Opening

I recommend this book very highly for its content. It is a well organised and comprehensive guide on all aspects of defence, including many useful excercises. This book is not too advanced and should not go over the head of anyone rated above 1500, and it is useful for anyone below 2300.

Unfortunately, my copy of the book quickly fell apart. The binding is terrible. Therefore I only gave it 4 stars.

If you don't mind loose pages and if you know that you lose games that you should have drawn, studying this book will give you 100 extra rating points easily.

If you want to work even more on your defence, another excellent book is How to Be Lucky in Chess by LeMoir.

This is a great book. Polugayevsky and Damsky are an excellent team, as Damsky is good at writing for the club-level player, and Polu was a total genius, but one whose writing is sometimes over the head of the club player. This book contains hudreds of excellent examples, and there is much instructive commentary. There is an effort to show why certain defensive ideas work in certain positions. This book will improve your defensive skill, there is no question about that. It will also improve your confidence that far more positions are capable of being saved than you would think. The book also has an excellent human touch, such as a hilarious story about a Reshevsky-Geller game that the American should have won, bub did not. Highly recommended!

This book was recommended to me by an "A" player back when I was rated 1300. He said it helped his game by 300 pts. It did the same for me. Its kind of like Nimzo on tranquilizers.

This book is a Pythonesque take on chess openings. And now for something completely different. "Baroque," explains the author, is used here in all its senses: ornate, complex, to some degree indecipherable, and not least sort of ugly. The openings Wincor describes are truly all these things. But if you can appreciate the British sense of humour, you'll enjoy reading it regardless of your attitude or knowledge about chess. I left my copy on a train years ago, and the loss still haunts me.

Published in 1994, a simple approach is taken to defeating Black's Caro-Kann defence. The Adavance Variation for White is employed (1.e4 c6, 2.d4 d5, 3.e5). Great for Novices and Intermediates who don't face the Caro-Kann too often. For a more advanced system for White, i would suggest Angus Dunnington's 'The Ultimate King's Indian Attack' which covers a system for White not only against the Caro-Kann defence, but also the Sicilian defence and the French defence.

GM Kotronias has published a valuable resource for dealing with the Caro Kann defense using the uncompromising Advance Variation. Kotronias demonstrates how application of the Advance with 4. Nc3 stifles Black's chances to shift the game into a quiet and dull affair. All games included in this compact book are interesting and educational. Most likely to appeal to an agressive player who wants to challenge the Caro Kann to a critical and sharp debate, this book will also enlighten or clarify things on the dynamics of pawn structure in this important opening, with implications for positional dynamics. This book is a must for an agressive, tactical 1. e4 player.

Published in 1991, it only contains about 100 pages. The Blumenfeld Gambit (1.d4 Nf6, 2.c4 e6, 3.Nf3 c5, 4.d5 b5? ) stood condemned by theory, a poor and neglected relative of the popular Benko and Benoni systems. Counterplay against 5.Bg5 led by pioneers such as twice US champion Lev Alburt have achieved excellent results. A system where Black is not satisfied with a Draw...

This book has all the enthusiasm of a "winning with..." type book, but the authors are more sincere than that. They published the book more as a "trends in...", trying to predict where the future play would be in this line. First, there is a historical chapter, which presents with astonishing clarity the main ideas that have shaped the Blumenfeld. Second is a chapter which shows many examples of the main ideas in the opening, focusing on the struggle for d5. This too is a great chapter. yes, the book is short, but it has as much susbstance as much longer books. There are no illustrative games to pad the thickness; but every page of theory shows you something important. They take you through all the main white and black efforts to alter the evaluation of this opening, and and the result is incredible instructive. In fact, this book emphasizes some psychological elements (the author is the author of the recent psych. treatise, "How to Think in Chess."), also in a very instructive way. This book istructs you on how to approach any opening, this one in particular, but it is a very valuable book that, instead of giving you a repertoire or a pat series of moves, challenges you to think about the ideas of the variation, and brings you into it to make it yours. A gem.

This is the third of, at this point, five collections of entries to the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest, a contest in which the goal is to write the worst possible opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.

Like all of the others of its kind, this book is tremendously enjoyable for those who find amusement in the intentional lampooning of bad writing. I must say that I found it the least amusing of the lot, but that still leaves it a marvellously funny romp. Well worth the effort of tracking down a copy.

Like all of the Dark and Stormy Night series, this is a collection of entries from a contest in which the aim is to write the worst opening sentence for a book.

Some rely on groanworthy puns, some on mixed metaphors, some on convoluted, endless sentences. The best ones are just bizarre. My favourite: "Ernest Hemingway had been his hero ever since he was belched out of his mother's angry, belligerent womb."

