The Modern Defence leads to sharp and dynamic positions from the very first few moves. Black concedes space in the centre with a view to launching a counterattack based on his powerful bishop fianchetto. As leading grandmasters such as Alexei Shirov, Mikhail Gurevich and Jon Speelman himself have shown on numerous occasions, when it works, the Modern Defence is truly a spectacular weapon. This book will show you how to put i to use in your own games.