THE CONTROVERSIAL SAMISCH KING’S INDIAN

Author: Chris Ward

224 pages

Price:  $22.95

BT Batsford Ltd (2004)

Reviewed by Randy Bauer

Randy’s Rating: 8.5

Some writers have mastered the delicate balance of the repertoire book – reasonable theoretical coverage and instruction balanced by a finite page count – and Chris Ward, along with John Watson and Joe Gallagher among current authors are up to this difficult task. Here Ward’s solid (and often times original) analysis, in-depth knowledge of the subject matter, instructive comments, and effervescent writing style yield a winner of a book.

Grandmaster Ward, a former British champion, has played the white side of the Samisch King’s Indian (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3) for most of his tournament career, and it shows. There are many move order issues for both sides, and Ward gives a lot of useful explanation about what both sides gain and lose from differing orders. Ward has also been the champion of many key lines, and he does a great job of helping the player understand why ideas have been tried and refined through tournament praxis.

As the reader can probably deduce, this book is written from the white player’s perspective. Still, this is not your garden-variety “White to play and win” repertoire book full of questionable evaluations. Ward readily recognizes the difficulty white faces in showing a theoretical advantage, particularly in the main line after 5…0-0 6.Be3 c5. Here, though, Ward takes the gambit on and suggests that the first player may be able to take the pawn and play for an advantage after all with 7.dxc5 dxc5 8.Qxd8 Rxd8 9.Bxc5 Nc6 10.Nge2 Nd7 11.Bf2!?, where he says, “In my opinion the discovery of this bishop retreat offers White more hope than anything else I’ve seen for White in years of the accepted gambit variation.”  Interestingly, since white does pretty well here, Ward also provides extensive analysis of black’s alternatives on move 10, such as 10…Be6, 10…e6, and 10…b6 (which Ward believes could be the critical test).

The Samisch King’s Indian has been the subject of an excellent previous work, by Joe Gallagher in 1995. Of course, so much has changed since then that there really is no comparison of the works. One need only look at the topical line 5…0-0 6.Bg5 c5 7.d5 e6 8.Qd2 exd5 9.cxd5 h6 to understand this. In Gallagher’s book 10.Bxh6 is awarded an exclam, based on the line after 10…Nxe4 11.Nxe4 Qh4+ 12.g3 Qxh6 13.Qxh6 Bxh6 14.Nxd6 Nd7 15.f4! Nb6 based on a white win in Dreev-Gelfand, Tilburg 1993.  However, later practice, confirmed by Ward, shows that black has reasonable chances after 15…Nf6 16.0-0-0 Rd8 17.Nxc8 Raxc8 or 16…Bg4!?

Besides the main line with 6…c5, the book covers all common (and, for that matter, uncommon) black systems, including those with 6…e5, 6…Nbd7, 6…b6, 6…Nc6 and earlier deviations such as systems where black delays castling and accelerates his play on the queenside.

For white, the book provides differing ways of playing the Samisch, including a discussion of both 5…0-0 6.Be3 and 6.Bg5. It also gives good coverage of the pluses and minuses of 5…0-0 6.Nge2, which can be used as a method to deter black from playing 6….c5, since the lines after 7.d5 e6 8.Nge exd5 9.cxd5 Nbd7 10.Be2 allow white to develop his queen bishop to the more active g5. On the other hand, other ideas, such as 6…Nbd7 may be better than in other lines, since white’s usual reaction to blocking the c8 bishop is to play Nh3-f2.

While this is an excellent book and practically a required purchase for those who play this variation as white (and perhaps black as well), there are some presentation issues that make the book slightly less highly rated than similar repertoire books. First, Batsford prefers a single column format (as opposed to the double column lay-out found in most books by Gambit and Everyman Chess). I find this format to allow less material per page and more wasted space per page. I also much prefer the user friendly method in Gambit books of noting the page where you will find transpositions; here we are usually just told what chapter we should reference, which leads to a fair amount of page turning and searching. Finally, the font and print are slightly smaller and less crisp, and the page size smaller than in comparable books by Gambit. Needless to say, these do not detract from the material, just the method in which it is presented.

In summary, Chris Ward has written the newest version of the Bible for white players wishing to combat the King’s Indian with the Samisch.  The theory is solid and presented by a world class practitioner, the repertoire is reasonable with enough alternatives should a line be found wanting, and the author presents the material with a light and lively style.  One could only hope that all repertoire books could do as well.