Sunday, May 03, 2009

Colle Zukertort Revolutionized


I recently read Zuke 'Em The Colle Zukertort Revolutionized by David Rudel and I have to say, this is a book for us. Not the masters or the grand masters but us, the silent swarm of class, coffee house and club players that stealthily infiltrate society. The cover is odd no doubt, but don't be put off by it. It represents a new style in chess analysis and writing. Openness perhaps even on a daring scale. A lot of people don't respect the Colle of any variation. You may be one of them, I don't know. But Zuke 'Em acknowledges this lack of respect and goes one step further. We know the system has problems, but hey, lets address them, lets take a sparkling new unconventional look and see what we come up with. And we'll find some things. Like many of the toxic beliefs against the system are unfounded. And that black knight is going to c6 regardless of the cunning plan you've been working on for the last two hours.

As someone who has used the Colle for many years. Starting with the Koltanowski and slowly transitioning into the Zukertort by what seems to be an evolution of necessity. They're are a few articles in the book I found invaluable. Or at least I hope that whey will be. Chapter three dips into every piece on the board and notes what its good for and what its probably going to do. Chapter six covers Bf5. How I loathe Bf5. More importantly it reads like chess players think which is why it isn't sitting on the shelf, in the half read chess book section.

P.s. The answer to number 4? Because shes a lesbian.

4 comments:

wang said...

The only real problem with the Colle is that if black knows his/her stuff it can be a bit difficult to win with. However I find it near impossible for black to win playing against the Colle.

Bottom line below 1800 most people don't know too much theory and the Colle is a good choice, you will always get into your system with white, and it fees up your time to study other aspects of the game, namely tactics.

On the flip side I'm not too crazy about systems, I think its good to expose yourself to many different positions. But neither way is right or wrong, just different paths...

Pawn Shaman said...

Thats what makes it so awesome.

Some people are big fans of systems. Namely me. But its really a personal choice. Their are some outstanding players who dont have a clue about any opening system.

From the patzer said...

I forgot the title of the book but, if i am not mistaken it's by Aaron Scummer(s?)dale. Since that book, of Aaron, is sitting on a shelf, collecting dust, i will for now not gonna spent money at a new book that 99,9% will land on my dusty shelf before i even am half way thru the book.

Pawn Shaman said...

Tiger, when your ready this is one that is worth reading. Its different from any chess book Ive ever read. I can relate to dusty shelved books though. Even though they may never get finished they are always nice to reference.