Here is a book by a true lover of the KID. Gufeld is well known as an expert in this opening, and also as a "romantic" as far as his chess vision is concerned (the guy really loves this game!). This is conveyed in his very first example (Khasidovsky-Gufeld), where he discusses how the love of a woman influenced his play in this particular game. The story is fun to read, almost charming in a gushy, overblown sort of way.

All in all, he gives 83 games (the vast majority being from his own praxis, which is perfectly okay) that demonstrate how Gufeld thinks you should handle the various White lines that can be thrown at the KID (he doesn't say that this is a repertoire book, but it clearly is). Most of these games are instructive, and some are even brilliant.

Why then, do so many good players wax negatively about this book? Aside from the fact that so many lines (many quite important!) are given little mention (or are completely ignored), and aside from the fact that his repertoire options are limited and clearly not for every taste (he recommends ...Nc6 against the fianchetto system and the Samisch, while he likes ...c7-c5 against the Averbach), the main criticism concerns the fact that Gufeld has used much of this material before in other books and magazine articles. In fact, he continually recycles quite a few of these games from book to book to book.

Personally, I enjoyed this book more than most of the other titled players I know, but have to give it thumbs down because it's (much like the Bronstein book) "floating" in between worlds: i.e., not enough instruction for amateur's, not nearly enough theoretical discussion for the professional.

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