Forfatterens forord

My elder brother Sasha, IM Alex Mikhalevski, taught me to play chess when I was 4, just before he started his Soviet Army service. He returned from the army two years later and then I began to train seriously under his guidance. You may be wondering why I have started this Introduction with something unrelated to the Open Spanish? However, it is related as I have been playing the Open Spanish ever since I started playing chess and it was my brother who taught me this variation. Curiously enough, he played the French Defence when he joined the army, but returned from it playing the Open Spanish. In the army he had the privilege of being trained by a great theoretician, and in his prime one of the best players in the world, Isaac Boleslavsky. Boleslavsky recommended that he play this system. So it is quite possible I would not be writing this book, nor playing the Open Spanish, were it not for this great man, who died when I had barely learned how the pieces move.

In January 1991 I moved with my family to Israel. Only two months later I played my first tournament there, the Israel Open Championship. I won a decisive last-round game against the famous GM Yehuda Gruenfeld with the help of the Open Spanish, crushing my opponent in good style. It was the first of numerous encounters with Yehuda in this system.

Since my childhood right up to the moment of writing these words, the Open Spanish has served me faithfully and helped me to win many important games, so when Quality Chess asked me to write a book on this opening system I didn’t have to think twice. I would also like to add that the book is not only about the Open variation, as it is a repertoire book that starts after 4.Ba4 Nf6. Therefore all White’s side lines, such as 5.d3 and 5.Qe2 and other deviations from 5.0–0, are also covered with no less attention than the Open variation itself.

I hope everyone enjoys the book and if a few of you decide to take up the Open Spanish then I shall consider my mission to be accomplished.
Victor Mikhalevski, Beer-Sheva, December 2012