Catalogue text:

The Semi-Slav has been one of the most topical openings of the last decade, and its most critical variation is the Botvinnik System (5 Bg5 dxc4). Most of today's top grandmasters, including Kasparov, Kramnik and Shirov, have relied on it as Black, White or both, especially in make-or-break situations.
Black creates immediate imbalance by establishing a big queenside majority, at the cost of major damage to his kingside. Black tends to possess the long-term trumps, so the main lines see White launching a massive attack against the black king. Black's standard response is counterattack, and positions with bizarre material imbalances arise almost as a matter of course.
To play such an opening successfully, one requires a firm grounding in the underlying principles (such as there are!) and a detailed knowledge of specific variations. This book provides both. The author is a well-known theoretician and player who has had a strong interest in the Botvinnik System for many years - for instance the move 18...d4, which became the 'main line' in 1998, was first suggested by Pedersen in 1994.
Pedersen also discusses in depth the Moscow Variation (5 Bg5 h6), which is a calmer option for Black, and a favourite of Anand and Dreev. This book therefore provides comprehensive coverage of 5 Bg5 versus the Semi-Slav.

Review(s):

The Botvinnik Semi-Slav by Steffen Pedersen aims to offer a comprehensive survey of current Botvinnik System (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 dc4) and Moscow Variation (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 h6) theory... and succeeds! As well as providing excellent theoretical coverage of the most fashionable lines, the author has also clearly put a lot of effort into trying to revalidate the unfashionable 5...dc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Ng5 Nd5 and 9...hg5 10.Bg5 Be7 lines. The only criticism I can make about the book is that there are a number of places where the relative importance of variations within each chapter could have been much more clearly stated. For example, in the chapter on 5...dc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.ef6 gh4 10.Ne5 Qf6, the author gives three lines - 11.g3, 11.Be2 and 11.a4. 11.a4 is presented as the main line but leads to a clear advantage for Black in several variations. 11.g3 by contrast is given only a small amount of attention but leads to a crushing White position. This small gripe aside, this book is highly recommended for anyone crazy enough to play the Botvinnik!

Matthew Sadler, New in Chess Magazine 2/2000