Discovering Chess Openings

The book meets my expectations of recalling basic principles, now if I only can find the time to go through it.

Many chess teachers advise against spending excessive time on the study of openings variations for the beginner, but they do agree it is important to acquire a solid understanding of opening PRINCIPLES right from the start. This book explains the basics of opening FUNDAMENTALS better than any other book! If you are uncertain about what you should be thinking and doing during the opening, this book does an exceptional job of addressing these issues. Lets be clear what this book is and is not. The book is NOT an openings reference or manual. It does not attempt to deal comprehensively with the myriad lines of any chess openings. There are many other (thousands!) of books that serve that purpose. The book contains 6 chapters, the first 5 of which deal exclusively with chess opening PRINCIPLES, their theory and application. There is no other single book that deals with this topic as exhaustively and effectively, at the beginner/novice level (I own hundreds of chess books so I'm reasonably confident about this). The last chapter rounds out the book with a succinct survey of some of the major openings, from the perspective of how these openings apply chess principles. So, I could not disagree more with the one reviewer who opined that this book could have been better. In fact, this is an outstanding book and admirably achieves its intended purpose, which is to explain and clarify fundamental chess opening PRINCIPLES! P.S. - Two other books which are targeted to the beginner/novice chess player and which do a better than average job addressing and explaining opening principles, are Chess Openings by Michael (Mike) Basman and Back to Basics Openings by Carsten Hansen.

. . . and believe me, I've read lots of them. I'm a struggling intermediate player (a "developing" player, as this author would call me) and I've never read anything so clear or so helpful. I plan to read through the book two or three more times, to glean everything I can from it.

There are six sections to the book: Introduction to chess openings and their importance Understanding opening principles Developing a repertoire of openings Analyzing and choosing the best opening for your style Exploring common openings and their variations Tips for improving your opening play Ideas to study by: The importance of developing a solid understanding of basic opening principles, such as controlling the center, developing pieces efficiently, and creating a strong pawn structure. The value of studying and learning from grandmaster games, in order to gain insights into how top players approach the opening phase of the game. The importance of understanding the motivations behind different opening systems, and how to choose an opening that best suits your own style and preferences. The importance of tactical awareness and calculation skills in the opening phase of the game, as well as the need to be prepared to defend against aggressive play by your opponent. The value of studying and analyzing your own games in order to identify and address any weaknesses in your opening play, and to continually improve and refine your opening repertoire. Chess maxims included: "Openings are the foundation upon which the rest of the game is built." "The aim of an opening is not to win material, but to put your pieces in good positions and develop an advantage." "A good opening repertoire is one that allows you to play comfortably and confidently in a wide range of positions." "The best opening is the one that suits your style and strengths as a player." "The ability to analyze and evaluate positions is crucial for success in the opening phase."

This book is outstanding for a beginning chess player who has little experience in developing an appropriate chess opening repertoire.

Great gift for granddaughter

The author starts out explaining that as a chess coach, his students new to opening theory have had more success concentrating on the "basic principles of opening play", than the traditional way of teaching them the main openings by explaining the reasoning behind every move. His thinking was that when faced with a new position, (Something that happens quite a bit in beginner's games!) the student would have more confidence, and be able to generate much stronger moves. In the first three chapters, he discusses 1. Control of the center; 2.Rapid piece development; and 3.King safety. Then comes what I consider to be the heart and soul of this book, and why it's different from all the others. Chapter 4 kicks things off with 'Delving Deeper'. And delve deeper he does, discussing: luxury pawn moves; moving a piece twice; grabbing pawns; gaining time; the queen (exposed or not?); holding up and restricting; pinning and unpinning; pinning and the question of castling; gambits; checking; and springing off the edge. And then Chapter 5 continues things with 'Pawn Play'. Discussed are: the classic center; the timing of c2-c3; the Sicilian; pawn play with 1.d4 d5; the queen's gambit; the blocked center; the hypermodern school; pawn breaks; attacking with the f-pawn; understanding doubled pawns; and pawn captures. (Have you ever seen an opening book with this much pawn instruction?) Chapter 6 'Chess Openings in Practice' then wraps things up with the: Giuoco Piano; Two Knights Defence; Ruy Lopez; Petroff Defence; Sicilian Dragon; Sicilian Sveshnikov; French; Caro-Kann and Scandinavian; Queen's Gambit Declined; Slav; Dutch; King's Indian; Grunfeld; and English. He doesn't cover every opening, but includes a lot of analysis, and goes about 10 to 15 moves deep on average, depending on the opening. 31 openings are covered altogether, not including the Fool's Mate; Scholar's Mate; and Legall's Mate. I think if you wanted to get started right away, you could just read the first three chapters, and then skip to the openings. And when you do read Chapter 6, he does a good job of explaining where to find more information about an opening in chapters 4 and 5, if relevant. I think reading the chapters in order is best, but if you're in a rush because you have a tournament or something coming up this weekend, there is a little bit of a short cut for you. Highly recommend!

Sometimes for me the problems with chess books are they will throw out the main line and launch into deep analysis and variation upon variation, so that all too soon I am lost. Or the opposite in some opening books where it is so basic and generic nothing of practical use is realized. I have found this book to be a nice compromise. The writer begins with basic opening traps, then quickly moves to sound guidelines and builds with well explained lines. I am approx 1400 player (pretty low) and really never studied any opening theory until recently. This book is great for a beginner. If you want deep analysis into specific openings then you probably wouldn't use this book.

Well organized and easy to understand.

I bought this book for my father's birthday. I had a quick sneaky look and liked the clear lay out, the quality of the text and the clarity of reasoning. So... I bought a copy for myself as well. I was looking for a good book to strengthen my opening play. At first, I was not sure about the fact that it does not teach you specific recommended openings until you get to about half way through the book. I am working my way through it and have decided that this is a strong plus. The problem with learning opening lines is that you can find a game unravel, when your opponent veers away from the two or three main lines you may have tried to learn. but they still play solidly. This book really helps with this. The first half of the book teaches you good and effective opening tactics. The second half then moves on to look at the strongest play in a few well chosen attacking openings and effective defences. Excellent book, well worth really taking your time with.

Good quality book, with nice page quality. The good thing about this book is it take you from the very start and don't dive in various opening strategies right from the way go . It explain you the concept behind each move, and why you should play that move in an opening. Highly recommended. I think i might look at other chess publication by this EveryMen Chess .

As advertised

Un grande classico, ben scritto.