Customer Reviews

Attacking with 1e4 (Everyman Chess)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am an amateur player (I would estimate my rating to be somewhere around 1800-1900) who like many players started off with 1 e4 as White, but I have been playing 1 c4 for quite a while now. I have had this book for a couple of years and didn't use it much, until recently when I decided I would like to try out more direct openings with White and got it out to see if 1 e4 might be suitable for me. Before I go into the specifics of the content, I'll mention that the overall quality of the product is good, with a nice glossy cover, quality paper and binding and clear print and diagrams, although there are a fair number of (largely excusable) typos.

This is a repertoire book for White (Emms gives suggested lines to play as White against the various defences that Black can employ). Suggestions are given for all the main defences, as well as a few less used ones (1...Nc6, 1...b6 and 1...a6). Emms largely avoids main lines in an effort to avoid theory, but virtually all of his suggestions have a good pedigree and have been played by various World Champions at one time or another.

The basic repertoire is as follows:-

- Against the Sicilian, the closed variation (as played by Spassky): 2 Nc3, followed by a kingside fianchetto and generally gaining space on the kingside with an attack on the Black king's castled position.

- Against 1...e5, the Bishop's Opening (played by Kasparov and Larsen): 2 Bc4, followed by Nc3, d3 and if possible f4-f5, with a large space advantage on the kingside and again a powerful attack if Black is careless, or else active piece play in the centre.

- Against the French, the King's Indian Attack (Fischer's favourite): 2 d3, followed by Nf3, Nbd2, a kingside fianchetto and often e5 with a kingside attack.

- Against the Caro-Kann, 2 c4, with the idea of transposing into a favourable Panov Attack (as played by Botvinnik) by delaying d2-d4.

- Against the Pirc and Modern defences, the 150 Attack (played by Kasparov and Anand, amongst others): 2 d4, 3 Nc3, 4 Be3, with a possible Qd2 and Bh6 to exchange Black's defensive Bishop and h4-h5 with a massive kingside assault.

- Against the Scandinavian, Emms recommends 3 Bb5+ against 2...Nf6, with a later d4 and c4 to build a big centre while avoiding the Portuguese Gambit. Against 2...Qxd5 and 3...Qa5, Emms' idea is to force a pawn weakness in Black's kingside with a later Ne4xf6.

- Against the Alekhine, the solid but dangerous Exchange variation is recommended (c4 and d4, then exd6), as played by Alekhine and Fischer.

The lines suggested for White are not the most aggressive available, but I think that the title of the book is quite justified - Emms has struck a nice balance between active and solid play here. Certainly Emms' effort to ensure that "Black has no easy way to reach a dull equality" has paid off. That was one of the gripes I had with playing 1 c4 in some lines, but all of the suggestions in this book at least reach complex positions with chances for both sides.

The repertoire is presented in a 'variation by variation' layout, with one or two games mentioned for each minor Black sideline along the way. This is one of the better approaches to learning an opening in my opinion, even if it does take a little getting used to, and it enables the reader to easily look up lines from his own games to see where play diverged from the book. I am pleased to say that Emms is objective with his assessments, recognising that Black can achieve equality in some lines if he plays accurately, but also giving possible improvements of his own for White in these cases.

Personally I like the suggested repertoire very much. I have found the lines quite quick and easy to learn, with understanding of ideas often being more important than knowledge of variations. They are solid yet dynamic, largely avoid deep theory and will give you positions which you will likely know better than your opponent.

I should make a few things clear at this point however.
Firstly, as I have said, although this book is called 'attacking with 1 e4', Emms has chosen objectively sound lines which have stood up to grandmaster scrutiny, so I'm afraid fans of wild 19th century gambit play are out of luck!
Secondly, this book may not be suited to an absolute novice. While it provides a good and complete system for White, there is not a great deal of prose explaining the plans for both sides. Many lines are given without comment, just an assessment at the end. This is fine for seasoned players with a deeper understanding of the position, but beginners may well have difficulty understanding why a particular line given as better for White is so, or how to continue after the line in the book runs out.
Thirdly, following the repertoire will land you in a wide range of different types of positions - closed, open, isolated queen's pawn, opposite side castling, etc. This is undoubtedly good for one's chess development in the long run, but some players may, for example, dislike playing closed positions, or have a particular aversion to taking on an IQP. In this case they may prefer to pick only the lines that suit them. If you hate playing the King's Indian Attack, by all means play 2 d4 against the French, but stick to the Bishop's Opening if you don't like the Ruy Lopez! In my case the 150 Attack is a bit sharp for my liking, so I prefer to play 2 Nc3 and then either play the Classical or the Fianchetto variation, or transpose into a Closed Sicilian after 2...c5.

