I have a student who simply loves the Pirc. He plays it every chance he gets, he continually asks me questions about it, and he gets depressed every time the opening doesn't turn out well for him.

This book caught my eye because of his constant Pirc nagging; I was hoping it would answer some tricky theoretical questions that I didn't have answers for.

Of course, I didn't have high hopes, but why not crack the pages and pray for salvation? Surprisingly, it turned out to be almost everything I could have hoped! Clear type makes it easy on the eye, and lots of prose (simple and to the point) allows the reader to understand some of the key ideas of the opening. More explanation of the typical ideas would have been nice for the weaker player but, overall, the authors did quite an impressive job in this respect.

Written from Black's point of view, the analysis is quite up to date and thorough enough for the intended audience (i.e., most likely good for players up to 1500). In fact, the positions looked so good that I almost wanted to play tournament chess again just so I could try the Pirc!

Aside from a typo (and what book doesn't have typos?) in the index of variations (Chapter Five, they give 3.d3 instead of 3.Bd3), I only have one major gripe: Everything seems well covered except for 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.f3 when White will try to transpose into a Samisch King's Indian (and avoid a transposition into a Philidor after 3.Nc3 e5). I was disappointed that this move (3.f3) was ignored by the authors, and I would hope that this flaw will be corrected in future editions.

One last, self-serving, point: I have had many people criticize the covers of my own books whenever I try to do something original or interesting. Comments like, "Why couldn't you do a logical and beautiful cover like so and so's book?" poured down on me (and still do to this day). Sadly, "so and so's" book had a cover showing a chess board with pieces, while "so and so's" other book had a cover with a few pieces (sans board) tossed here and there.

Where is it written that one hundred thousand chess books have to all have the same cover? Are chess players really so lacking in flexibility and originality?

I bring this up due to the very nice cover on Chernin and Cartier's book. A rendering of a Philippe Valy painting (all right...the painting is one of chess pieces...but they are such NICE chess pieces!) is a very pleasant change of pace. I take my hat off to the publisher and, by doing so, thumb my nose at all the "cover critics" who have relentlessly hounded me for so many years.

Back to the review: If you are rated 1500 or below and play the Pirc, you will be happy you got this book. If you play White versus the Pirc, this book will show you the lines you have to deal with and will challenge you to come up with a good answer.