Introduction
Scherbakov’s triangle system is an opening book which gives a repertoire for Black against the Queen’s gambit. The author presents a very fighting and ambitious system which starts with building a pawn triangle in the middle of the board. So Black commits to the Semi Slav in the first 3 moves with pawn moves d5, c6, e6 with delaying the development of the king’s knight to f6. The book gives a complete repertoire for Black after the opening moves:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6/c6, 3. Nf3/Nc3 c6/e6. The author leaves it to the reader/player to decide whether he will move the c or the e pawn on move 2, thus risking either the Exchange Slav or the Exchange Queen’s gambit. In any case the book does not deal at all with these early sidelines, so the readers need to study from some other source and decide on their own how to deal with these two possible Exchange variations.
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Structure of the Triangle System
The book is divided into 3 major parts. The first part deals with the very interesting Noteboom variation. Scherbakov advocates for taking the pawn on c4 on move 4 and then protecting it with b7-b5 making it as difficult as possible for White to win the pawn back. This approach is of course very double-edged and it seems like Black is violating all the principles of opening play: quick development of the pieces, safety of the king and the control of central squares.
In return Black gets a lot of space on the queenside and in the main line even two strong connected a and b pawns. White on the other hand has a very strong centre and a possible quick attack on the Black’s castled king on the kingside. Middlegames tend to be very sharp so I can immediately conclude that this book and this system is not for the faint-hearted. Of course White does not have to go for the main line and there are numerous side lines and deviations here, but the author did an excellent job in covering in detail all of them. I found particularly interesting g3 variations, especially the sideline when g3 is played on move 6 after Black has already committed his dark square bishop to b4. This tries to stir Black completely off the track and highlight that the bishop is utterly displaced there.
More books on the Slav, Semi-Slav and the triangle structure:
The Marshall Gambit
The second part of the book is dedicated to the Marshall gambit (not to be confused with the Marshall gambit in the Ruy Lopez). Here White first develops his queenside knight to c3 and strikes in the centre with e4 immediately after Black has completed the triangle and before they had a chance to take on c4. This is the most ambitious and I would say the most natural way to counter the Triangle Slav since Black failed to reinforce the control of the e4 square on move 3 with the more common Nf6. If White goes for the main line, then Black will be a pawn up, but White will have excellent compensation. Again Black falls behind in development and has problems with controlling the dark squares in his camp since he has to exchange the dark square bishop for the knight in order to win the pawn. The author believes it is much more challenging and more dangerous for Black to play against the Marshall gambit than against the main line in the Noteboom.
Here’s a position from a famous Marshall Gambit game played between Loek Van Wely and Alexei Shirov in 2002. It’s black to play. How would you evaluate it? Does white have a promising attack?
However, Black is a pawn up, and from my experience a lot of chess players, especially at the club level, are very uncomfortable playing a pawn down from the very start of the game. In addition to that, both Black and White should know the theory quite well in order to navigate through this tricky gambit. I have to emphasize that in my tournament practice, so far nobody entered the main line of the gambit as White, but rather decided to go for the safer sideline which does not sacrifice the pawn. And I played this line against the No. 1 female player in Croatia in the tournament over the board game as well. Ena Cvitan has been playing main line d4 her whole career and is very experienced. Here is the position in which she decided to avoid the complicated Marshall by playing 6.Nc3. If she had played 6.Bd2, we would have entered the Marshall Gambit.
The third part of the book deals with all other possible variations after Black has built the triangle that are not the Noteboom and the Marshall. The author calls them Anti-Triangle Systems. I think this part of the book is also very important for the reader because an unprepared White is quite likely to play one of them. I found the chapter on the Triangle Stonewall very interesting, since it very clearly emphasizes when and why it is good for Black to build the wall with the move f5 and when it is better to refrain from it. The chapter will be quite appealing to the Dutch players.
Alternatives and options for Black
I would also like to mention that throughout the book Scherbakov gives more than one variation for Black. He clearly states his one best recommendation but sometimes even includes the variations that are not that good for Black when he wants to point out some useful strategic ideas or when he wants to show which type of position is better avoided. The book does not contain any sample games nor are the variations presented through annotated games. It is structured in a more classical form where the variations, subvariations and other divisions are marked with letters and numbers. In the text you can find games in which a certain position occurred. I would say that, nevertheless, the complete layout is quite easy to follow. On the other hand the material is really vast, the book contains almost 450 pages.The opening theory is really covered in detail so I guess that stronger players will probably benefit from it most.
Conclusion
To conclude, I would say that this book is a really valuable piece of material. It provides a Black player a complete repertoire against the Queen’s gambit once the triangle is completed. It contains plenty of variations but also gives the insight to the tactical and strategical ideas.The triangle system is a very fighting opening that will in most cases lead to very sharp and interesting middlegames. Players who love attacking chess should definitely include it in their opening arsenal.
