A Short Review of Wojo's Weapons: Winning With White, Volume 1
Jonathan Hilton and Dean Ippolito, Wojo's Weapons: Winning With White, Volume 1 (Mongoose Press, 2010). 408 pp. $29.95. Reviewed by Dennis Monokroussos.
Most club players - and not only club players - can go a lifetime without playing or facing the Catalan, but the last two years have made that increasingly difficult. While Catalan specialists Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand haven't won too many of their fans over to that opening, recent books by Boris Avrukh, Nigel Davies, and now the duo of Jonathan Hilton and Dean Ippolito may help change that. Avrukh's very advanced book has rightly received rave reviews, Davies' book is useful to a lower-rated audience, and the Hilton and Ippolito ouvre is worthwhile as well.
As the title suggests, the focus is on the late Polish/Latvian/American GM Aleksander Wojtkiewicz's opening repertoire with the white pieces. Wojtkiewicz ("Wojo") died in 2006 at the young age of 43, and while he wasn't an elite GM he was consistently rated between 2550 and 2595 throughout his career as a GM. That's very respectable, but more to the point of the book, he was a regular in U.S. swisses, and as such cultivated a repertoire and style designed to make him an efficient fish-killer; that is, able to consistenly beat players 2400 and below with regularity and without too much work. That's a necessity for a GM to make a living here: too many draws, or too much energy spent on relatively weak players, and they'll run out of gas when it counts in the money rounds against their fellow GMs.
Accordingly, Hilton and Ippolito (mostly Hilton, I think, at least as far as the prose is concerned) believe that following in Wojo's footsteps is a path to opening and tournament success. The key is to offer a combination of sufficiently deep theory and an understanding of how his repertoire works in practice, in terms of typical middlegames and endings. Still further, Hilton and Ippolito succeed in selling the Catalan. The reader is made to feel that the repertoire is safe, (relatively) simple and yet surprising to most opponents while offering good winning chances. What more could anyone want?
Note: while I keep mentioning the Catalan, which they pursue via the move order 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.g3, that's not the only opening covered in the book. It is the subject of the first 250 pages or so, but there's another 50 pages on the Slav (they recommend 4.Qc2), and then there are another 90 pages or so on various alternative Queen's Gambit lines (the QGA, the Tarrasch, 2...Bf5 lines, the Chigorin and 2...c5). (For King's Indian, Dutch and other non-...d5 replies, we'll presumably have to wait for Volume 2.) It's a pretty thorough work in its scope, and in other ways too.
For instance, the authors are up to date with their sources, having examined Avrukh and Davies, the Informants up to 105 (106 just came out), and even cite some of my own analysis from a ChessBase presentation. Now that is thorough! The sources I mentioned are available in principle to everyone, but there's also private material from Wojo's lessons and other teaching sessions offering both specific suggestions and verbal explanation as well. Indeed, the authors do a fine job of explaining what to do, offering not only commentary within the variations but in summaries and conclusions after each game (much of the book features complete games), move order tips, "useful pointers" and so on. Finally, the authors admit when Black can equalize and don't try to spin it in a pro-White way.
In short, it's a very useful book that I feel comfortable recommending to experienced players 1800-1900 and up. Kids should stick to more bloodthirsty openings, while lower-rated players will probably find the material too sophisticated. For those near 2000 (and up) looking to try something new, however, this is a fine place to start.
Reader Comments (3)
Dennis, a quick question about your recommendations for books in your reviews.
"...it's a very useful book that I feel comfortable recommending to experienced players 1800-1900 and up. Kids should stick to more bloodthirsty openings, while lower-rated players will probably find the material too sophisticated. For those near 2000 (and up) looking to try something new, however, this is a fine place to start."
Would you suggest that the book will be worth all players 1800-2000ish; or are you recommending this for a particular age group? I am confused because you mention "kids" in the next sentence. And I have heard that trainers recommend different training for children and adults (as apparently children find it easier to develop - your thoughts on that would be welcome too). Hence, I am wondering whether you would recommend the books to all players irrespective of ages, based on the elo you have stated, or are there any nuances I miss?
Forgive me - English is not my first language; and my apologies if I should have understood without bothering you with a comment.
Hi JK,
To avoid a contradiction, I didn't recommend the book to "all" players 1800-2000 (and up), but to experienced (i.e. somewhat older) players in that range. So while I don't think kids will shrivel up and die if they play the Catalan, I think they're generally best served by playing very sharp, open lines and playing subtler openings later on.
Thank you very much for the clarification