In many 1.d4 openings, Black has trouble getting his bishop on c8 into play. Former Russian Chess Champion Alexey Bezgodov presents a radical solution to this nagging problem; liberate your bishop right away and put it on f5 on the second move!
Play 2...Bf5! against either 2.c4 or 2.Nf3 will surprise your opponent and is also a great way to support your development, because the bishop takes control of the important square e4. If White does not immediately take decisive action, then within a move or two he can relinquish any hopes on an opening advantage.
Alexey Bezgodov has found some great antidotes to White's most dangerous reactions in sharp and attractive lines. To test your understanding of his system he has included more than 100 exercises. After studying the fresh ideas and the clear explanations presented in The Liberated Bishop Defence chess players of almost every strength will enjoy the flexibility of a surprising, effective and universal weapon against 1.d4.
This is the first detailed work devoted to this complete answer to 1.d4 and Russian Grandmaster Bezgodov uses 100 deeply annotated model games to explain the opening and 103 exercises to test what the reader has learned.
Here is your opportunity to score with a novelty! I find 'The Liberated Bishop Defence' an excellent opening book. I would give it a 9.9 (out of 10). Why not 10? Well, the diagram on page 195 isn't correct.
The trend to include exercises has been taken to another level. There are more than 100 of them therein for those who enjoy testing themselves. So there are lots of goodies for the money. I liked the writing style and found the book to be a great deal of fun. The personal touch of the author is everywhere, and the homespun novelties and analyzes are stimulating.
Bezgodov analyzes in detail many neighboring variations, so this book is also useful as a reference work. I think that this book could be of great help for many readers (with a rating above 1600).
