“I have recently been reading Lars Schandorff’s Playing 1.d4 books, thinking that it cannot possibly get more instructive than this. To train with good trainers is all very good, but if you want to become great, you have to read books.
A great salute to Schandorff and Quality Chess!”
GM Simen Agdestein
“The author typically recommends aggressive lines where White seeks the initiative. He considers this like having and exploiting the serve at tennis, i.e. a strong serve puts the receiver under pressure from the start… I found that Schandorff has been able to present his ideas with both clarity and attention to detail.”
GM Glenn Flear, New in Chess”
The writing style is laid back and easy to read, the games are well chosen and lightly annotated. Accordingly, while many opening books sit gathering dust on my shelves, I ploughed through this one in about two weeks…
In sum, a very readable and honest account of a good white repertoire by a GM practitioner who has a great score in the lines described.”
IM Sam Collins, Chess Today
“Schandorff’s Playing 1.d4: The Indian Defences finishes off a superb two-volume repertoire for White. The Indian Defense and Queen’s Gambit are must-owns for players 2000 and above that open with 1.d4.”
IM Jeremy Silman (full review)
“It is a very good book that presents a viable high-level repertoire for White. A repertoire that lets White take charge from the beginning, with the intention of preventing Black from taking the initiative and attacking.”
Carsten Hansen, ChessCafe
“Probably the best books and the strongest repertoire for White based on 1.d4 since Avrukh’s monumental two-volume work! The lines are strong, the analysis is so too.
Rating: 6/6 Highly Recommended!”
Lukas Wedrychowski, dailychess.org (full review)
“A very valuable repertoire for the serious tournament player.”
Skakbladet
“Schandorff writes informatively and entertainingly at the same time, the comments includes both textual components and analyses.
In cnonclusion, it is a repertoire based on active lines, presenting a complete White opening system in combination with the first volume.””
Uwe Bekemann, www.bdf-fernschachbund.de
“You guys did a wonderful job on this book, like I said before on a previous post that I thought when the lines were being guessed that they were going to be more positional in nature as compared to Playing 1.d4 the Queens Gambit, but I sure was happy when I read through the book and took a deeper look at the variations chosen, In the Nimzo I thought e3 was to positional for my taste but love it now, looking at ideas like Qf3 followed by g4! in some lines very exciting, and the Samisch, Wow! Like Lars’ said in the intro the one most likely to be attacking on the kingside in white! Great lines, very exciting chess. The Benko line I did not know at all before the book but I am a big fan now, these games can get crazy with white sacking a piece in one of the main lines, with great play and losts of dynamic features to the positions. And a treat to get both an early e5 game and the more positional Be2 against the Hungarian variation against the Grunfeld.
These two books make up an awsome white rep!!!”
Reader on Quality Chess blog
