The Scotch Game

Det har kommet noen bøker om skotsk på 2000-tallet, men denne er vesentlig større og mer innholdsrik, en fersk og ganske bred dekning av alle de viktige variantene i denne revitaliserte åpningen 1 e4 e5 2 Sf3 Sc6 3 d4.

Boka er skrevet av to IM'er som har etablert seg som dyktige forfattere av åpningsbøker i sjakk.

Introduksjonen i boka fra den ene av forfatterne:

The Scotch Game has been one of my favourite openings as White ever since I took it up a decade ago. It’s far sounder than the majority of gambit lines available to White after 1 e4 e5, but like them leads to unbalanced positions in which the defender is likely to feel much less at home than in the generally more rational lines of the Ruy Lopez. In short, the Scotch leads to a complex, exciting early middlegame in which White can most certainly aspire to the advantage.

Throughout the 1990s Garry Kasparov was the main torch-bearer for the Scotch and under his patronage a large number of Grandmasters adopted the opening, no doubt attracted by the extremely original positions which arise after 4...Nf6 5 Nxc6 bxc6 6 e5 Qe7 7 Qe2 Nd5 8 c4 and then 8...Ba6 or 8...Nb6. In the first few years of the new millennium Black’s other main defence, 4...Bc5, caused a number of players, including Kasparov, to lose some of their faith in the Scotch, not least because new defences were worked out after 5 Nxc6 Qf6 6 Qd2. However, the wheel didn’t take long to turn full circle, thanks to new discoveries being found for White after 5 Be3 and especially 5 Nxc6 Qf6 6 Qf3!?. Indeed, nowadays the Scotch occupies a prominent part in the repertoire of Kasparov’s sometime protégé, Magnus Carlsen, and is regularly employed as well by the likes of Alexander Morozevich, Teimour Radjabov and especially Sergei Rublevsky, not forgetting too the talented, young grandmasters Emanuel Berg, Gawain Jones and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Having spent many months studying recent grandmaster games in and existing theory on the Scotch, it quickly became clear that this project was going to be far bigger than I ever could have envisaged. As such I was very pleased when Richard Palliser agreed to come onboard. Richard not only added to the number of new ideas I’d found, but also updated much of the existing work, while helping to present the theory and key motifs of each variation as clearly as possible.

Both your authors have to admit to a certain bias for White’s cause in the Scotch, but this is very much a complete work and those who defend 1 e4 e5 should also find much of interest, as well as plenty of new ideas within. Now I just hope that you will enjoy your adventures with or against the Scotch as much as I’ve always done!

Yelena Dembo, Athens, December 2010