During the last few years I've come to realize just how popular the Colle Variation is in amateur chess. Most of my students play it and IM Doug Root has had great results with this White system throughout his career. During my six game match with Mr. Root, I was forced to study this opening in great detail. That experience led to a new found respect for White's setup, and my only lament has been the lack of a serious book on the subject.

Several months ago I decided that I would write a book on the Colle (though I admit that I'll probably never get around to it). I particularly wanted to take a serious look at some lines that were virtually ignored by theory. For example, 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Nbd2 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.e4 Qc7 10.Qe2 is the mainline position. In my Root match, I tried 10...h6!?. Now 11.e5 Ng4 is suddenly possible while 11.h3 Nh5! threatens to intrude to both g3 and f4.

Another interesting question revolves around 10...Bd7. This is supposed to be an error due to 11.e5, but 11...Ng4 12.Bxh7+ Kxh7 13.Ng5+ Kg8 14.Qxg4 Qxe5 isn't clear at all.

When I got my review copy of Soltis' book I was, as usual, quite excited. Would these positions be given the space that they deserved? Sadly, Mr. Soltis completely ignored them. He also failed to mention several critical lines in the 5...Nbd7 variation.

In the first 85 pages, Soltis does a reasonable job examining the typical ideas for both sides, and also showing us examples of pawn structure and endgames. The final 14 pages is an analysis of the actual lines (and it's not a very dense analysis either!). Here he just repeats old, outdated analysis and conclusions, bringing nothing new to the table.

In earlier reviews I've made it clear that I'm a big fan of Soltis when he writes a certain kind of book (his books on defense and pawn structure are excellent, and his book on Marshall is lots of fun). His work on openings, though, has been universally poor. He just doesn't bother putting any real effort into these things (another example of a good writer doing a bad job for a quick buck).

The cover of this book shows that Chess Digest has turned over a new leaf. Known for their horrible covers, I was shocked to see a truly fascinating cover on the new edition of my "Winning With the Sicilian." Here they do it again, with yet another original idea. But a good cover doesn't make up for lack of content. If we take into account that 99 bare-bone pages isn't much for $16.50, a thumbs down (way down!) review is the best that I can muster.