HOW TO BEAT 1.d4

Author: James Rizzitano

Gambit (2005)

www.gambitbooks.com

160 pages

$27.50

Reviewed by John Donaldson

While the Boston Red Sox are struggling to make it 2 for 2, another denizen of Beantown, IM James Rizzitano, has already done it. A couple years ago he came out with the well-received games collection UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHESS, this time it’s an all-purpose system against 1.d4. HOW TO BEAT 1.d4 proposes the Queen’s Gambit Accepted against 1.d4 d5 2.c4. This takes up roughly two-thirds of the book, the rest is devoted to meeting double d-pawn openings (2.Bg5, Torre, Colle, Blackmar-Diemer, etc.).

This isn’t the first book devoted to the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Hooper and Cafferty came out with THE COMPLETE DEFENSE TO 1.d4 more than twenty years ago, and there have been more recent books by Buckley, Ward and Sakaev/Semkov, but none of them comes close to Rizzitano’s in being both readable and up to date. HOW TO BEAT 1.d4 is a repertoire book, so it isn’t as comprehensive as Sakaev and Semkov’s encyclopedic THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT ACCEPTED, but this should not be interpreted to mean that the lines Rizzitano examines are watered down.

My first reaction to receiving this book was wondering see how Rizzitano’s coverage of 7.a4 (1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0-0 a6 7.a4) would measure up to that of GM Khalifman in his OPENING REPERTOIRE FOR WHITE ACCORDING TO KRAMNIK 1.Nf3, Volume 4. It was not lacking. IM Rizzitano advocates 7...Nc6 8.Qe2 cxd4 9.Rd1 Be7 10.exd4 0-0 11.Nc3 and now looks at both 11...Nb4 (7 pages) and 11...Nd5 (5 pages). As Rizzitano points out, these lines can transpose into each other. Since 11...Nd5 is given second and was QGA guru GM Matthew Sadler’s choice, I will focus on that, but note that HOW TO BEAT 1.d4 does not choose between the two moves .Continuing on 11...Nd5 12.Bb3 Re8 13.h4 [(!) Khalifman and (!?) Rizzitano] 13...Ncb4 14.h5 b6 15.Nxd5 Nxd5 16.Ne5 Bb7 17.Rd3 f6 18.Ng4 and now El Khalif gives 18...Bd6 19.h6 g6 20.Bd2 Rc8 21.Qf3 Rf8 22.Re3 Bc7 23.Re1 Qd7 24.Nxd5 Bxd5 25.Bxd5 exd5 26.Rde3, which is assessed as better for White. Rizzitano proposes the more logical looking 18...Qd7!? 19.Rg3 Kh8 20.h6 g6 with a balanced position.

Excellent though Rizzitano’s QGA coverage is, I suspect a fair number of buyers of this book are going to be attracted to the Boston IM’s persuasive answers to White tries besides 2.c4. Looking for an antidote to the Colle or Torre not to mention to 2.Bg5, you have come to the right place. Rizzitano is straightforward and unsentimental when dealing with cult openings like the Blackmar Diemer. The latter, after having been shot down, draws a funny note by the author. “I don’t know if these passionate gambiteers should be praised or condemned, but I do know they should be left alone.” Wise words!

HOW TO BEAT 1.d4 deserves to find a wide audience from club players looking for a straightforward lifetime answer to 1.d4 to titled players looking to pick up a new defense.

Highly Recommended

At the moment our chess shop doesn’t carry this title. However, we do carry two other excellent books on this opening:

Click to Buy (or find more information about) OPENING REPERTOIRE FOR WHITE ACCORDING TO KRAMNIK

Click to Buy (or find more information about) QUEEN'S GAMBIT ACCEPTED