Complete Slav I

The Slav Defence is currently the most popular closed opening, appearing in the opening repertoire of the overwhelming majority of top class grandmasters. A competitive chess player playing 1.d4 faces the opening in almost every tournament, and for Black it can be used in just about every second game. Over a number of years I have played various different lines of the opening with both colours and analysed it both individually and in cooperation with many well-known grandmasters. Now I have decided to give the opportunity to anyone who feels like it to enter a grandmaster’s laboratory and see my professional approach to various opening lines. Measures have been taken lest the work should swell to enormous size. Textual annotations to variations and evaluations are not given throughout the book but only in cases where I thought it to be important and not too obvious. As for the rest, a conventional abridged evaluation system has been used. All noteworthy lines have been analysed in detail. Also many novelties have been introduced with enclosed analyses. At the same time many weak and inessential moves, although in some cases with a considerable praxis, have been evaluated briefly. I will be glad if my work turns out to be a good aid in learning the Slav Defence — an exceptionally interesting opening, rich in both strategic and tactical ideas. This book is rated for skilled chess players. The theoretical material is given as of July 2012.