Zuke 'Em-The Colle Zukertort Revolutionized: A chess opening system for everyone, now bullet-proofed with new ideas

This is a White repertoire book about the Colle-Zukertort. It is a sensational book - best opening book I've ever read and I've read several. For context's sake I estimate my rating somewhere in the 1700-1800 range. Some of the reasons why you should buy this book are that Rudel writes with a passion, about an opening that he personally has played exclusively for like 15 years straight, he writes specifically for the club player, he speaks with authority, he introduces new ideas with general concepts and guiding principles before diving into specific variations, he segments out really indepth sidelines into separate chapters so you know what's essential and what's extra, he factors in practical considerations like ease of repertoire learning and common amateur responses, he uses an entertaining, Q&A format to his explanations so it feels like you're getting a 1 on 1 consultation with a very strong player. Even if you've read other Colle-Zukertort or Colle-Koltanowski books, this is still a must-buy b/c he covers opening lines that deviate prior to the Zukertort (b3) - Koltanowsi (c3) split. Also he references where he differentiates his recommended lines from other Colle authors (Aaron Summerscale, Smith & Hall, Gary Lane) and why. He doesn't rip on these authors but he's also not shy about pointing out his different opinions throughout the book - Summerscale even wrote the forward for this book and Jeremy Silman (one of my favorite chess authors) gives a glowing review of this book.Chapter Summary:CH 1. Rudel explains why he wrote another Colle book, why a club player would want to play the Zukertort line of the Colle (CZ), a summary of some of the lines he recommends and how they differ from common CZ theory, a summary of why his opening book format is better/easier to learn from than many other opening books (he's right on here). He also gives specific props to other Colle authors of the past.CH 2. Intro to the CZ. Here he covers White's basic plan from a high level view and then walks us thru some sample games where White's plan gets to be played out (the narrative is really good, not just a bunch of variation rants). He does a good job generalizing the opening and some of the guiding principles and rules. He also summarizes all of the lines of his repertoire and gives %'s of how likely you'll face each line.CH 3. The Cast. I love this chapter - every opening book should have a chapter like this. He literally takes every single piece (specific pawns and all) for White and Black and talks about how it tends to fit into the opening - usually a short paragraph on each of the 32 pieces although the MVP's for each side get a little more spotlight. This chapter really helped me process the general ideas for both sides. Brilliant. He closes the chapter on page 58 with 6 general guidelines that you can use to determine what to play in the CZ and then tells you to put the book away and go play the CZ for awhile! I love that kind of practical advice. Silman does a similar thing in his fantastic endgame book Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master - basically saying "you've learned enough for your skill level - now stop reading and try it out" ! CH 3 is my favorite.CH4. The Main Line CZ. Rudel gives us 4 options on how to proceed based on what we're looking for in an opening. He lists the advantages and disadvantages of each option - it's nice to get this kind of honest and informed choice in a repertoire book.CH 5. Covers an important Black deviation from the mainline wherein Black plays ...Be7 instead of ...Bd6.CH 6. Early Bishop Deviations. I loved this chapter as I tend to face these 4 lines all the time - my experience shows that club players who reply to 1.d4 with 1...d5 are wary of locking in there light Bishop with an early ...e6 and so tend to bring it out to f5 or g4 early on. Rudel covers 4 options: 2...Bg4 3...Bg4 2...Bf5 3...Bf5. He recommends different moves for each but to me it seems like it might be nice to just learn the 3rd move Bishop moves and just play a waiting/developing move if Black plays it on move 2 to cut down the repertoire theory needed, but maybe I'm missing something - I'm sure Rudel is just trying to give the best lines he knows for each.CH 7. The Elista Slav. Technically this is a continuation of the CH 6 theme with 3...Bf5. Rudel split this into its own chapter because he felt it was different and crucial enough to warrant its own chapter - his recommended moves for White are pretty similar though in cases of ...Bf5 for ease of repertoire building (page 161).CH 8. The Queen's Indian (QID) and Benoni Defenses. Rudel gives alternate line options for White depending on if the reader wants to stay within QID book lines