny has played this with some success.

Also <chessman95> Might you point me to the CG Help to import Diagrams and also hyper-links to games?

I just wrote that diagram. Do you know how to write FEN? In case you don't, here's a helpful link: FEN Help Page

For the sample, I will use a position from the English Attack in the Najdorf:

click for larger view

-- PLEASE NOTE -- I had to put a space in every code so that you would not see an actual diagram when I posted this. If you take the space out between 3N and P3 then you will see an actual diagram.

1) Okay. So as you probably know the first thing to do is start at rank 8 and write out all the peices (black R=r, white rook=R, etc.) and write the number of black spaces, if any, in between until you have done this for all 8 ranks. Make sure to put a "/" in between each rank. For this position it would be: <rnbqkb1r/1p3ppp/p2p1n2/4p3/3N P3/2N1B3/PPP2PPP/R2QKB1R >

2) The next step is to put a space in there and write either "w" or "b", depending on what color's turn it is. In this case it's white's turn so the code is now: <rnbqkb1r/1p3ppp/p2p1n2/4p3/3N P3/2N1B3/PPP2PPP/R2QKB1R w>

3) Then you put another space and write the catling availability. If nobody can castle, or they already are castled, you put a "-". If white can castle short, you put a "K", if long, you put a "Q". If black can castle short you put a "k", if long a "q". Make sure to do it in that order. In this case nobody can castle, so it's now: <rnbqkb1r/1p3ppp/p2p1n2/4p3/3N P3/2N1B3/PPP2PPP/R2QKB1R w ->

4) Next you put another space and write the possible en passants. In this case, black's pawn just went out two spaces to e5, so the possible en passant square would be e6, one behind the square the pawn moved to. Now our code is: <rnbqkb1r/1p3ppp/p2p1n2/4p3/3N P3/2N1B3/PPP2PPP/R2QKB1R w - e6>

5) Next you put another space and write the number of halfmoves since the last pawn move or capture, to keep track for the 50 move rule. A pawn just moved in our game, so that number is "0". Now our code is: <rnbqkb1r/1p3ppp/p2p1n2/4p3/3N P3/2N1B3/PPP2PPP/R2QKB1R w - e6 0>

6) The last step is to put another space and write what move the game is on. In this case the game went 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 d5, so we're on the 7th move. Our final code is: <rnbqkb1r/1p3ppp/p2p1n2/4p3/3N P3/2N1B3/PPP2PPP/R2QKB1R w - e6 0 7>

In this way you now contain every peice of information about the particular game I chose to use about an example. Not all of this is needed to make a diagram appear in a post, but it's nice for giving a friend a fun position to analyze when they get home.

There is a bit about it in Chapter 5 of the revised edition is all I see.