When Axel Smith was chasing his final Grandmaster norm, he decided he needed a change in his White opening repertoire. Instead of his usual approach of memorizing many concrete moves to try to force an advantage, he would focus on pawn structures and typical plans. The result was a repertoire based on a set-up with the moves d4, Nf3, c4 and e3. It helped Axel Smith to the GM title, and led to the creation of e3 Poison.

This repertoire can be played using many different move orders, and Smith explains their pros and cons. The reader will not have to memorize many moves, but hard work is still essential to understand the themes, so many exercises are provided to test the reader. Smith shows that a practical repertoire can also be a grandmaster repertoire – it is all about understanding the positional themes and plans.

Grandmaster Axel Smith from Sweden is a successful player and coach. Using his methods on himself, in the space of ten years he improved from a rating of 2093 to becoming a Grandmaster. His previous book for Quality Chess, Pump Up Your Rating, won the ChessCafe Book of the Year prize.

In Revolution in the 70s, Garry Kasparov explained how opening theory exploded after 1972,
under the influence of Bobby Fischer. Information became more accessible and the players could, instead of searching for games, focus on analysing. That suited a hard worker such as Kasparov. A few decades later many openings were over-analysed. It became harder and harder to get a tangible advantage and to avoid being neutralized, White repertoires had to be broader. Still, the top players played for an advantage. Things changed again when the engines made their entrance. It was easier to find out how to defend, and preparation had to be even deeper. A new move could yield better results than the objectively best move, and the main task was to surprise the opponent. But after a single game, everybody knew how to react against the idea, and it was time to find another novelty.

Then along came Magnus Carlsen. Okay, this story is simplified. There are other views and other players, but there’s no doubt that Carlsen has changed the general attitude towards openings. Rather than an advantage, he looks for interesting positions. When the opponent plays a dubious line there is little point in avoiding the known refutation. But against a good line, it may not be practical to use the main lines. Chess is after all a draw, and we use time and effort only to lose the surprise effect, while still not getting anything. Theory has developed to such an extent that even players who work harder and know more than their opponents have started to avoid the main lines. And so we entered the post-theoretical era.