"How To Play The Belgrade Gambit" by Eric Schiller, 1998 Chess
Digest, English Algebraic Notation, Soft Cover, 113pp., $16.50

Reviewed by Bruce Monson

[The Chess Cafe is pleased to present the following review by
American Master Bruce Monson. About a year ago, we favorably
reviewed Monson's comprehensive work "The Complete Guide
to the Belgrade Gambit." When a new title by Eric Schiller
recently appeared on this opening, Monson graciously agreed to
review it for us...]

A Bare-bones Belgrade

The Four Knights Game is one of the most ancient of openings. A
double King's Pawn opening where, after all the Knights come out,
the players probe for weaknesses and small, albeit long- term,
advantages. It has been known for a very long time that Black is
usually able to maintain solid equality with the symmetrical
variation or may even attempt a more dynamic approach with the
Rubinstein variation, where the Black Queen Knight jumps into
d4.

Players of the white pieces, looking for alternatives to energize
their game, explored the possibility of an early d4 followed by
Nd5. Thus was born the so-called Belgrade Gambit.

Eric Schiller has become well known world-wide for the numerous
opening books he has produced. While I think some of Schiller's
books deserve harsh criticism, I should also point out that he has
done some really good work in recent years too, although (in my
opinion) these tend to be the tandem efforts with other authors
(usually a respected titled player), where I suspect he puts
considerably more time and effort into his work. As an aside, it is
precisely because of the multitude of books he churns out year
after year that his works are frequently looked upon with much
skepticism and often pummeled unmercifully by reviewers.

At any rate, the subject of his latest book, the Belgrade Gambit,
arises after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4
5.Nd5!?. (See Diagram) Unfortunately, with Schiller's latest effort
"How to Play The Belgrade Gambit," there are some tell-tale signs
that this book might not be one of his more dedicated efforts. 

The first thing that grabs your attention is the cover design, which
consists of a computer generated chess board and pieces, depicting
the starting position of the Belgrade Gambit. The picture extends
from the front cover around to the back, and is actually quite
pleasing, except for the fact that the position is - incorrect! Black's
King & Queen are set up in the wrong positions! Perhaps this is
nitpicking, but attention to such detail is rather important,
especially for a chess book. Probably, Schiller had little to do with
the cover design, yet it is still his name on the cover and failure to
spot such an obvious mistake does suggest a certain lack of
attention to detail. [Gaffes of this nature - obvious mistakes on the
cover - have appeared on Schiller books before; see for example
his monographs about Rudolf Spielmann and the Janowski Indian.]

The next point of note is the size of the book. A thin 6mm
(one-quarter inch) thick, it is apparent that the $16.50 cost is a bit
pricey for its size, but nothing unusual in today's expensive market.
Unfortunately, however, after thumbing through the pages it
becomes apparent that it could easily have been reduced to even
'half' this size! The book is done in a single column format (typical
Chess Digest production) with frequent double & triple
indentation, resulting in a distracting abundance of white space.
This last is a personal qualm of mine, feeling there should be a
'happy medium' of white space in a book - too little and the text
appears cramped, too much and you feel 'cheated.'

The book is presented in 15 chapters with a short introduction.
Chapters 1-11 examine the Belgrade Gambit proper (81 pages),
while chapters 12-15 (24 pages) cover the "Avoided" lines with
4...Bb4. There is no bibliography, but based on some quotes in the
introduction it appears he relied heavily upon my book, "The
Complete Guide to the Belgrade Gambit," (Dearborn,1997), and
Nunn's "New Ideas in the Four Knights" (Henry Holt & Co.,
1993), since he makes numerous references to these works
throughout the book. Lev Gutman also receives an occasional
passing acknowledgment, though this is limited and there is no
mention of his excellent book, "d4 im VierSpringerspiel" (1993),
which had sixty pages devoted to the Belgrade Gambit and another
twenty to the Bogoljubow variation (4...Bb4). 

To his credit, Schiller makes no attempt to promote this book as a
'definitive' work on the subject, but rather touts it as "...merely
additional parts of the ongoing debate about the Belgrade Gambit."
Appearances suggest that when devising his outline, he settled
upon presenting only those lines he considered consistent with his
way of thinking, disregarding the rest. I admit I was put-off by this
decision, and was perplexed by what he chose not to include.
Billed as a 'How To' book on the Belgrade Gambit, one would
naturally expect all the primary variations to get some air-time. But
this was not the case and many critical variations are completely
ignored.

For example, chapters one and two cover the Gambit Accepted
(5...Nxe4), but focus only on 6.Bc4 for White. Amazingly the
Main Line continuation, 6.Qe2, (a fully playable move) didn't
make the cut! Schiller claims, without giving even one variation of
proof, that it has " fallen from favor and is rapidly disappearing
from view, because of the strength of 6...f5." This statement is very
intriguing since the latest theory I'm aware of suggests that Black
has no such guarantee for an easy life. Unfortunately, the average
player learning this gambit for the first time will miss out here. 

