The back of this book describes the semi-slav as a reliable defense for black… and yet, I found myself in increasing despair as I played through the games, and so few of them were wins for black.

In the end, yes, I counted it all up: 49 wins for white, 22 wins for black, and 57 draws.

Now, I’m not one of those chess readers who thinks that a good chess book will show a raft of wins for whatever opening is being described, ignoring great defenses…there’s a lot of value in seeing how an opening is beaten. As it happens, it turns out this opening only wins about 25% of the time for black in chess explore, so the 17% represented here isn’t wildly improbable… still, it’s low compared to even that paltry win rate, and you should give some thought on that before buying this book.