Emms covers the Closed Sicilian, the Bishop's Opening and the King's Indian Attack in particular depth, so even if you only want to play one of these lines, this book is well worth a look. The only (tiny) hole I have found in the repertoire thus far is in the main line of the Scandinavian, where I believe Black can avoid Emms' suggested Ne4xf6, weakening Black's kingside, by delaying ...Nf6 until ...c6, ...Bf5 and ...e6 have been played, making it more difficult for White to make progress. But of course White still gets the more active position with best play.

All in all then, an excellent book, and sufficiently comprehensive for most amateur players. I recommend that anyone who plays, or is thinking of playing 1 e4 at least take a look at this book, even if you think you know your stuff already! A little bit more prose would make this a definite 5 star book, but as it is it's a high 4. For a 5 star repertoire book, have a look at Tony Kosten's 'The Dynamic English' - but sadly that covers 1 c4, not 1 e4! :-)

OK, you have a good lines against the "normal" openings - Rui Lopez, Sicilian, French, so you maybe second guessing why purchase book that recommend 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4!? or 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 or 1. e4 e6 2.d3. Then consider this - how comfortable you are playing against the Scandinav (1.e4 d5) or Alekhine Defense (1.e4 Nf6) or Pirc and other non-common lines. For just a few bucks you get advise from well known GM. Moreover, he puts it together on the "Golden Plate" with the repertoire structure, which I have found by far more preferable than annotated sample games structure that other authors use.

Let's say your White repertuar is rock solid, what do you play against e4 as Black? Wouldn't you want to know what your future opponent (who is reading this book right this minute) will play against you?

My friends and foes know that I have reached my level, won many tournaments and have beaten several elite GMs without solid openings. So when few days ago my student, who is preparing to battle for $10,000 top prize at the World Open, was showing me his line against 1.e4, he was shocked when, instead of usual high level strategic questions, I pulled the Emms book and said what about this Emms recommendation. Well, you probably guessed -he got the book and now playes another line, where Emms comments were less clear.

I didn't give the book maximum stars, because Emms doesn't provide sufficient recommendations. In many instances he simply says White is better or slightly better. You will have to figure out on your own, what the plan should be.

Overall, very cheap book for a volume of opening preparation you get. Remember to practice your lines against "Fritz", before playing expert Fritzman next Sunday.

Copyrighted by me!

The repertoire in this book is perfect for me, and may be for you too. At first, I only used a couple of the suggestions, but over time, I am using all of them. They all make sense for the club player who does not want to play 1. d4 ( I hate that Benoni/Benko stuff), but who does not want to go into the main lines of the Sicilian, etc., in which your opponent will always have his pet line ready, which he will know better than you. These lines are not the most aggressive, but they are not passive either. The Closed Sicilian and the King's Indian Attack (against the French) are examples of this. The book has one huge advantage over most Everyman opening books: there is one comprehensive index at the back, instead of the ridiculous practice of putting the indexes for each chapter at the end of that chapter. This is the variations format, and is very thorough, there are no complete games. You may wish to supplement openings with specialized books, but it is not absolutely necessary. In each of these lines, you will know the line better than your opponent. You decide which way the game will go. So much of opening play is like that: who is dictating the opening? By playing 1. e4 white dictates, but by playing 1... c5 black dictates Sicilian, but by playing 2. Nc3 white again dictates, whereas by 2. Nf3 black continues to dictate choice of opening. This is a book you can have handy for games on-line and is very useful. This one book can give you one-third of a repertoire (personally, the other 2/3 for me are queen's gambit accepted and Scandinavian, and Aagaard's "Meeting 1. d4" for my responses to other white openings (1. Nf3, etc.)). Great book by Emms!

Unlike the other reviewer, I like this book. The author's intent is to give the reader a solid opening attack against the major black defenses using 1.e4, with the caveat of using lines that are more move/theory based than memorization intensive. If you have many hours to memorize different lines or are quite familiar with e4 openings, then you'll probably find sharper lines elsewhere, as the other reviewer stated.

