Book Review-The Ultimate Colle by IM Gary Lane

In the mid 1990s. former FIDE Hon. General Secretary, National Master Dr Lim Kok Ann, in his advancing years, got tired of the glut of opening theory. He thus switched from playing the main lines 1.d4 games to the Colle System instead. He told me that this substantially reduced the amount of study time required. Incidentally, one of his games can be found in Lane's book (pg 108).

Interestingly, the Colle system was also not covered in GM Joe Gallagher's Beating the Anti-Indians where its Queen Pawn relatives such as the London System and Torre Attack came under the Swiss-English GM's scrutiny.

English IM Gary Lane remains true to 1.e4 throughout his chess career and I can't find even find one instance of him nudging 1.d4 on my databases, let alone wheeling out the Colle System. However, he writes an interesting column on the Chesscafe website http://www.chesscafe.com called Opening Lanes in which readers are invited to send in queries of any kind involving chess openings. I must say I really look forward to reading Lane's column every first Wednesday of the month. For the record, Lane also won the 1999 Australian Masters 1.5 points clear of the field.

The book starts off with an interesting 4 page history of the origins of the Colle system followed by a 6 page coverage of ideas such as:

1) Colle (1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3)

1. General piece placement + building pieces up before unleashing e4
2. the Bxh7+ threat

2) Colle-Zukertort (1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 with Bd3 and b3) -

1. Early Queenside fianchetto with the possibility of c2-c4. (Reversed Queens Indian)
2. The thematic hanging c and d pawn structure
3. Some chat about Black's idea of exchanging the b2 bishop which supposedly gives Black an easy game- (as in the Reti System or French Rubinstein Fort Knox). It's not so simple in the Colle, according to Lane.

I like Chapter 1 very much. Here. Lane explains clearly how the tension releasing c5-c4 is punished, the exd5 cxd5 e4 motif, when e3-e4 is premature and how unnecessary time wasting can be exploited by a timely e5 from Black. There was also an interesting explanation of how Plaskett transposed from the French Tarrasch into the Colle with devastating effect against Nigel Short (which was how our Chris Sergel played against FM Gawehns in the CCN-IECC match. Watch the game featured below to see how Gawehns wields the Colle with White!). However, I find it kind of strange that Lane mentioned how former FIDE World Champion Khalifman "demonstrated the solidity of White's position, even at the highest level " (pg 59). From what I see, it was Black (Yudasin) who equalized without too much hassle and placed his minors on good squares when White finally got in his thematic d4-d5 IQP break. I'd say White's position (a reversed Slav one tempo up) better be solid, well, unless your name is Alexander Morozevich. Future buyers, note the typo on page 59 which reads "All the games featuring the important line 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9.Bxc5 (which should read 9.e4). Indeed, Lane advocated this line as the other prior attempts seem to equalize for Black.

Most of the games from Chapter 2 - 4 feature assorted Pillsbury Attack style games eg. Ne5, f4, Rf3-h3 or Qf3 hack lines (which Lane shows how German GM Eric Lobron nearly got the better Michael Adams), the general buildup of the White pieces gearing for e3-e4 (with exd5 or e4-e5) as well as the Greek gift Bxh7 ideas. Also, the thematic hanging c and d pawn formation with d4-d5 break is covered. Lane’s style of annotation is clear and logical with a good mix of analysis and commentary.

Here is an example of Lane's style of coverage with French WIM Christine Flear shrugging off a 230 ELO points rating deficit to make mincemeat of (now Elo 2600+ GM) Matthew Sadler. The latter (to be fair, he was only 15) was not given the opportunity to play his renowned Queen's Gambit Slav/Semi-Slav/Accepted lines which he would later write great opening books on.

From Page 63, Lane wrote:

When Black develops his bishop on e7, he has less control over the e5 square. Therefore, an alternative plan of action is to play the knight to e5, support it by f4, and follow with a kingside attack.

C.Flear - Sadler
Barnsdale, 1989
[Gary Lane]

White takes the opportunity to install a Knight at e5. This is probably the best way to take advantage of the development of the black bishop on e7 where it has no influence on the e5 square.

Black puts pressure on the e5 knight. Alternatively,

[a) 8...Nxe5 9.dxe5 Nd7 10.f4 f5!? (Black understandably wants to restrict the power of the bishop on d3) 11.exf6 Nxf6 12.e4 c4 13.Be2 (13.Bc2!?) 13...b5 14.e5 Nd7 15.Nf3 Nc5 16.Nd4 Bd7 17.Be3!? (17.Bg4 is also possible) 17...a5 18.Bg4 Ra6 19.f5! Bg5 20.Qc1 Bxe3+ 21.Qxe3 Qh4?! (or 21...exf5 22.Nxf5 Nd3 23.Qd4 giving White an edge) 22.fxe6! Rxf1+ (22...Nxe6 23.Bxe6+ Bxe6 24.Rxf8+ Kxf8 25.Rf1+ intending Qf3 wins) 23.Rxf1 Qxg4 24.Qf2 h6 25.exd7 Nxd7 26.Qf7+ Kh7 27.h3 1-0, Gawehms-Treppner, German Team Ch 1996.; b) 8...b6 9.f4 White usually supports his knight on e5 by advancing the f-pawn 9...Bb7 10.Qf3 h6 11.Kh1 Qc7 12.g4 (White wishes to provoke weaknesses in Black's defences by threatening g5) 12...Nh7 13.Nxd7 Qxd7 14.Qh3 f5 15.Nf3 Bc8 16.Ne5 when White was better in Kloeditz-Biedinger, Eisenberg 1993]

A key element in White's plan for rapid expansion on the kingside in this system is to lend support to the knight. Then, if Black exchanges on e5, White will recapture fxe5, opening up the f-file for the king's rook.

