I wrote this book back in 1997 when I was playing the Semi-Slav regularly with both colours at a high level. It’s an understatement to say that a lot has happened to this opening in the past 19 years; I am still fond of the book, however. The former World Champion and Semi-Slav guru Vladimir Kramnik told me he enjoyed the book greatly which counts as one of the highlights of my writing career. It was also the first book in which I tried out the Question and Answer format which I subsequently used in many of my books.