or not. This is a common theme throughout the book where Rudel gives a few options with reasons and recommendations (a nice touch).CH 9. The Sneaky Grunfeld (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 g6). Basically the trick here is that Black hid his intention of ...g6 until after White locked in the dark Bishop with e3 - typically White wants to develop the Bishop to f4 in response to ...g6 (Torre or 150 Attack). Rudel has a real novely in this line that he earned praise for from GM Aaron Summerscale. The novelty is based on delaying Nc3. I won't try to summarize it here, but Rudel explains the idea really well in this chapter.CH 10. The Queen's Gambit Reversed (early ...c5 by Black). These are tough lines that are often played so I need to go thru this chapter again. Rudel acknowledges the challenge saying: "This is the chapter in our book where we meet Sauron, Darth Maul, Goliath, Oscar the Grouch, Freddy Krueger, Keyser Soze, Voldemort, and Stay Puft Marshmallow Man all rolled into one..." he's referring to (1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 c5) and "his kid brother" (1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c5). It's tough, but Rudel does a nice job breaking the resulting positions down so they're understandable and giving some aggressive responses and guiding principles.CH 11. Various Oddities. I've seen many of these lines in real games so it's nice to have a plan. Really at club level mainlines aren't necessarily the one's you'll see the most so I'm glad this chapter is here.CH 12. Extra Analysis. In the previous chapters whenever Rudel wanted to dive deeper into a side variation he would reference this chapter. I love this concept because it helps me sort out what's really important in the chapters and what is extra credit. So I'm glad this chapter is here for the cases where I wanted more depth on certain lines.CH 13. Training. This chapter has 60 CZ puzzles broken out by themes: Basic Ideas, Basic Responses, Timing and Move Order, Tactics, Strategic Planning, Unnatural Moves. For each puzzle he shows you where Black just moved and which page you'll find relevant explanation to explain the position. Very cool idea.CH 14. New Ideas. This is for veteran CZ players where he shows just the positions where he's recommending unprecedented ideas not previously covered in main CZ theory.He ends with a variation tree with specific page reference for each line.The book is not entirely comprehensive in that it excludes openings where Black deviates before White locks in it's dark Bishop. The main openings not covered are the KID and the Dutch. In response to these omissions, David Rudel recommends for now using the 150 and Barry attacks and points chess players toward the book: Starting Out: d-Pawn Attacks: The Colle-Zukertort, Barry and 150 Attacks for the KID. Rudel is working on a companion book that will address how to meet all omitted Black openings against 1.d4 - namely the KID and the Dutch. This new book is scheduled to come out in 2011. Sounds like for the Dutch, he'll recommend some form of the London and his KID response will include an early e3, c4 and Be2. Personally, I'll buy any book written by Rudel - he's just a fantastic chess author/teacher. Rudel discusses this upcoming book here: [...] and here [...].Misc. extras - David Rudel runs some websites that are devoted to the Colle-Zukertort (Koltanowski players are also welcome). [...] and [...]. Also, I emailed him some questions and he got back to me the same day (his email is [...]). Incidentally, one of my questions was what openings he plays on the black side and he said he was persuaded to play the Modern from the book Tiger's Modern. I've never played the modern but imagine the efficiencies of essentially only needing to study 2 openings in-depth: the Colle and the Modern - that would cover everything (although I'm sure with the Modern you'd need to know Pirc and KID theory too)! The downside to such a strategy is you risk becoming a 1 dimensional player who only knows a few positions and you miss out on some deep and exciting positions from other openings. The upside is you streamline your study time and are able to spend your opening time digging deeper rather than wider, and you can spend that saved time drilling tactical puzzles (as recommended in Rapid Chess Improvement (Everyman Chess) and Chess Training Pocket Book: 300 Most Important Positions (Third Revised Edition) (Comprehensive Chess Course Series), learning endgames, and guessing the moves of famous GM games.David Rudel also wrote a companion Colle book called the Moment of Zuke (The Moment of Zuke: Critical Positions and Pivotal Decisions for Colle System Players). This covers Zukertort and Koltanowski lines, is very thematic, and is a fantastic supplement for any Colle player.Jeff GibsonWisconsin

