mikhail_golubev ([info]mikhail_golubev) wrote,
@ 2006-03-11 02:04:00
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Amazon.com
A curious review by garfield-cat from Braunschweig, Germany can be found at the Amazon website.

in English:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/190460031X
in German:
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/190460031X

I would not say that I agree with all author's statements, but garfield-cat certainly knows what the King's Indian is. It is often interesting to read the Amazon reviews. There people tend to say what they really ("really-really") think.

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[info]mikhail_golubev
2006-03-13 05:51 pm UTC (link)
Today I would like to comment on some points of the Amazon.com review by garfield-cat:

First of all there is no list of literature in the book.

MG: The Bibliography Section is not included for several reasons. First of all, it is not a theoretical (scientific) book. My own personal database was the most important source, as it is described in the introduction. Also, I hardly could list all sources which I used since 1979, when I began to play the King's Indian! [Thus, many years ago I saved Bent Larsen's important suggestion to Mestel game - but not the original source of it.] Finally, the KI is a really wide topic (ECO E60-E99). I could have missed some very decent publication, and undeservedly offend the author(s) by not mentioning this specific publication in the bibliography. But, in fact, here and there some specific sources are mentioned at the appropriate occasions inside my book, starting from the introduction. So I do not see a problem here.

Secondly, I doubt if it was such a good idea to only use games of his own as maingames.

MG: Otherwise it would have been a different book with a very different concept. By using my own games I intended to show to the reader the full spectrum of problems which one faces, playing the King's Indian - with its ups and downs.

The problem is that when a variation appeared less often in Golubev's practice, his treatment of it falls somewhat short. This is the case regarding 5. Bd3 and 5. Nge2.

MG: I think that a few hundreds of games, which I played in the KI is quite a representative quantity! But let's simply look now at the overall Mega-2005 statistics (ECO E60-E99) for the position after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6, what is the main initial crossroad of the KI:

(The position after) 5.Nf3 - 35.834 games
5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 - 50.779 games
5.Nf3 0-0 6.h3 - 4.293 games
5.f3 - 22.081 games
5.Be2 0-0 6.Bg5 - 7.763 games
5.f4 - 5.279 games
5.h3 - 3.172 games
5.h3 0-0 6.Bg5 - 1.863 games
5.Bd3 - 2.455 games
5.Nge2 - 1.951 games
etc.

Now the Mega-2005 statistics (all ECO codes) for the position after 4.e4 d6, opponent's ELO 2600 or higher:

5.Nf3 - 303 games
5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 - 403 games
5.Nf3 0-0 6.h3 - 14 games
5.f3 - 165 games
5.Be2 0-0 6.Bg5 - 38 games
5.f4 - 7 games
5.h3 - 18 games
5.h3 0-0 6.Bg5 - 15 games
5.Bd3 - 17 games
5.Nge2 - 6 games
etc

The picture in my games and in my book is quite similar. I understand that such chess-players, who plays KI only with White and prefer exclusively side-lines, may find not too much useful for them information in the book. But the book was written, primarily, for the attention of the "Black" KI players.

This is especially obvious in case of the variation 5. h3 followed by 6. Nf3. Neither Redjepagic-Golubev, Bosch-Golubev nor Golubev-Kochetkov really deal with the critical lines.

MG: It is quite hard to judge, which of lines after 5.Nf3/6.h3 (5.h3/6.Nf3) are critical. In notes to these three games I expressed my views on all continuations which I consider to be important. I feel that the h3 lines received really enough attention in the book.

It is quite the same with Golubev's second recommendation against the Saemisch which is 6. Be3 c5.

MG: Well, 6. Be3 c5 is not really my second recommendation against the Saemisch. It can be said rather about the system with ...c6 and ...a6. The game vs Rogozenko was included for other reasons. (One of them, as I explained in the book, is a current popularity of ...c5 lines. The game, in my view, is instructive in several ways, as described in the notes. Additionally, the Saemisch is simply very important system.) I should repeat what is stated in the introduction: the book can be used as a repertoire book for Black. At the same time, it is not a classical repertoire book. Several games, such as the game vs Rogozenko, are included, despite they are not the part of the main Black's repertoire.

Perhaps, Golubev could have treated some of the sidelines in more detail as he actually did.

MG: Perhaps yes. But at cost of what? The book is rather long anyway. Actually, it is longer than it was initially planned.

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