D-pawn Attacks: The Colle-Zukertort, Barry and 150 Attacks (Starting Out Series) [Paperback]

By way of disclaimer, I am the author of Zuke 'Em-The Colle Zukertort Revolutionized: A chess opening system for everyone, now bullet-proofed with new ideas, a book dedicated to the Zukertort and the many pet defenses against it. My book, being rather new itself, came out too late for Palliser to incorporate its new ideas into D-pawn Attacks. While some could see this as a competing book, I see Zuke Em and the D-Pawn Attacks books as complementary. I tell all people who bought Zuke Em to get D-pawn Attacks, and anyone contemplating D-pawn attacks should likewise get Zuke Em. Taken together, they provide a response against every significant Black option except the Dutch.

The first major book describing the Barry and 150 attacks to the world was Aaron Summerscale's excellent A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire (Cadogan Chess Books), which has been out of print for years. Now, nearly 10 years later, Palliser provides us with a much-desired update on these openings.

The worst thing about the book is the formatting and organization. I think it might just be how the Starting Out books are done in general, because Palliser's other book on the Colle had the same problem. There is almost always one diagram PER PAGE (and sometimes 2) that are out of place. You'll be reading along in one line, and then BOOM, you see a pair of diagrams side-by-side, and _neither_ pertains to the line you are looking at. Most of the time the diagrams are from various sub-variations rather than the the mainline you might be reading. It's just the worst formatting/organization I've seen in any set of chess books, ever. In addition to diagrams, the various sections are thrown together in a way where you are not always sure where a new section "fits in" to the overall scheme.

The only other negative thing about the book is that it is missing several important lines. This should not be considered a mark against the book, though. Palliser is rather up-front about this. He says in the preface that this is not meant to be a repertoire book, but rather one focusing on the 3 attacks mentioned. Since he fills 260+ pages covering these three, you can hardly blame the guy for not covering the others. However, it must be pointed out that the lines that are not covered do happen to be the most challenging for White. These important lines are:

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 [The Benoni]
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 g6 [The Sneaky Gruenfeld]
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 c5
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 c5
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 Bg4
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 Bg4
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 Bf5
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 Bf5
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 Nc6!?
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6

Most of the above require some extra understanding to handle well, and most are rather formidable in general. Together, they represent about 41% of the games most tournament players can expect to see.

I cover all of these lines in Zuke Em, but I do not cover the early King-side Fianchetto lines [1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6], which are exactly what the Barry and 150 attacks are there for. This is why the two books complement each other well.

One of the best aspects of Palliser's book is that he does not laud his own opening to high heavens. Other books give the reader the idea that they are going to win every game in 20 moves. Palliser is just the opposite. Compared to other opening books, he looks abjectly pessimistic. This is certainly the better of the two extremes. His book does not come off sounding like a used-car salesman trying to sell you the opening.

The most valuable part of this particular book is the coverage of the Barry. He spends over 50 pages [cram-packed pages, not those single-column tons-of-white-space pages] on the Barry. Compare that to Summerscale's 29 pages. [Of course, Summerscale managed to put _an entire repertoire_ into 144 pages, so their aims are clearly different.]

32 of those pages are on the mainline Barry [1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3], but over 20 pages are on the less common, but still important options where Black delays castling or where White tries the more flagrant 5.Qd2!?. (This brings up another point worth mentioning: Palliser does not just give one option for White. These lines have not been worked over as much as others in more popular openings, so he gives alternatives pretty early on, especially when the main-line appears to have stagnated.)

The coverage of the 150 is not as long, but there are fewer lines in general. Palliser does point out the change in recent times to how Black players react to the 150. Those below 2000 can pick up lots of points here when their opponents castle too early.

With regard to the Zukertort, Palliser should be commended for being dealing with Prie's line [1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 Nc6 6.O-O Bd6 7.Bb2 O-O 8.Nbd2 Qe7 9.Ne5 Qc7!] This line had for years gone undiscussed. Unfortunately, his solution is not very encouraging [not his fault, I don't think there is a solution to this after White has played 8.Nbd2. I have written an article on what I think is "the answer" to this whole mess at chessville: http://www.chessville.com/instruction/Openings/RevivingtheColle-ZukertortMainLine.htm .

Palliser does not present many new solutions to known equalizers in the Zukertort section, but he does at least describe these ideas rather than just pretend they do not exist. He's the first author to even mention the crucial tactic Black has in the classic line where he pulls White's d-pawn to e5 and then threatens ...Nc4. Unfortunately, Palliser mentions this as an aside rather than as a major idea that shapes the entire line. In fact, this very idea is what makes 8.Nbd2 the correct play after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 Nc6 6.O-O Be7 7.Bb2 O-O. Other books are ambivalent, suggesting both 8.Nbd2 or 8.a3 as options, but Palliser correctly gives only 8.Nbd2 (I just wish he had better explained _why_ 8.a3 leads to trouble.)

So, in short, this book is absolutely essential to those who use this d-pawn attacking repertoire because it's the most comprehensive book on the Barry/150, and these work better with the Zukertort than the London does.

Interesting review from David , but how the bishop is supposed to get out in these lines??
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 Bg4
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 Bf5

BTW I believe that the london system fits better with the 150 and barry attack than the Zukertort because it has the same motive : Bishop to f4.
"Win with the london system" together with this book might be a "good" complete repertoire, they all can start with d4, Bf4, Nf3, so good transposition possibilities and you might flick in c4 with knight on c3 in some lines.
To easy for Black in the Zukertort to get good counterplay on the c file after c5.

The major gain when you use these opening is not to get a ferocious attack on black (you might get some with lower rated players) but is time.
If black knows a line to play against the barry or 150 you will get an equal (solid) position not more.

But that is what i was looking for, save time to study chess! (middlegame,tactics & endgame) and get a playable position.

Content-wise, the book provides good overviews of the Colle-Zukertort, Barry, and 150. What it does best is focusing the reader's attention on key positions and important themes.

Where the book fails is as a book. After a few months of light usage, the binding has fallen apart. And I do mean light usage, since I'm already familiar with these systems and am primarily using this book as a review and reinforcement guide. Usually, Everyman books are long lasting, but this is the first time I've ever bought one of their "Starting Out" titles. Don't think I'll buy one of those ever again, as the books is well on its way to becoming just a sheaf of papers.