Along with Murray Chandler's more recent, The Complete c3 Sicilian, this is one of only two Alapin Sicilian books worth owning. The games in this book are no longer on the cutting edge of theory, but are still instructive examples of the latent power of the system. There are fewer games than in Chandler's tome, but Lane's are annotated more with the amateur player in mind which is very helpful in an opening about which little has been written until its recent rise in popularity. If you can get a copy of this book, pick it up.

This book is so well written that not only did I come away with a good understanding of this particular opening system, but Mr. Lane's explanations of why each move was important in each separate variation helped my chess play in general. The very next tournament I played in I beat two higher ranked players and gained a bunch of ratings points. Read it! I guarantee you will come away impressed. --Mike Nokes USCF 1321--

Intended for less-experienced players, this book covers about 24 major openings and their major variations. This is a great book for anyone with limited time and experience but who doesn't want an encyclopedia or some Grandmaster deciding for him what his opening "repertoire" should be. When I was under 1700 I loved this book because I could get a general understanding of several main openings and get a taste of what seemed interesting. If you're a relatively lower-rated player, you'd probably be better off investing most of your time on tactics, and leaving those 20 move variations to the masters. This is a good way to start towards mastery (from a 2087 player). Why isn't this book 20% off?

Its a great book and by the way Stewart's a very nice guy, got him to autograph it for me at a tourney a couple of years back. Did not play him but will, one of these days. It's a good modern over view, similar in style to Reuben Fine's "Ideas behind the openings book". Its excellent as your first opening book, gives a great overview in a compact size. I would recommend for anyone under 1600. However what spoilt it was one of the IMs mentioning that Stewart was not that strong a player which is a fact, he'd just below 2200. That's 600 points above a 1600 player so do not be too concerned. What redeemed the book for me was his clear lay out and style. As the years have gone by I have returned and looked at the variations, they have all proved solid. Some of his pet lines are there (He tells you that!). There are words of wisdom spread out through the book, including choice of repertoire, further reading and an over view of pawn positions. My guess is that Stewart was an IM once upon a time. My only wish was that this had been my first opening book I think my opening knowledge would have progressed faster and further. In my opinion this is the closest natural successor to Fine's classic. And Stewart if you one day need a hand to revise this one email me! Oh by the way I am now close to IM level!

OK, there is some new information here. Mostly it seems that Hayes has helped illustrate the travels of Mackenzie, something that was not available previously. Barry Gough's book is notoriously lacking in any illustration of Mackenzie's voyages and Mackenzie's own book is virtually without useful illustration. Maybe having read the previous two books makes me jaded but Mackenzie's voyages can only be retold so many times.
Hayes has presented us with a slightly new take on telling the story with pictures, maps and historical vignettes but I hunger for a more thorough job. Perhaps more in the nature of Moulton's "Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition". Finding someone willing to wade through Mackenzie's rather impenetrable prose may be a challenge.
Notwithstanding the above this is probably the best explanation of Mackenzie's voyages since the original journals.

First Crossing by historian Derek Hayes is the amazing story of Alexander Mackenzie, and his trailblazing journey across the North American continent before civilized society conquered the North American wilderness. Illustrated throughout with maps and photographs in black-and-white and color, the deftly researched and meticulously reported details of Mackenzie's voyage vividly reconstruct an 18th Century expedition of truly insurmountable bravery and pivotally important discovery.

The "english opening" is one of the most complex chess playing systems. In this book Hansen deals with the variations called "reversed sicilian". Hansen analyzes main lines and side lines through 10 chapters. An useful index of variations at the end of the book allows to easily skip through many transpositional lines. The games analyzed are numerous as in every "Gambit guide" book. Hansen's analysis includes many correspondence games, too. I think this book is the perfect choice for everybody interested with the "english opening".

The 1...e5 systems of the English Opening lead to positions rich in tactical and strategic subtleties, making them suitable for players of all standards and temperaments. These lines have not been properly covered in chess literature for twenty years, and this thoroughly researched book fills a gaping void. The main systems covered include the Reversed Dragon, where the position is balanced on a tactical knife-edge; the tense Closed lines, where Black adopts a King's Indian set-up; the fashionable lines with a very early ...Bb4; and the main lines of the English Four Knights, as used in many top-level games. The unique GAMBIT System makes it easy to use the book to the maximum practical advantage. "Quick Summaries" introduce the main themes of each system, where appropriate suggesting a coherent repertoire of reliable lines. Then comes detailed, unbiased coverage of all the critical lines, for reference and detailed study. Whether you're looking for a quick ! ! introduction to an opening system for surprise use, a refresher course in a favorite opening, or to research an opening deeply, the GAMBIT Guide is the ideal choice.

As someone who occasionally struggles with leads, I found this guide quite helpful in working out some of the kinks and better using my creativity. I've read it cover to cover several times and my only complaint is that I wish it were longer!

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