The ultimate Colle

[Javier]

ISBN : 0-7134-8686-4

First published in 2001 by Batsford (Chrysalis)

pages :160

editor price :£ 14.99

 

As a number of average players, I am fond of the Queen's Pawn openings like the Colle, London, Torre, Trompovsky, Veresov, because :

- they are easy to learn, with generally (as the fisrt 3 are concerned at least) few razor-sharp theoretical variations to know,

- they rely on sound development

- they often give interesting, lively games, without spoiling endgame chances (the player can do that, not the opening ! .

 

Moreover, a lot of middlegame themes are common to these openings, and it's rather easy to switch from one to the others. Maybe you don't get a theoretically better position after 10 or 15 moves, but it's a position you know and you feel at home with.

 

For those attracted by the Colle System, several books are to be found in your favorite chess bookshop. Before telling you more about Gary Lane's book, I would like to give my opinion about some of them :

 

- "Colle System" by George Koltanowski, 12th edition by Chess Enterprises ,1990 (I never heard of later editions, even if the 12th was reprinted several times). This unexpensive, small booklet is THE choice for not-too-experienced players (let's say under 1500-1600) wanting to discover the opening.

Maybe his recommendation against a king's fianchetto as black is a bit strange, or at least it should be detailed a bit more ... But you get a very good grasp of the opening's themes, and the book is extremely entertaining.

 

- "Colle System" by Andy Soltis . Two small volumes published 1998 by Chess Digest. If you want to know how it's possible to make some money with a VERY bad book, take this one ! Very poor content, no structure at all, minimal and superficial comments. Maybe I'll write a review on this one, just to give the "zero" vote a try !

 

- "Winning with the Colle System" by K.Smith and J. Hall . The first edition was published 1990 by Chess Digest, and an improved 2nd edition was published, probably around 1998 - but never reached France : I was only able to find a translation in german, published by Kurt Rattman Schachzentrale in 1999.

Very honest and serious book, with a paedagogic effort, and giving some close attention to alternative systems by Black.

A very good final section of 42 annotated illustrative games is a really nice feature of this book, I can warmly recommend to any club player.

 

- For those wishing a big collection of classified, unanotated main-line Colle games, a volume on the Colle System was published by the czech editor "Moravian Chess" , in 1990, in the "The Complete Encyclopedia of Chess Openings" series. About 1500 bare games from players of various levels, but no comments and no analysis. You can sometimes find there the refutation of a sub-sub-variation, but in my opinion, this book hasn't a great interest for average club players.

 

- and , finally, in 2001, Batsford published a very interesting book "the Ultimate Colle" by IGM Gary Lane. The different variations are presented using a number of very well annotated, complete games. The text annotations abound, and the explanations given are very clear, emphacizing the middlegame and endgame themes. I found the games very well chosen, with a good mix of classical and modern games.

The coverage is rather detailed, and a great amount of information is presented, so, in spite of the author's effort to make his work as easy to read as possible, I would recommend the less experienced players to begin with Koltanowski's book, just to get a taste, and get first some experience with the opening before beginning the study of Lane's book. The interesting Colle-Zukertort system (a subvariation characterized by a queenside fianchetto by white) is more detailed than in other references. The only small reproach I can address this book is the rather light coverage of King's Indian/Benoni systems by Black (e.g. the annoying 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5 3. e3 ?! g6 ). But each of us will after some time find his or her own solution to these problems !

 

In my opinion, a very good job by IGM Lane.

 

 

 

(Originally posted by Jean Saulnier)