Even in his examination of 6.Bc4 (against 5...Nxe4) there are
important ideas missing. His primary focus is on Black's
theoretically best response, 6...Be7, to which he devotes 14 pages.
However, he only considers one option for White at move seven,
7.Nxd4 (I am happy to say he does add some good ideas into this
theoretical drama). But missing are both 7.O-O and 7.Qe2, the
latter being the inventive new concept from GM Lev Gutman, who
wrote some articles about it in the latter part of 1996 for the
German publication "Schach Archiv." Unfortunately, my
manuscript was already in the final stages of editing when I
became aware of this idea, so it didn't make it into my book either,
but that was nearly two years ago and I was certain Schiller would
examine this important line. He does not.

Chapter 5 examines the popular defense 5...Nb4. Here again
Schiller focuses on only one continuation for White, 6.Bc4,
sidestepping the "critical" alternatives 6.Nxd4 (a move which has
been underestimated) and 6.Nxf6+ Qxf6 7.Bc4, etc., both of which
issue true gambits that have not been refuted! It is a shame he
chose not to examine these since they entail some of the most
complex and interesting variations in the Belgrade Gambit.

Perhaps the biggest omissions occur in Chapter 7, where the
variation 5 Nxd5 6.exd5 Nb4 is examined. Schiller states that this
move " forces White to work to maintain the initiative." (See
Diagram)

At this point he recommends the continuation 7.Nxd4(!) (he does
mention 7.Bc4 as "seen more frequently," but does not discuss it
any further; more on this later). He then proceeds to follow the
well known game Bellon Lopez-Jamieson, where White was
fortunate to draw a completely lost position: 7 Nxd5 8.Nf5 Ne7
9.Bg5 f6 10.Bxf6(!) gxf6 11.Qh5+ Ng6 12.O-O-O d6 (incidentally
12 c6! is now considered the acid test of this line - Monson)
13.Nh4 Bg7 14.Bc4 Qd7 15.Rhe1+ Kd8 16.Nxg6 hxg6 17.Qxg6
Bh6+ 18.Kb1 Qg7 19.Qe4 Rb8 20.Rd3 f5 21.Qd5 Qf6? (21...Bd7!
wins) 22.Qa5 b5 23.Re6! Qxb2+! 24.Kxb2 bxc4+ 25.Kc3 Bg7+
26.Kd2 Bxe6 27.Rxd6+ Bd7 28.Rxd7+ Kxd7 29.Qxf5+ Ke7
30.Qc5+ 1/2-1/2. The problem here is that he gives 'no'
improvements for White to justify giving the '!' to 7.Nxd4. Indeed
he finally concludes that Black "consolidates" his advantage
beginning with 21...Bd7, etc. If this is true, then how can White's
sacrifice be correct? 

The disturbing part is that I analyzed this position in great detail in
my own book, concluding that White's mistake was 14.Bc4?,
allowing the resource 14...Qd7. Instead of this, I gave 14.Re1+!
Kf8 15.Bc4 (threatening 16.Qxg6!) as the correct path to an
advantage, following an analogous survey, yet Schiller does not
mention this possibility at all! 

Even more curious is that I only considered 7.Nxd4(!?) as
"interesting," while recommending the alternative 7.Bc4(!) as a
virtual refutation of the variation after: 7...Qe7+ 8.Kf1! (the key
move, 8.Kd2 being the old "automatic" reply) 8 Qc5 (other moves
have fared worse) 9.Qxd4! Qxd4 (9...Be7 10.Qxc5! Bxc5 11.c3
Na6 12.Bf4 +/-) 10.Nxd4 Bc5 (on 10...c5? 11.Nb5! Nxc2 12.Bg5!
f6 13.Rc1 +/-) 11.Bg5! Bxd4 (or 11...Nxd5 12.Re1+ Kf8 13.Bxd5
Bxd4 14.Be7+ Kg8 15.Bd6 +/-) 12.Re1+ Kf8 13.Be7+ Kg8
14.Bxb4 with much the better game for White. This analysis has
not been refuted, and yet Schiller does not mention it. 

I could easily cite other examples but I think these exemplify my
point, which is: If you are going to write a "book" on a particular
opening, I think you have a responsibility to cover all the relevant
lines of that opening regardless of your personal feelings about
them. The reader should at least have the opportunity to judge the
pros and cons for himself or herself.

In all fairness, there are some interesting and useful analyses
worthy of close study. The most prominent of these appear in the
Gambit Accepted lines with 6.Bc4 Be7 (Chapter One) where, as
mentioned above, Schiller focuses only on 7.Nxd4, but in doing so
provides many original ideas in this variation. Also of notable
mention is his analysis of the Gambit Declined with 5...Be7
(Chapters 3 & 4), where he demonstrates some exciting new
concepts in the 6.Bf4 variation (although I was disappointed that
6.Bc4 was not examined here as well). There are also some keen
ideas in the Gambit Avoided lines with 4...Bb4 (Chapters 12-15),
in particular his examination of the complex Rook + Bishop
endings common to this variation. Another good point is that the
book does not just bombard you with variations, but rather mixes
variations with plain language explanations.

In the end I can only say that while this book will not go down as
one of Schiller's best works, it is also a good deal better than many
of his other efforts. I think it is primarily suited to those players
with a working knowledge of the Belgrade Gambit, since the
numerous omissions of important variations will undoubtedly paint
an incomplete picture for the average player looking to learn this
gambit for the first time.