Forordet

For the last two years of my active career as a chess player my openings were decided in Skype conversations with Nikos – if I was not simply following the files he had sent. We studied the Tarrasch Defence extensively together and I had a fantastic plus five score until we published our book on it (Grandmaster Repertoire 10 – The Tarrasch Defence). At the 2011 Danish Championship I followed his recommendations in all the games and had about 40 minutes more on the clock on average when we guessed the right variations. I also had an advantage in almost all of the games. At the Istanbul Olympiad where Nikos was working for the Danish team as a second we spent a lot of time looking at the French Defence together and discovered a lot of interesting ideas. It was quite natural that we would carry this work forward to a second collaboration.

The division of labour in this book has been quite similar to how we worked when we were player and second. Nikos sent me his drafts and ideas and I proofed them to the best of my ability. In the process I managed to make some theoretical contributions; especially the 12...h6!?-apparently-not-a-novelty on page 210, which seemed crucial to keep this key line alive. This was the result of iron determination after I had rejected all of Nikos’s other suggestions as being dubious-looking.

In the end 95% of the material in this book comes from Nikos. The same was the case with our previous book. At the same time I take 100% responsibility for the content. The direction of the material is mine, the evaluations of many key positions are mine and the verification of the lines is mine as well. We have worked as a team on this book and combined our strengths in the most effective way.

You will find that although this book has two authors, we have decided to let the book have one voice: Nikos’s. So wherever it says “I”, imagine a slight Greek accent, but know that the grandmaster is nodding in approval in the background.

I do not think that Nikos needed a co-author on this project; nor do I think I could have written this book on my own. Thus I hope the reader will divide praise and criticism fairly; all praise to Nikos and all criticism to me.
Jacob Aagaard, Glasgow, October 2013