Play the Slav, by James Vigus
The Chess Book Play the Slav by James Vigus, is the best repertoire book currently available on the Slav defense. The other Slav Defense books are from Mark Taimanov 1973, Glen Flear 1988, Markov & Schipkov 1994, Silman & Donaldson (three books) 1993-1996, Sadler 1997, Burgess 2001, Flear 2003 (the…a6 Slav), Flear 2005 (includes the Semi-Slav) Bologan 2008 (the Chebanenko) and Vigorito 2009. These other chess books suffer from one of three problems, either they are old and their recommendations are no longer best, or they are not comprehensive of all Slav lines, or they attempt to cover White and Black too broadly. I like all my Slav books but Play the Slav by James Vigus is comprehensive, up to date, and ready to play.
The Slav Defense is not for everyone. Some players dread the dullness of the exchange variation. Others do not like seeing their beloved Bishop on f5 hunted down by a White Knight on h4. Some may be put off by the amount of theory required of an opening that has been a frequent line in World Championship contests. The pawn breaks and middle game plans are not as obvious as in some other openings. Every opening has its assets and liabilities. The Slav is beloved because of its solidity and usefulness even against full preparation. It will never be busted and is playable for the long term.
The Slav is not just one opening but a family of openings. If there is difficulty in one line, a person can switch to another variation without learning a whole new complex. Still a first choice must be made and James Vigus chooses the Main Line Bf5 Slav over the a6 Chebanenko. I believe this is a good choice because of the flexibility of lines available to Black later. For example in the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dc 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Black has 6..Nbd7 7.Nc4 Qc7 with complex play, or after 6…Nbd7 7.Nc4 Nb6 which is positional, solid, and is the choice of James Vigus. One final option in this line is to play 6…e6 7f3 c5 8.e4 Bg6 which is Kramnik’s very solid line.
In the Dutch Variation 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dc 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bc4 Bd4 8.0-0 0-0 Against 9.Qe2 there is…Ne4, Nbd7, Bg6, and his selection, Bg4. This is great news for the Slav’s long term playability. And Vigus’ choice is on the current developing edge. Against 9.Nh4 Vigus offers two lines straight away. One line is more solid, the other more provocative.
Slav players are presented with a serious question after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3!?. The problem is that 3…e5 is not certain in the long run, 3…e6 permits the other Marshall Gambit 4.e4!?, and 3…Nf6 after 4.e3 either brings the Semi-Slav with 4…e6 or the Schlechter with 4…g6. James Vigus’ answer is the immediate 3…dc!?. He calls it the Argentinean variation after Fernando Peralta and Rubin Felgaer. It is a bit similar to the Geller gambit and perfectly playable.
Against the dry 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Vigus recommends bypassing the usual Bf5 and playing a reversed Torre ..Bg4 which he sweetly calls the “Errot”. And on the dreaded exchange variation he spices things up quickly by either hunting the White Bishop with Nh5 or sending the Queen to b6. The good feeling is that Black is taking over the repertoire playing field here.
Play the Slav is not a complete repertoire against 1.d4. It does not include lines against things like the Hodgson Attack, Veresov, London, Torre, Colle, and such. For this he recommends John Cox’s, Dealing with d4 Deviations. Here I must disagree. It is not that John Cox does not provide quality. I have his book and it is very good. It is a matter of style and move order. Slav players are often those who are not looking to bust White early on. They are looking for a solid foundation from which they can outplay their opponent in the middle game. John Cox is looking to test White quickly and things can get sharp. Then there is the matter of move order. 1…Nf6 and 1.…d5 are not always the same. For a comprehensive and more cautious repertoire against these various Queen’s pawn openings I recommend James Rizzitano’s How to Beat 1.d4. The body of his book is about the Queen’s Gambit Accepted but his section on these other tries is the best I have found for a 1.d4 d5 player.
For those of us with computers and a bit of cash to invest in our Chess obsession or hobby there are wonderful programs available to learn an opening. I am no computer software expert so I sometimes find myself in a bit of trouble. But both ChessBase and Bookup are working well for me. I typed every move of James Vigus’ repertoire into Bookup, while using Chessbase for research and analysis as I went along. By doing this I looked carefully for holes in Vigus’ work. My biggest question was 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 Bf5. I was concerned that his recommended Bf5 would require learning a whole new line in addition to the Bg4 “Errot”. But he finds a way through that as well. It took me a couple of weeks to complete this project and was great fun.
There are wonderful Chess DVDs out there. Unfortunately I am not as certain of the Chess Assistant platform which has a Modern Chess Openings Slav Defence 2005. Even some of my older ChessBase titles are not working with Windows Vista as easily as I would like. The current Chessbase DVD available on the Slav looks at the …a6 or Chebanenko and is therefore not helpful if playing the Vigus lines. I wish Chessbase would market a main line Slav DVD soon.
I thank James Vigus and Everyman Chess for this quality repertoire book.
Click here to purchase this great chess book: Play the Slav.
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