Opening for White аccording to Kramnik 1a

The first volume of the extremely popular series "Opening for White According to Kramnik" was published six years ago. Now 14th world champion Alexander Khalifman presents the audience with two entirely new books.

Volume 1a covers the Old Indian Defence, Anti-Gruenfeld, and less popular lines of the King’s Indian Defence.

The first part analyses 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.d4, where Black delays the development of his bishop to g7, or prepares it for another deployment altogether, for example after e7-e5 and Bf8-e7. These opening set-ups have long had the reputation of being solid, but with not so good prospects for Black.

The second part deals with 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 where Black follows up with 3…d5. Thus he emphasizes that he does not intend to play the KID and he invites his opponent to enter the main lines of the Gruenfeld Defence. White counters however with 4.Qa4+!? facing the opponent with difficult problems while turning the Gruenfeld out of question.

In the third part of this book Khalifman begins to analyze the King’s Indian Defence, starting with some currently offbeat lines. Its main and most fashionable variations are so complex and strategically independent that Khalifman singled them out in the separate volume 1b.