First of all, this book is well-researched and thorough.
It is large, heavy, and beautiful.
Crisp pages, clear font, strong binding, and absolutely filled to the brim with chess brilliance.

It has a complete table of contents and a clear index of variations to help you navigate (thank god) as well as a free(!!) update you can download from the publisher's website. Very nice.

I must mention that this book is certainly NOT for beginning players, but for more advanced (i.e. titled) players. GM Avrukh has a very concrete way of presenting his ideas which can be overwhelming at times (and awe-inspiring at others).
It took me several (six?) hours just to go through just one of its 29 chapters. The author presents new ideas on nearly EVERY page of his analysis. I'm not kidding when I say he has dozens and dozens of novelties, and many of them are clear improvements over existing theory and not just those "matter of personal taste" novelties.

Apparently, GM Avrukh double-checked everything with chess engines (Rybka?) as I have yet to find any outright mistakes in his analysis with my silicon monsters. In fact, I think he sometimes UNDER-estimates White's chances in some lines (which is a refreshing change from many authors who view their recommended lines through rose-tinted glasses). He also recommends moves which the computers don't like at first but finally agree with when you input them and let it run until 17-ply or so. In other words, he uses the computer as a tool and not an oracle or as a replacement for his brain. This book must have taken him months and months of hard work!

So, while the book IS incredibly dense, it is also a tremendous time-saver when you consider how long it would take you to actually prepare this repertoire on your own (yeah, right!). Now you can simply 'steal' a top GMs repertoire knowing that he's already researched (and double-checked!) it for you...fantastic!

This heavy-duty, professional repertoire is build around the Catalan, the e3-Slav, 7.Bb3 against the QGA, an anti-meran 5.b3 against the semi-slav, etc. Avrukh tends to play solid, positional chess: he goes for space, the bishop pair, and never cedes the center. I would describe this repertoire as "build up, then break through."

He spends nearly 250 pages (!) on the Catalan; where he recommends the fashionable 10.Bd2 in the open Catalan mainline. This line was played by Sosonko 'back in the day' as well as Korchnoi, Speelman, etc. But really became popular after its successful use by Kramnik (with wins over Anand, Carlsen and Leko). Perhaps Vladimir got the idea when Kasparov played it against him in their 2000 World Championship match.


FINAL VERDICT:
This book REALLY is an "improved version" of a top 50 chess player's repertoire. No shortcuts, lots of new ideas, and profoundly rewarding for the right kind of player.
However, I must repeat: This is not for the 'Starting Out' player, but those of us who have played for years and want an edge even against strong opposition (and are willing to work for it).

If you consider yourself a positional player, you couldn't ask for a better introduction to an opening repertoire than this book. It is thorough, and packed full of novelties. This book has been well reviewed by Carsten Hanson from the ChessCafe website and by Jeremy Silman. Please ignore the 1 star review by I love neda. If you are looking for an opening repertoire with a tactical emphasis, you will probably be more interested in Schandorff's release on the Queen's Gambit.

First of all. This is a book that gives you an opening repertoire to you. It is not a book that is analyzing the different opening systems.
I LOVE NEDA "ME" needs to understand that the caliber of this book is too deep for his brain.
I LOVE NEDA "ME" get a gun and shoot yourself, maybe next life you will learn real chess!.

This is one of the best opening books I've ever read, and I've already used it to achieve wins against IMs and a few GMs. Avrukh offers a very well-thought out and incredibly detailed repertoire, with many new ideas and novelties.

I offer a serious caveat, however: the book does not offer detailed explanations of the openings it covers. It's not intended as a primer on the Catalan or other openings; it assumes someone already knows how to fire a gun and gives them the best ammo available. Also, it's not a book based on trappy lines or following recipes (as one might use playing the Colle System). So while I wouldn't discourage interested tournament players from buying it, the target audience is probably 2000 ELO and up, and more realistically 2200-2300 and up.

Finally, a quick comment on I LOVE NEDA "ME"'s very negative review: there's no reason at all why Avrukh should cover 3.e4 vs. the Queen's Gambit Accepted - it's not a book advocating the opening for Black. Avrukh likes 3.e3 and offers plenty of material promoting it. If ILNM wants to play 3.e4 he can buy Schandorff's book, but there's no reason to blame Avrukh for offering a different main line.

In sum, it's a fantastic book, but remember that it's geared to very strong players.

...according to the Forward by Avrukh wherein he makes the point that at the very top levels there has been a trend from l. e4 to l. d4. Even Anand switched to d4 for his recent convincing victory over Kramnik in the World's Championship. I didn't really need any convincing since I made that switch years ago and have never regretted it.

This book is volume 1 based upon a repertoire consisting of l d4 d5, 2 c4 and an early g3 and Bg2 in most lines. This volume devotes the first approximate 240 pages, and 12 chapters, to the Catalan. The next 9 chapters and 100 pages cover the Slav and the remaining 100 pages and 8 chapters cover the other 1 d4 d5 openings, i.e., the Chigorin, the Tarrasch, ...Bf5, Albin Counter Gambit, Queens Gambit Accepted, etc. Please note that in this volume only the Catalan uses the g3, Bg2 kingside fianchetto system. Avrukh promises that Volume 2 will use the kingside fianchetto almost exclusively. You can do not need buy the 2nd volume if you use some other system, such as the Trompowsky (and don't want to change), against 1d4 Nf6. However, I am so impressed with Volume 1 that I will certainly buy Volume 2.

This book is one in a series by Quality Chess that emphasizes playing the main lines. It has no complete games. The first page of each chapter contains a variation tree indicating what is contained in the chapter. The end of the book also has an index of variations which obviously makes finding things easier. Each chapter contains all the variations shown on the preceding tree. It is here that one realizes what a monumental work this is. Avrukh includes so many comments, additional analysis, "busts" to previous theory and novelties that you would think that this would have been years in the making. Many of the variations are only partially from games since when Avrukh introduces a novelty, naturally what follows is his analysis rather than the moves from an actual game. This is a large, dense book but with a great deal of prose contained within the analysis and even though each variation probably averages about 15 moves and occasionally as long as 25 there is a lot of chess education that can be found in Avrukh's comments. Clearly this is a serious repertoire meant to be used against the world's best. It is certainly no "Starting Out with the...." type of book. I suppose in reality it is geared toward stronger players, though I think that just playing through the variation tree moves to get a basic feel for the repertoire and then starting to dip into the main body of the book should put anyone on the road to improving.

Avrukh is well known as a leading analyst and theoretician. He is also one of the strongest players in the world. He is currently in the top 100 and has been in the top 50 and is rated about 2650. He says that this repertoire is 90% his own and he will be incorporating the other 10%. I think it is very likely that Avrukh is the strongest player ever to author a full repertoire volume.

Finally, I should mention that the book itself is the typical high quality product of Quality Chess. The binding is solid, the paper is high quality with very little bleed and the print and diagrams are clear and attractive.