The Berlin Wall Paperback – September 1, 2008

I am completely in awe of the author's accomplishment.How many times have you read about an opening book claiming to focus on ideas and been disappointed? Well, this time you won't be. Cox spends some 130 pages on deep deep explanatory material before he even starts talking theory. Now this isn't an easy opening and it's going to take alot of work to absorb all the positional motifs and endgame subtleties and piece evaluations, but the material is there for you. The book has done its job to perfection - the rest is up to you.You learn which pieces are valuable and for what reason, which trades are advantageous, what plans White will likely adopt and how to counter them, which pawn moves are appropriate in which cases, how to position your King, how to coordinate your pieces to blockade White's pawn majority, specific recurrent tactical motifs, and I could go on and on.Cox offers repertoire coverage of three systems of development after the initial position, Kramnik's ...Bd7 against Kasparov, Kaufman's ...Be7, and the contemporary ...Ne7, each of which has a different character. He does not offer coverage of divergences before 3...Nf6 but refers you to Mihail Marin's Beating the Open Games (outstanding itself, but in a different style).Now I mentioned that it is not easy material. Some of the endgame discussions, for example, assume you have a clue, which in my case was a bit optimistic, but even in those cases it offers great material for study and analysis so that you can come to understand his points as you improve. The third endgame study, to offer one example, passes over a long corresponding squares sequence (I think) without comment. There is still enough simple material though for modest players to get their money's worth many times over straight out of the gate.The Berlin is one Ruy that you might actually get to play, given that it has a short entry sequence. If you don't get that far then Mihail Marin's wonderful book has your back. The combination is a remarkable collection of material that will help any player learn and play the open games seriously and with growing confidence. You really couldn't ask for more.

As I was looking for an opening to play with black, I came across this book, and after reading many positive reviews I decided to give it a shot. Reading the book I was very surprised how the Berlin Wall can actually be so entertaining (both to read about and to play as black!), given the bad reputation it has in the chess world as hoping for a draw with black. Against average opponents however the Berlin Wall is both a solid choice, as a rich choice with many options for white to go wrong and win the game as black.Pros:+ Very well-written, an absolute pleasure to read+ Completely changed my mind about this opening, after reading this book+ With Kramnik having beaten Kasparov with the Berlin, this is a durable choice as well, even if you get to the GM levelCons:- There is an annoying "bug" in the book which causes many punctuation marks to be missing, which makes it a bit less of a pleasure to read- As for the opening, it is not the most convenient in the sense that there are many enormous sidelines: before you get to the Berlin on the 8th move, white could already have deviated in many ways, and black has to be prepared for those sidelines as well. (Many of these sidelines are covered in this book as well though, but e.g. you may also face the Scotch, the Italian game, the King's gambit etc.)

If you want to buy this book, you should first know a few things about it. It's not about the Berlin Defense to the Ruy Lopez. It's about ONE variation of the Berlin Defense, namely: 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4. 0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8. Qxd6+ Kxd8. NINE of the eleven chapters of the book deal with this variation. That means the next time you go to the club, you'll have to arrange with your opponent for him to play exactly like that; otherwise the book will be rather useless. Only in the last two chapters does the author talk about the "deviations," the deviations being anything else in the Berlin Defense which is not the variation mentioned above;and even so the author tells you that he only covers things from Black's viewpoint.But what is more surprising is the reason the author gives for doing that. He said that the things covered in the last two chapters occur more at club level, whereas the variation he covers in the bulk of the book is more common in international level!In other words, the book is not for us, club players.It's for international masters. I wonder if I were an international master if I'd need a book like that. I'd have my own files.This also begs an interesting (rhetorical)question:who in the ultimate analysis actually supports this lucrative industry of chess potboilers? We do. But the book is for his peers. I had a teacher in graduateschool that told me that 98% of technical books are written by authors just to show off to their peers.And I thought he was too radical!Another thing you have to be prepared to read this book is to tackle the English. The book is written in extremely poor English. There are a lot of run-on sentences. You have to stop in the middle of several sentences and start reading them again trying to find the separation between the ideas because there is no punctuation at all. It's terrible. And the funny thing is that the back cover of the book tells us this author is a lawyer!I keep thinking about this guy writing a petition to a judge in this kind of English. Has he ever won a case in court?