To my knowledge, this is the first and only book to be written exclusively on the Colle-Zukertort opening system. Luckily for us, this first one is outstanding!As a former tournament class player (now retired to correspondence chess), I found ingenious and refreshing David Rudel's new ideas in chess writing. These include: (1) well-positioned, self-interruptive questions and comments (e.g., Why do you say that? and Why does Black have to fianchetto?), which he actually answers; (2) dealing directly (yet respectfully) with other authors' works touching on the Colle-Zukertort; (3) giving the reader the benefit of his own analysis board (Ch. 12 - Extra Analysis), and (4) allowing the reader to discover where he needs to re-read parts of the book more closely (Ch. 13 - Training).More specifically, regarding item (2), above, where other writers leave off with "White has a slight advantage" or "White is better"-type comments, Rudel carries on and delivers numerous well-thought-out lines dealing with Black's serious attempts to derail the C Z, and in a way that class players can appreciate. For example, he explains in detail how to handle anti-Colle moves like ... Bf5 and ... Bf4, Black's attempt to chase away White's d3 bishop by playing ... Nb4, and even Black's ... c5 on the second move. He writes all of this for the class player in an informal style that is just plain fun to read. His selected master games specifically target the points he is making. He uses diagrams effectively and adequately, although I would have liked twice as many of them. (But I say that about every chess opening book I read.)Rudel shows that playing the C-Z is not simply a matter of plopping down ten opening moves and then looking around to see what Black has done in the meantime. In my view, this work has transformed the Colle-Zukertort from a "system" to an outright opening. Of the many dozens of opening books in my chess library, Zuke `Em is hands down number one. If you play the C-Z, or want to (and if you read this book you will want to), this one is an absolute must-have.

Extremely well written for someone like me. I quit playing chess for many years and have stepped into a new world lf teenage Grand Masters. I'm not about to try and memorize 200 openings and play blitz chess. I need some thought process regarding chess and David is doing just that. I also like the opening he is pushing. I can't imagine a better opening in terms of all the old standby's lilke "get the wood out" etc.Lars Runar

Amazing. Lots of knowledge and marvelously written, a true page-turner. I can only say I'd wish all chess books were like this one.

Zuke'Em is simply and hands down the best investment I have ever made in an opening book. Amazon gets five stars for their speedy service. What I enjoyed most from this book is Mr. Rudel's passion for the Colle-Zukertort. It was clear to me from the very first pages that Mr. Rudel spent an enormous amount of effort on this volume (a satisfying 310 pages).As I read I entered all of the games and analysis into Chess Openings Wizard (formerly Bookup Pro) for future reference. The chapter on early Bg4/Bf4 by black was most welcome as I seem to be pitted against these variations often. It's not hard to tell that Mr. Rudel is an expert on this opening and any defamation about rating is simply that. The analysis and recommendations are spot on and this sound opening promises at least equality (usually more though).My copy of The Moment of Zuke has arrived and I recommend getting both books at the same time to save on shipping and because after reading Zuke'Em you will want more.Thanks for reading my review of Zuke'Em and props to Mr. Rudel for enhancing chess opening literature.Cheers,Adam

I have read both Mr Rudel's books as I love the Colle system. They're full of excellent advice and I feel it is almost impossible to lose if you take on board his ideas. Also try Chess:The Endgame and/or Chess Essentials both by Paul Wiseman.

It was perfect worked very well in my games

Edition de 2015 comprenant un chapitre rénové sur la Slave.Point sur l'attaque Phoenix avec b4.A conseiller pour les passionnés de ce système; nombreuses analyses et variantes contre les possibilités des Noirs.Ne manquent que la Hollandaise et l'Est-Indienne mais Rudel leur a consacré un livre.