This book continues the coverage of the French Defence that was begun by Pedersen in. It is essential reading for all those who play the French, and for those who meet it with the popular and flexible Tarrasch Variation. The Tarrasch Variation provides a stern test for the French Defence, and has always been a favourite of strategically minded players, such as Michael Adams and Anatoly Karpov. By putting his knight on d2, White seeks to give his opponent little scope for counterplay, and in many of the traditional lines ends up with a slight positional advantage that can prove extremely difficult to neutralize. This has led to Black developing various sharper approaches, which complicate the play considerably at the cost of greater risk. Notable among these lines are systems with 3.Nf6 where Black sacrifices material to gain the initiative, and the modern main line 3.c5 4 exd5 Qxd5, where Black keeps his pawn-structure healthy at the cost of some tempi. To get the most out of these lines as either colour, thorough up-to-date knowledge is essential, and this book supplies it in abundance.

Steffen Pedersen is an international master from Denmark. He scored a grandmaster norm when he was 16, and played in several World and European junior championships. In 1998 he was joint winner of the Hampstead Grandmaster tournament, and achieved his second grandmaster norm at the Aars get2net Cup in 1999.

He has written several highly-regarded opening books, with subjects including the Dutch Defence, Sicilian Scheveningen, Benko Gambit and the Semi-Slav. Other Gambit titles:,,,,,. A pdf file with a sample from the book.

'I do not detect any real bias toward either side in either book, but rather a plain, objective perspective with suggestions and improvements offered for both players.' - Lou Mercuri, Chess Horizons 'Steffen Pedersen has written a classic openings book: comprehensive, topical, and colour-neutral.

A book for learning and reference for the discriminating French-player. The new standard work on the Tarrasch.' Erik Rausch, Rochade 'Despite the strong competition in this field, these books can be recommended to anyone interested in playing either side of the French Defence. They are very suitable for keen club and tournament players, but even quite strong players new to these lines will find very useful instruction.' - Phil Adams, '.I like the way Pedersen builds on the efforts of other authors, adding more recent developments, in conjunction with his own ideas and improvements over existing theory. The presentation is very fluent and, with Pedersen's explanations of typical plans, you get a good education on how to play these lines, along with the current state of theory. This book will appeal to a wide range of players, and if you play these lines with either color, you will benefit from it.'

IM John Watson analyzes the French Defense: Tarrasch Variation 3.Be7 4 e5 c5 5 c3 C03 and more. Includes pgn, cbv and pdf downloads of recent games: Yu, Y - Werle, J, Jones, G - Ramirez, A and others. This is the third and final volume of my series on the French Defence, which has been one of. The largest part of the book is devoted to the Tarrasch Variation.

- Carsten Hansen, 'These three volumes [on the French] offer an extremely comprehensive coverage of all the variations, and present an unbiased and objective survey of the whole system, so are equally useful for both Black and White.' - Alan Sutton, En Passant 'Steffen Pedersen provides excellent coverage of an important modern chess opening in The French: Tarrasch Variation.' - PHL Hughes, Chess Post 'Pedersen writes clearly and helps the reader to understand the ideas arising from the various lines. This series of books covering the French Defence will prove invaluable to French devotees and those that want to learn more about this most resilient of defences. - Michael Blake,, IECG.

When I go over the new French Defence games from each month, I'm more and more struck by nominally weaker players (amateurs and 'ordinary' masters) who seem to know opening theory very deeply. This is true for main lines, naturally, but applies to relatively lesser-known variations as well. Of course, online play is inherently theory-oriented (players repeat the same lines ad nauseam), but it's also possible that the rash of French Defence books published over the past two years has had some effect. It would be fascinating to know what percentage of ICC and Playchess players read books and/or ChessPublishing, or watch DVDs. I'm grateful to GM Dejan Antic for generously sending me some games and thoughts on the 3.Be7 Tarrasch (see below). Readers should know that their ideas and contributions are always welcome.

• • • • >> >> Tarrasch Variation 3.c5 4 c3 [C05] Denis Yevseev's book Fighting the French: A New Concept features the Tarrasch Defence with the move c3, whether against 3.c5 (4 c3) or in the line 3.Nf6 4 Bd3 c5 5 c3: The idea is to get a standard isolated pawn position, which can be fun for White to play because he gets attacking chances. In my book I show a couple of easy remedies, which I mention in abbreviated form in the notes to this month's, Wijk aan Zee 'Cultural Village' tournament 2012. In the game White achieves the desired double-edged game and perhaps a small edge. Universal System 8.a5/8.g5 [C06] Last month I focused primarily on 3.Be7 in the French Tarrasch, which in general seems to be doing pretty well. In response, I had the pleasant surprise of receiving a note from Dejan Antic, co-author of Antic & Maksimovic's important and thorough book Modern French, which itself features 3 Nd2 Be7.