But if you are like me, you'll appreciate the organization of this book. Each defense is laided out by the major choices each side can make, discussing the implications and plans of each. The book is not variation free, as the author does note variations and outcomes from recent games.

The defenses covered are: Closed Sicilian; 1...e5; French; Caro-Kann; Pirc; Modern; Scandinavian; and the Alekhine Exchange Variation. At the end of the book there is a 2 page reference with the move sequences all summarized. Essentially, this book enables functional use of e4 openings in months rather than years.

I'm very impressed with this book. The format took a little getting used to (complete games aren't presented, just ever-deepening lines), but after going through the lines, you get used to it.

The systems presented are pretty solid but still active. They are easy to learn and present attacking opportunities without huge risks. They are not ultra-aggressive lines, but they are not boring--they involve many different pawn structures from a KIA vs the French which blends nicely with the closed sicilian, to 2. c4 caro-kann and the bishop's opening.

i think this is a great book for anyone looking to take up e4, but for me some of the suggestions just aren't me, so i use this book as a supplement rather than a bible. its answers to the alekhine, the scandinavian, the pirc and others are all excellent for me but i would never ever ever ever play the closed sicilian against c5, i hate it, not to say it isn't effective, its just i can't stand the positions it creates. So with the help of nunn's beating the sicilian i am tackling the mainlines as they prove alot more fun. The KIA against the french is not boring however, i have just found it very hard to win with against strong opponents, so its the tarrasch for me. whereas the caro kann exchange just isn't my cup of tea either, i like the advance too much. The bishop's opening is a good choice as it side steps all the horrendous latvian and petroff learning but i'm a lopez man. All that is fine if like me you have an awful lot of time to spair, if you don't i'm sure this book will become a bible to you, for me its just really useful

I don't play as much as I used to, and I certainly don't have time to delve deep into openings. So I got this book to familiarize myself with the wide array of openings without necessarily studying that many in-depth.

I'm happy to say it let's you get as deep as you like and covers a lot of ground in a hurry. If you're good enough but want to develop some basic strategies against the myriad of openings you might face, I recommend this book.

If nothing else, this book gives you a framework for formulating a game plan no matter what Black's response is.

I got this book even though I'm primarily a 1.d4 player. I just wanted to change up my openings a little. While reading "New in Chess", one of the grand masters, I believe it was Wang Hao (2700+ elo) was asked what book(s) you have read to help your game. He replied, "Attacking with 1.e4 by Emms, that's how I got the GM title!" I thought that statement was pretty profound so I had to check it out for myself.

The opening's that Jon Emms recommends are all very good starter points. You may want to tweak them a bit for your own personal taste, for instance, Emms recommends playing the closed Sicilian against 1...c5. Some people like to go into mainline theory and dislike closed positions, so this may not be for them. I personally don't care since I like playing new openings and finding new ideas in all positions. So for me, Emms' book was perfect. He gives a nice, compact strategy for almost every reply to 1.e4 and seems to avoid a lot of main stream theory. I recommend this for anyone looking to expand their opening repertoire.

Not a bad repertoire book, but why can't opening books be written with more emphasis put on the ideas behind the moves, on what both sides are trying to achieve in the opening? Why the reams of variations that end with "and white is slightly better"?
If you like to play your openings monkey-like "if black plays A, then white answers with B", then this book is for you.
And as a sidenote, the "attacking" openings proposed by Emms are somewhat tame. Why not the Urusov Gambit in the Bishop's Opening against Nf6, or the Austrian Attack against the Pirc?

I found that this book was very good, however it is not suitable for players +1700, as it just doesn't have enough variations to fully complement a stronger player's opening repertoire. I, myself used this book to get started, but now the only opening that I still use that is recommended by this book is the 150 Attack againest the Pirc and Modern (I needed a new book in order to play it though.)
The pros of Attacking with 1 e4 by John Emms are:
it gives a complete repertoire for white,
it cuts down on a lot of studying,
the given repertoire is set up very well, in that one variation can transpose into another,
by buying only one book for white you also save money...

Now to the cons:
the book is far from comprehensive,
it spends little time with the Nimzowitsch defence,
much of the variation end with "white is (slightly)better" which leaves you to wonder why,
as you become a stronger chess player you will probably want/need more complete opening books,

To conclude, this is a great book for the player with an unstable opening repertoire, and despite the great number of cons, this is a very good book.