Thank you

Most of the book is about the Berlin wall, namely the opening 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxf6 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8 Kxd8Cox aims shows the ideas underlying the Berlin Wall, and this makes his book very valuable eventen years after publications. It starts with about 70 pages concerning the various endings arising from the Berlin wall(the position after 8.Kxd8 is viewed as a quenless middlegame, not an endgame), and thoses favors White. Then there are another 70 pages about positional themes (which are often based on recurrent tactics), andin general those favors Black.Then follows the theory (about 140 pages). The Berlin wall contains many transpo tricks so the theoru cannotbe explained by using a tree of variants. Instead Cox describes the theory according to Black way to places his minors pieces: starting with Bd7-Kc8 as done by Kramnik against Kasparov, starting with Ne7 or starting with Be7. Everything is illustrated by full commented games. Nowadays Black is also playing an early h5, and this is not covered by Cox.The last 40 pages are about the White alternatives, especially 4.d3. Compare with the rest of the book, it is a bitshort and the coverage is less exceptional.The Berlin Wall have been previously covered by Khalifman "Opening 1.e4 according to Anand" vol. 1. Cox refers often to Khalifman and for some points brings improvement (Khalifman analysis is of good quality). The recent "Berlin wall" book by Lysyj is a very good complement to Cox book, since it covers extensively the 4.d3 line and the early h5.push in the Berlin wall.Altogether, all these books are very good, but I find Cox book the best to start with (both for White and Black). Khalifman presentsa White repertoireand Lysij a Black repertoire. However be aware of the fact that Khalifman's treatment of an early h5 push is probably inedaquate.Altogether, it is an exceptional book on one of the most difficult opening in chess

No se puede negar que es un libro excelente. En general esta editorial cuida mucho sus libros y sólo se le puede poner una pega a algunos: un nivel muy alto, a veces demasiado. Éste no es de los más difíciles, aunque para entenderlo requiere dedicación. Supongo que un jugador de ELO 1800-2000 no podrá sacarle todo el partido en una primera lectura, pero seguro que aprenderá. Posiblemente para entenderlo con facilidad se necesite un ELO de más de 2200, pero eso no significa que no pueda aprenderse muchísimo de él.Está excelentemente estructurado y las explicaciones estratégicas son muy buenas. Incluso con una lectura rápida se tiene la sensación de estar aprendiendo cosas interesantes y nuevas.Quizás el problema es que para un jugador de bajo nivel esta apertura sea demasiado sólida y demasiado técnica (además de que seguramente le sobrarán variantes y análisis), pero es precisamente el aprender ese tipo de técnica y cómo se puede jugar a ganar en finales aparentemente tablíferos precisamente porque tu rival no los entiende lo que marca un ascenso de nivel.Va bien saber que el libro es un repertorio, aunque sea muy amplio. Algunas variantes de moda no aparecen analizadas por más que la estrategia sí se explique.Salvo que uno sienta aversión por las aperturas que llevan a macro-finales este libro sólo tiene dos posibles objeciones: demasiado especializado para según qué jugadores y que requiere cierta dedicación por la abundancia de datos que da.

I remember reading somewhere that Kennedy's famous words actually meant he was some sort of sausage. Anyway, be that it is may, John Cox's book on the Berlin Wall is definitely meaty. As someone who gave up 1...e5 as an answer to 1.e4 too many years ago to mention, returning to this battlefield is almost like starting again. So a book that focuses on ideas, positional themes and tactical possibilities as well as covering the lines is very welcome. The presentation is clear and the organisation of the material really appealed to me. It isn't (and isn't trying to be) a complete 1.e4 e5 repertoire work so you will need something else to study if you want to be theoretically prepared when white doesn't choose to go down the Ruy Lopez path. This isn't a criticism just a point of information. If white does opt for the Ruy and if you've got your head round this book, then I suspect your opponent - even if he/she is pretty strong, isn't going to find you any kind of pushover. In short, this is a chessbook that I'm pretty sure will repay study for players at many different levels.

Thats how opening books should be written. The book starts with typical endgames and then strategical ideas. More than half of the book considers general ideas rather theoretical lines! You learn so much about chess by reading this book! Am awaiting Cox'next book..