Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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208 of 216 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some good analysis and opening suggestions for Playing Black, September 1, 2006
A Kid's Review
Personally, I take most chess books that offer a suggested opening system with a grain of salt. They tend to be biased in favor of what they suggest. But this book is one of the best I have seen that doesn't become overly biased to to point of recommending moves that are less than sound.
I really like the idea of using the NimzoIndian Defense agaist 1.d4 with 1..Nf6 2.c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4. It is an active way of playing against d pawn openings. The lines suggested against 1.e4 using the Sicilian with 1..c5 is not to my taste. So you as well as I may pick and choose what we like. To go along with this book I suggest getting "Understanding the chess openings" by Collins for a good general servay and a good book on chess traps (to learn not only traps in the openings but the tactics that go along with type of opening you choose).
This along with this author's same book on playing White are well done.
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62 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book, though not for novices like me, May 16, 2006
I write this from the perspective of a patzer (I've been playing a little over a year with a rating of 1100). Hence, I am not skilled to evaluate how the book stands up to the minutiae of GM-level opening theory scrutiny, so will focus on other matters.
This is an amazing book. For one, it has one of the best layouts of any chess opening book I own. The publisher was uncharacteristically generous with the figures: there are lots of clear board pictures so you can be lazy and simply read the book without having a board there with you. Also, it isn't one of those new-breed of run-of-the-mill lazily-written opening books which is merely a bunch of annotated games. Rather, the authors systematically present an explain a full opening system. The bulk of the book guides you through the main lines of the opening, explaining all the major strategic themes involved and pitfalls to avoid (they spend three chapters covering how to handle a single weakness of their response to e5!). Also, at the end of the book, they provide a bunch of annotated games to illustrate the principles in the first 3/4 of the book, so you get the best of both worlds. In other words, the authors have clearly put a great deal of work into the book, more time, I'd guess, than any other opening book I own.
Unfortunately, as a beginner there are a couple of things I don't like about the book (note these are problems which players over a rating of 1500 will probably not have). First, I find the games that the openings lead to to be boring and overly-positional. The responses to 1. e4 (the accelerated sicilian dragon) and 1. d4 (the Nimzo-Indian) both involve cautious development with a kingside fianchettoed bishop, giving up space in the center hoping for a flank attack or a perfectly-timed center counterattack. Frankly, I simply don't have enough general chess expertise to navigate these unforgiving, sharp, and often cramped opening lines. I prefer a more tactical, open game with the potential for lots of traps and fireworks.
Because of such concerns, I have shelved this excellent book for a time when I have more experience, and am presently playing the traditional responses to e4 and d4 (1...e5 and 1...d5). I am much more comfortable with the traditional responses, and since most beginner books recommend them, I am no longer missing out on the rich and more explanation-heavy literature on openings for beginners that is out there. My favorite in my unjustifiably large library of opening books is Chess Openings by Basman: it is out of print but if you can get it it is well-worth the effort. I now use Chess Openings for Black, Explained as a reference to find out how a great player would defend against my white repertoire.
In sum, a superlative piece of work, in all aspects. In a few years, when I am good enough, I will use it as the basis for my black repertoire.
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31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent book to builld your black repertoire, November 9, 2005
This is an excellent reference book to build up your black repertoire. It does sidestep the overly analyzed Ruy Lopez and other double king pawn openings, as well as the very tactical openings like the Najdorf Sicilian. It is very easy to follow with numerous diagrams. One does not need a chess board and set to understand the material being presented. There is a summary of the opening lines at the end of each chapter and a complete summary at the end of the book.
From a practical standpoint, you can increase your ability to respond to the conventional openings that white will want to play. It recommends the Accelerated Dragon as your main line against 1.e4, the Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian as your main lines against 1.d4. It tries to be complete by including all of the Anti-Sicilians when white avoids playing a regular Sicilian. These include the Wing Gambit with 2.b3, the 2.c3 Sicilian, the Closed Sicilian with 2.Nc3, the Grand Prix Attack with 2.f4, the Smith-Morra Gambit with 2.d4, the Wing Gambit with 2.b3, the Alapin Sicilian with 2.c3 and 3.d4.
I did find a line that I disagreed with in the Smith-Morra Gambit. This is the following opening line on page 223:
1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 g6 4.cxd4 d5 5.exd5 Nf6 6.Bb5+ Nbd7 7.Nc3 Bg7 8.d6 exd6 9.Qe2+ Kf8.
Instead, black can get a much better game by castling first before capturing the d6 pawn. Black can then turn the tables and takes the pawn with check! Here is my recommendation for an improvement on this line:
1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 g6 4.cxd4 d5 5.exd5 Nf6 6.Bb5+ Nbd7 7.Nc3 Bg7 8.d6 0-0 9.dxe7 Qxe7+
Black's castles cleanly. White has the isolated d pawn, which may become weak in the endgame. I believe nearly everyone would agree that black's position is objectively better. Using the 2004 Megabase from Chessbase, black scores 47% with this improved line as compared to 40% with Lev Alburt's line. Also, Shredder 8 likes this line much better and gives it a substantially better evaluation for black. This is the only recommendation in the book that I would suggest changing in a later edition.
I am still reviewing the queen pawn opening lines. These include playing the Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian against 1.d4. The anti-Indian openings are included for completeness. These are
the Torre Attack, the London System, the Colle System, the Veresov Opening, the Trompowsky. GM Alburt recommends avoiding the mainline Blackmar-Diemer Gambit variations by playing the Hubsch Gambit.
Lev recommends the Symmetrical English against 1.c4. There are also lines for the Bird's Open with 1.f4 and the Sokolsky with 1.b4. Also, it recommends 1. ..c5 against the 1.Nf3 opening. There are even lines for the rarer fianchietto openings with 1.g3 and 1.b3. As you can see, this tries to be a complete opening
system for black.
I highly recommend this book for the player in the range of 1200 to 2000. After building up your black repertoire with lines from this book, you should gain 200 rating points.
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by Jeremy Silman
