Good Books on the Queen's Gambit and other 1.d4 d5 openings.

Play the Slav by James Vigus is a very nice effort at building a black repertoire after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6. Though it's only the last year or so that I've become interested in the Queen's Gambit as black. I used to think it was just too passive, probably partly influenced by the popularity of black systems without c5 or Bb4, which on lower levels seem almost mandatory for some reason. Nowadays, it seems to me that black has good chances in all of the non-passive systems from the QGA, via early ...c5 (Tarrasch and Semi-Tarrasch) or early ...Bb4 (Ragozin, Vienna and maybe also the Manhattan) to the Meran, Slav and Semi-Slav. But Chebanenko's ...a6 is a delightfully annoying idea of a less theoretical nature than the alternatives.

The Chebanenko Slav According to Bologan This is one of those books that is a goldmine for a motivated reader, while those who want things prechewed for them will not get very far.

The Chigorin Defence According to Morozevich is surprisingly readable for being writen by a top-player. Most works on the Chigorin (and I have a bunch of them) cover everything in detail, which tends to bore me so I don't think I've actually read all the other ones I have... Morozevich only recommends the variations he has relied on himself in tournament play, and if you go thru the book you'll eventually know which are the critical lines. Personally, he convinced me that I'd rather reach the Chigorin via 1.d4 Nc6 as then you can replace the most critical Chigorin lines with 2.c4 e5!? which may not be better, but it's less explored. :)

Playing the Queen's Gambit: A Grandmaster Guide by Lars Schandorff.

I haven't seen this book actually, but since I've played in the same club as Schandorff a few years ago, I'd expect it to be excellent just based on my sense of character!

The Chess Advantage in Black and White by Larry Kaufman. Who would've thought that it's possible to give both a white and a black repertoire in the same book?! Of course, he doesn't quite pull it off. My main quibble would be that he spends much more (computer power) and effort on finding interesting novelties for the side he's advocating, while at least sometimes ignoring rather obvious good ways of avoiding his improvements. Which makes the book date much quicker than needed. Still, I really liked the chapters on d4 d5 for black, advocating the Meran and Moscow plus a repertoire vs the Catalan and all those e3+c3-systems with or without Bf4/Bg5.

A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire by Aaron Summerscale. There is a current flood of books recommending especially the Colle but also the London and Veresov. And the Colle is not bad, but if black makes sure to delay e7-e6 until the whitefielder has gone to f5 or g4, it's hard to prove anything at all with white. But most books on the Colle spends a lot of space on early ...e6 systems - which more or less plays themselves for white! And the early Bf5 defences will be found briefly mentioned among Odd/Rare Defences... Anyway, Summerscale's (admittedly by now old) book is a bit more ambitious in that it also recommends The Barry and the 150 Attack, and his chapter on the Colle Zukertort is also worth reading as below the 2400-level few know what to do, and if black is clearly higher rated than you it's not so sure that he'll be happy with dry equality.