These books are the result of home computers and huge databases. Nothing more than database dumps, we can combine the two volumes and find ourselves facing 410 pages of wordless, emotionless, moves.

Since everything is in Informant style code, non-masters won't find these books very useful. What concerns me, however, is the accuracy of the evaluations and the thoroughness of their search.

Here the books' flaws come to light in glaring fashion. Copying evaluations from other sources and often ignoring critical games, we find ourselves looking at books that are useless to amateurs and not complete enough for professionals.

This Italian company has come out with quite a few titles (all expensive) in this series: A book on the Accelerated Dragon (368 pages), a book on the Ruy Lopez, Exchange Variation (175 pages); these and many others virtually litter the shelves of most bookstores and should be avoided by everyone except the most crazed book collectors and most avid theoretical mavens.