Mihail Marin

This book is seriously the best book ever written on the English (along with the other 2 books within the series, GM Repertoire 4 and GM Repertoire 5). Marin is an excellent writer, and actually explains what he's talking about. This can almost be viewed as a middlegame book. He mentions in the introduction that one should read the book in order. I can see why. There are references to what he talked about in Chapter 3 in Chapters 4 and 5. I am currently on page 67 out of almost 500, and already I can say that 5 stars isn't going to be enough to rate this book. It should get 100 stars!

Highly recommended for anyone looking to take up the English as White.

The same author has written 2 more books on the English to complete the series. This book covers 1...e5. The 2nd one covers all move that are not 1...c5 or 1...e5. The 3rd covers the Symmetrical English (1...c5).

In addition, he has written 2 books for Black answering 1.e4 with 1...e5, one covering the Spanish, the other covering "Open Games". Also extremely well written.

Having read 67 pages, along with taking a few "glimpses" at future lines in the book and his other two books to take care of correspondence games, my White game has shot up astronomically since the middle of year (2010), and as I get thru these books, it will only get better.

Nobody at your club will want to play Black against you ever again!… (mer)