Grandmaster Repertoire 9 - The Grunfeld Defence Volume Two by Boris Avrukh

Grandmaster Repertoire is a series of high quality chess books based on the main lines, written by strong grandmasters. The aim is to provide the reader with a complete repertoire at a level good enough for elite tournaments, and certainly also for the club championship.

The Grünfeld Defence offers a repertoire for Black against 1.d4. Avrukh's two previous Grandmaster Repertoire books White received universal rave reviews and have been hugely influential on chess players all over the world, including at the very highest level.

Volume Two covers the Exchange variations where White plays 4.cxd5 or 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.cxd5.

Boris Avrukh is a chess grandmaster from Israel. He is an Olympiad gold medalist, former World Junior Champion and analysis partner of World Championship finalists.

ISBN 978-1-907982-00-2 - 264 pages - Published 24 June 2011

Reviews

"I have spent quite a few hours going through Avrukh's work and found it quite pleasant to read through, which contrasts sharply with many theoretical volumes on my shelves. As to the acid test of these books, it goes without saying that I have not noticed any errors or omissions in Avrukh's work."

"Providing high quality analysis on this line is a central part of Avrukh's professional work, and the main question was whether he would be able to engagingly present the fruits of this analysis. The answer is a resounding yes."

IM Sam Collins, Chess Today

"Boris Avrukh's two-volume work The Grünfeld Defense, published recently by Quality Chess, is more than 600 pages long. The Israeli grandmaster presents ideas from Black's point of view, mixing known games with many original analyses. It is a wonderful Grünfeld manual that gives tournament players advice on where to move and what to avoid."

GM Lubomir Kavalek, Huffington Post (full column here and also at ChessBase)

"Avrukh does a fabulous job of piecing together a repertoire, presenting it in digestible format, and then analyzing the chosen lines in incredible detail. All while offering hundreds of improvements over existing theory... The variety of moves goes from simple alternatives to outright improvements that change the evaluation of the line as a whole. The latter are obviously the ones that make the study and subsequent use of the lines exciting. Playing against a reasonably well-prepared opponent in this opening can be difficult, but facing them packing the armory in these volumes will be a whole different ball game.

For the strong to elite players who employ the main lines of the Grünfeld, these books are must-buys. Such players will love these books and refer to them repeatedly. Those ranking just below that will also be able to benefit, while others will likely do better with something aimed at their level.

My assessment of these books: 6/6 Stars"

Carsten Hansen, ChessCafe (full review)

"A final word about the production values of these books; I was sent a hardback copy of one volume and a softback copy of the other. Both are excellent, but I later treated myself to a hardback copy of the second volume!

Verdict: These two books represent the ‘state-of-the-art' in opening repertoire manuals. Any strong or ambitious player intending to play the Grünfeld in open events would be unwise to try to manage without these Avrukh books, and for correspondence players they are surely a must."

Phil Adams (full review)

"Volume 2 is all about the wonderful Exchange Variation... The material is definitely up to date... These are books for serious players; club players may find themselves a little bit out of their depth. The index of variations in volume 1 runs to no fewer than nine pages (some opening books don't even have chapters that long).
Despite the narrowness of the repertoire, readers will find more than enough top-quality material to enable them to use the Grunfeld Defence very successfully, even at very high levels."

Sean Marsh (full review)

"As always, Avrukh takes all known theory and then fights to find what he deems to be the most critical lines. Having done that, he analyzes it to death and in the process comes up with an enormous amount of new ideas, most of which he happily publishes!

Both volumes of Avrukh's The Grünfeld Defence are wonderful, and any Grünfeld aficionado will grab these puppies as fast as he can. However, I also feel that anyone that plays 1.d4 will also be forced to buy these books. Another magnificent job by Avrukh - if you play either side of this opening, why aren't these books heading from the Quality Chess storage to your bookshelf right now?"

IM Jeremy Silman