The Berlin Defense is one of the most popular openings for Black against 1.e4 for the last two decades in the higher echelons of the chess world. In this book, the critical ideas are explained in a way that even Club players will feel the confidence to add this evergreen opening to their repertoire by explaining the opening concepts lucidly in such a way that anyone who reads this Book will have the courage to play Berlin in their games. In this book, GM Priyadharshan Kannappan has chosen some off-beat tracks on the Berlin endgame and also has considered 4.d3 as the mainline of Berlin, the 1st for any Berlin book, but is a modern necessity due to the increasing popularity of 4.d3. The book packs enough punch in novelties for the opening aficionados, and this up to date book presents new ideas and variations that were previously never shed light on in the Berlin. GM Priyadharshan has given equal importance to the various sidelines that lead up to the Berlin endgame, and also in the Berlin endgame, and has suggested options where Black actively fights for dynamic positions, and not just gets satisfied with equal positions. The book also has 100 games suggestion that one must study to improve their overall understanding of the various pawn structures and ideas involved in the Queenless endgame.

About the Author
Priyadharshan Kannappan is an Indian Grandmaster, and currently the Youngest FIDE Trainer from Asia. He started his chess career at the age of 6, became the Asian U-12 and U-16 champion and has in total won 11 International medals for India. He became an IM in 2009 and after a long journey became a GM in 2016. His strongest open tournament performance was sharing the first place in the Chicago Open 2014, and New York International in 2016. He has an active interest in writing and has contributed to all the major chess publications like Chessbase, American Chess Magazine, United States Chess Federation etc. He is one of the most academically qualified GM with an Undergraduate and Masters degree from the United States, which led him to spend a brief time in an ed-tech startup as a Product Manager before quitting that job to become a professional chess trainer.

Reviews
I found the general content to be attractive, intros, text, the right balance of game segments plus conclusions, and the English language and typesetting were both of a high quality. If you are attracted to the Berlin, but want to avoid the highly-theoretical lines, then this Modernized version could be for you. GM Glenn Flear - YB 134 - 04.2020.



Book Information
ISBN 9789492510662
Author Priyadharshan Kannappan
Format Paperback
Page Count 215
Imprint Thinkers Publishing
Publisher Thinkers Publishing