Until a few years ago, the Petroff was opening that was favored by a few top Grandmasters, including Anatoly Karpov and Artur Yusupov. However, the last few years have seen a dramatic rise in its popularity, and it now provides battlefields for many top clashes of the modern elite players, including Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Leko, Topalov, and England's Michael Adams. This is bound to have a positive effect on its popularity at club level. In this book, openings experts Alexander Raetsky and Maxim Chetverik study the typical plans and tactics for both White and Black in this complex opening. Using illustrative games, the authors provide up-to-date coverage of a line that has experienced a major overhaul in the last decade.

Alexander Raetsky is a Russian International Master and an experienced competitor on the chess tournament circuit. He's also a skilled writer and has been a frequent contributor to the famous Russian magazine 64 and the internationally renowned publication New In Chess. His first book for Everyman, Meeting 1 e4, was very well received by the chess-playing public. Maxim Chetverik, also from Russia, is a FIDE Master and a renowned openings theoretician. Earlier works for Everyman include English...e5, which he also co-authored with Raetsky.