ESSENTIAL CHESS OPENINGS Paperback – 5 May 1992

Fascinating!

its ok.

Just getting into chess? Here's an observation of mine about chess openings that I've never seen in any chess literature: The openings are an extensive collection of EXCEPTIONS to intuitive "natural" chess play. That is, they contain a host of tricks, traps, and pitfalls that guarantee pain and humiliation for the unwary opponent who is not familiar with openings. This book is a slender volume that devotes a page or two each to the 35 (or so) most popular openings with several levels of sub-variations for each. Think of it as an abbreviated introduction to chess openings, which all share some common theoretical concepts. Advanced players must know at least one opening thoroughly for playing the white pieces, and at least a couple for when they play the black pieces (to respond effectively to a white King pawn opening or Queen pawn opening). Now envision the 5-volume Encyclopedia of Chess Openings from Sahovski Informator (Chess Informant). Collectively, those 5 books contain over 3,000 pages (in a smallish font) detailing variation examples from over 150,000 world-class games. By contrast, this little gem is all of 160 pages. Even so, this book is not really for beginners. Get this if you have a passing familiarity with advanced tactics, feel ready for a next step, and then only if the word "openings" piques your curiosity. See any of Jeremy Silman's books for a different but complementary approach to playing the game.

It arrived in excellent condition.