Aagaard - Le calcul aux échecs

They did it! Dejan Antic and Branimir Maksimovic have created a complete chess opening repertoire for Black players in only two books. 

First they wrote the acclaimed The Modern French (against 1.e4). Now The Modern Bogo provides Black players with a comprehensive answer to 1.d4. The two books complement each other perfectly.

The point is that the authors recommend to answer 1.d4 with the direct 1...e6, for the follow-up  2.c4 Bb4+. In this way they avoid complex theoretical Nimzo-Indian lines and enable both amateur and professional players to find their own way in little-explored variations. 

The Modern Bogo covers all the possibilities for White after 1.d4 e6... except for 2.e4, after which you should play the French!

Antic and Maksimovic have done a massive amount of research, and found many new strategic concepts and attacking plans. All of them are explained clearly and thoroughly. 

You will find that this opening not only gives you good chances to equalize as Black, but also many opportunities to play for a win. 

In my first book I wanted to enlighten the reader on those various lines that were

less explored, and those that have been almost forgotten but were nevertheless

interesting.

However this time the book is about cutting-edge lines, which is a very

modern approach to this fascinating opening. Moreover it is important to say that

when I was writing my first book a few years ago, surprisingly, some of these current

lines simply didn’t exist, or were only discussed in a very minor way.

It is true that the Grünfeld fits in very well with the engines’ way of playing chess,

and in that sense it’s almost the perfect opening with which to implement and generate

such ideas.

Let’s have a look now at what I mean and start reading my findings!

GM Milos Pavlovic, January 2024.