IM Angus Dunnington has written books on flank openings (Reti and Catalan), but this time around he wants readers to grab the center immediately. Hence his proposals to play the Four Pawns Attack against the King's Indian and Benoni, 3.e4 versus the QGA and 4.f3 to answer the Nimzo-Indian. These suggestions, as well as 4.Bf4 versus the Grunfeld, are all common, but this is not true of all of his repertoire. One area where Dunnington varies markedly from Emms' Attacking With 1.e4 is in his advocacy of oddball lines like 4.Bg5 versus the Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5). This line undoubtedly has surprise value, but after 4...dxc4 5.a4 Qa5 6.Bd2 e5 I don't see a promising way for White to fight for an advantage. That said maybe no one in the world has an easy answer as to how to get a clear advantage by force against this resilient opening! It would certainly be sweet if 4.Bg5 worked because then White would have a way to sidestep the Botvinnik or Meran variations via 4.Bg5 and the sequences 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 and 3...c6 4.e4.

Dunnington likes systems based on f3. Besides the aforementioned 4.f3 in the Nimzo there is also 4.f3 versus the Benko Gambit and f3 lines versus the Dutch. All these lines look intriguing, but remember most of them don't have a well-established pedigree. There is a distinct chance that one or more systems advocated here could end up on the chunk heap. In summary I think that Dunnington has done a very good job stitching together an assortment of variations that handle transpositions well as providing similar middlegame ideas. On the downside I'm a little suspicious of some of his offbeat lines.

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