Customer Reviews

The Alterman Gambit Guide: White Gambits

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Dear Gm Alterman:

Thank you for the many excellent lessons of your Gambit Guide on ICC. I have gone through all of them and entered all the moves and most of your comments into my Bookup data base. In many cases, I found your lines to be improvements over certain tactical lines I had recorded from books over the last 20 years. Your Gambit Guide has revitalized me on chess as I had set it aside for the last 6 years.

I have really enjoyed your book, "White Gambits" and look forward to your next one. Should you ever present more lectures on white gambits, I would hope you might go into the main lines of the Blackmar Diemer Gambit as well as some of the declined lines. It is a powerful opening system for developing players that really trained me to see tactical opportunities just as your Gambit Guide has done on a broader range of openings. Your lessons, starting with the Danish Gambit, and building to more complex openings really incorporated opening principles in the best manner I have ever seen.

I am starting to play openings from your series that I never tried before! My old favorite was the Max Lange Attack since I met and played against Koltanowski in a simul when I was about 16. He took 3 of us teenagers aside after the simul and spent 2 hours with us explaining the intricacies of the Max Lange and why he played it in simuls. I was hooked! I mostly get to play it as Black since it is hard to get anyone to play into it when one has white. I really appreciated your presentation and analysis of the Max Lange Attack and the Morphy Attack (Open Two Knights) which is very useful when oponents avoid the Max Lange.

Sincerely,

Gary Zintgraff
San Antonio, Texas

I'm not a world class player, but I love to play and search for ways to improve. This book is both fun and instructive-I've already surprised some of my opponents. The graphics are excellent and the American English is very clear. I loved the pages of the Danish gambit. I anxiously await the companion book of black gambits. My tactics have improved as I study what to do when I first see the opportunity of a gambit. Owners of this volume will be glad they have it.

GM Boris Alterman's new book "The Alterman Gambit Guide-White Gambits" is a welcome addition to chess literature. Beginners will love it-Coffee house players will profit and stronger players will find much of instructional value. The English prose is clear and readable and the graphics are excellent. Especially good are the short paragraphs following the games such as "What we have learned", and "Conclusions". My favorite chapters so far are The Max Lange Attack and the Danish Gambit. I read a new chapter and work on it each few days.

Since staring the book, my openings have improved and my tactics make more sense. Other readers in my club have said the same thing. One of our stronger players particularly liked the Cochrane Gambit.

We should look forward to the companion book "Black Gambits".

This new book has provided me with fun and an improvement in my game. I'll never be a grandmaster, but winning in my chess club and on the web is something I look forward to. The pages on the Evans gambit have occupied my time recently and I've even won a couple of games with it from opponents I had never beaten before. Next I'm going to the excellent chapters on Philidor's.

Anyone reading this book can choose a gambit to make a choice for him or herself and see tactics improve. The book is easy to read and follow.

I especially like the discussion of the variations and how to anticipate them.


Other players at Bartleby's Chess Club in Mystic Connecticut where I play like the book and the club president is considering having a gambit tournament where each white player has to offer a gambit.

Most Gambit player like an open, more 'tactical' chess game. Alterman's Gambit guide covers most of the best known white piece gambits in enough detail for the more expert player, but also covers the basic ideas behind going down a pawn or two for the lower rated player.

It was worth the investment for me, and is now a bit dog-eared from heavy use.

My only quibble is that there are a few more gambits not covered in this book.

Docvan