[The queen transfers to the kingside in anticipation of an attack. Another advantage of supporting the knight with f4 is that it allows the option of 10.Rf3 This worked out well in the game Palos-Senoner, Graz 1995, which continued 10...Bb7 11.Rh3 g6 (Black is persuaded to weaken his dark squares because a casual move such as 11...Rac8 runs into 12.Nxd7 Qxd7 13.Bxh7+ Nxh7 14.Qh5 winning) 12.Ndf3 Ne4 13.Nxd7 Qxd7 14.Bd2 f5 15.Be1 The bishop is heading for h4 to exchange dark-squared bishops 15...c4 16.Bc2 b5 17.Bh4 a5 18.Bxe7 Qxe7 19.Bxe4 dxe4 20.Ne5 and White stood better thanks to the dominant knight]

Sadler continues to get his pieces out but his blocked, passive position is hardly conducive to obtaining the dynamic sort of positions he thrives upon

White follows the Colle plan of advancing the kingside pawns after the centre has been closed.

[13...h6 is met by 14.Nf3 intending g5.]

Black is restless but wishes to challenge the centre but he misses a tactical point.

The discovered attack on e6 is very strong!

Black will be punished for allowing the White queen to invade and threaten the knight.

[19...Rf7? looks like it might help but then 20.Bxd7 Rxd7 21.Ne5 intending Rxf7 wins.]

[In a desperate position, Sadler tries to fend off the attack. 21...Qd8 is no better since then 22.e4! dxe4 23.Qe5+ Rf6 24.Rxf6 Qxf6 25.Bh6+ wins]

The queen is tied to the defence of the rook on d8.

With the rook on a8 about to leave the board, Black is in serious trouble.

A cheeky last throw of the dice because

[29.Bxe3?? would give Black the last laugh after 29...Bxc6+ when it is he who wins.]

The only minor grouch I have is that the themes are not sequentially organized and you will find repetitive ideas in different chapters of the book. I suppose the themes are so prevalent in Colle positions that it can’t be helped.

Chapter 5 to 7 shows how the Colle stacks up against the Indian Defences. I was quite intrigued by Lane's analysis of Van Mil-Van Der Lijn, Leeuwarden, 1993 which basically concurred with that of mine and Dr. J Nithiananthan's in the CCN 23 game commentary of Pukropski-Dr J Nithiananthan, ICCF EM/M/A087.

See http://ccn.correspondencechess.com/html/23/index.html

Chapter 8 consist of lines which Black attempts reversed Trompovsky(Bg4), London system (Bf5) lines. Lane shows convincingly a quick c2-c4 leads to a better game for White.

On the backpage blurb, the greats - Anand, Svidler and Yusupov are mentioned as Colle exponents. However, only Yusupov wields the Colle (the Colle-Zukertort to be exact) on a regular basis. I suppose he could also mention that the Colle is a great weapon against computer programs which sometimes have no inkling of White's obvious (to humans) kingside hacking plans. Lane chose to include Anand-Deep Junior, Dortmund 2000 and leave out the following game.

Kramnik,V (2770) - DEEP JUNIOR 6
SuperGM Dortmund GER (5), 12.07.2000

I suppose the Stonewall move 4.f4 is out of sync with Lane's proposed repertoire but it would have made a great sound-bite. This move order is also how the regular Colle user GM Thomas Klinger used to bamboozle his lower rated opponents at open tournaments.

Transpositional coverage.

The line 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Bd3 Qc7 6.Nbd2 e5! leading to what Pedersen calls the Central System in the Meran (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.e4) is not covered at all. With Black's cunning move order, Black saves a move on e7-e6 and achieves equality effortlessly. Perhaps Lane intended White to opt for the Colle-Zukertort with 4.b3 instead.

The most telling discrepancy was the lack of references, save an Opening index on the front page. When I start reading an opening book, I will turn to the back page to see what the stem games are and who the main exponents of the opening. I was quite disappointed to find no player references and game numbers. The game I was specifically looking for was Hoi-Gulko, Thessaloniki Olympiad 1988, which ended in a beautiful queen sacrifice for White. It can be found on page 125.

Moreover, there is no bibliography provided. One notes the constant reference to Nunn's Chess Openings and the differing assessments (to Lane's credit). There was noticeably no mention of the NICs, Informants, ECOs and Chessbase Magazines. Were these references and previous Colle System books consulted at all? One can't tell at all.

Conclusion: In my opinion, Lane's comprehensive coverage of the Colle and Colle-Zukertort more than made up for the book's discrepancies.

And by the way, just in case you don’t know, the pronunciation of the opening (or its founder’s name) is

KAW-lee (Source: Bill Wall’s Chess Page-Pronounce that chess word )

( http://www.oocities.org/siliconvalley/lab/7378/pronounc.htm )

After all, you won’t want to be corrected by the know-all types who scoff at how your version sounds like the breed of a certain dog called Lassie, would you?

The Ultimate Colle is available at all leading bookstores.