The British Chess Magazine
543
‘The French Winawer’ by Steve Giddins is a recent addition
to Everyman’s ‘move by move’ series, in which the topic of the
book (usually, but not always, an opening or defence) is presented through the analysis of a number of complete games.
This book, which deals with 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 c3 b4, is
a well-produced 287-page volume containing 25 main games
from this opening. In addition to the usual analysis, the author
adopts the Q&A approach typical of the series, with questions
such as: “So what are the differences between this setup and
that which we saw in the previous game?” and “Why doesn’t
Black just recapture on c5?”, being answered generally by
wordy replies of explanation, but often with concrete analysis
when called for.
Another commendable feature of this book is that entire
games are annotated. The stress is certainly on the opening,
but the middlegames and endings also receive good attention, so that the reader is not
just left wondering why one side may be better, or why the player actually won the game.
Indeed, in many cases other complete games are included within the main games.
Giddins obviously believes in studying the classics, as he includes games by Botvinnik,
Smyslov, Uhlmann and so on, when he feels they best demonstrate the themes of the variation. He does this mainly (but not only) with the positional lines, where this approach
probably works best. This is not to say that the book is out of date – many games from the
2010s are included, and topical lines (for example in the Poisoned Pawn variation) – receive
good coverage. Interestingly, the positional lines (7 f3, 7 a4, 7 h4) are given substantially
more coverage than the Poisoned Pawn variation (7 g4).
These features, together with the clear annotations and explanations, place the emphasis on understanding rather than rote learning of this opening. However, the book is by no
means lightweight – there is a lot of theory contained in the games and the breadth of the
opening is covered well, including the sidelines from move 4 onwards.
Reviewer’s verdict: this is an excellent book and can be recommended to anyone thinking about taking up the Winawer, or to players who already play it and wish to improve
their understanding. For those taking up the Winawer from new, they may subsequently
find that they also need a traditional variations opening book (Steve Giddins himself points
the reader in the direction of John Watson’s ‘Play the French’ occasionally in the text), and it
may well be that Giddins’s book and a traditional book work best in combination (though I
repeat that Steve’s book is not skimpy on theory). Highly recommended.
The author is an English FIDE Master.
www.everymanchess.com.
Colin Purdon