Chess Openings for White, Explained: Winning with 1. E4 (Alburt's Opening Guide, Book 1) [Paperback]

Lev Alburt (Author), Roman Dzindzichashvili (Author), Eugene Perelshteyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2006

Thrice US Champion and former European Champion, Lev Alburt, famous for his ability to turn aspiring players into masters, teams up with twice US Champion Roman Dzindzichashvili and young international star Eugene Perelshteyn to give a complete repertoire of opening play-as well as a review of all openings and an explanation of the principles of playing this crucial stage of the game. Although these books concentrate on the first 20 moves or so of a chess game, they never leave the player without a plan. The authors make sure that the themes and ideas are known so that the player can follow-up brilliant opening play with winning strategies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

LEV ALBURT is thrice US Chess Champion and former European Chess Champion, ROMAN DZINDZICHVILI is twice US Chess Champion and EUGENE PERELSHTEYN is an up and coming young international star.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Chess Information and Research Center (August 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188932311X
• ISBN-13: 978-1889323114
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,081,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

205 of 214 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting opening suggestion system, September 14, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Chess Openings for White, Explained: Winning with 1. E4 (Alburt's Opening Guide, Book 1) (Paperback)

The Sicilian with an early f4 with white as a way to play against the Sicilian is very good. Not only are the moves given but the ideas behind the moves and the general opening system are told. I personally like playing the Ruy Lopez as white instead of the scotch that they suggest with any early d4. So you can take what you like and leave what you do not like with the suggestions. Books that cover opening ideas and the traps in the openings are the best way to learn your openings and understand them. After this book you can get the one for playing black by Alburt.

96 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Covers a "narrow" opening system - okay for those looking for new openings or a first system, November 15, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Chess Openings for White, Explained: Winning with 1. E4 (Alburt's Opening Guide, Book 1) (Paperback)

If you are just beyond being a beginning and are in search of what openings might be right for you then this book will be helpful. It does a good job of telling you about the limited opening system it covers. I doubt that every opening suggested in the system will fit most people. But with that in mind, you can pick and select parts of things and add from other books (such as a general book that covers openings and ideas like "Understanding the Chess Openings). You will need to look around and should listen to what well known authors have to say about different openings. But that is what makes learning an opening fun. I also suggest to learn the ideas in the openings get a couple of good books on opening chess traps. This will help you understand the ideas and tactics in the openings (there are a lot of choices for chess opening trap books). Understanding the pawn structures in your openings would come next.

In conclusion: I recommend as a first book to learn openings getting a good book that covers understanding of the ideas and gives you a general guide. This book doesn't do that. But, I would suggested it as a second or third book when investigating which opening might be best for you.

117 of 128 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A slight disappointment, August 9, 2006

By 

Joshua Gutman (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chess Openings for White, Explained: Winning with 1. E4 (Alburt's Opening Guide, Book 1) (Paperback)

First, I wasn't sure whether to give it 3 stars or 4 stars, I was leaning towards the former out of disappointment and 4 out of more blanked objectivity. I will say that I was anticipating this book for months after enjoying the completeness of their first book and it really didn't live up to my expectations. (Note: I enjoyed the first book very much and don't play a single one of their recommended lines!)

I understand the difficulty of the subject they're trying to tackle. I think IM David Vigorito put it best when he said something like: "If you play the Ruy Lopez and the Open Sicilian main lines these alone require as much studying as all of 1. d4 combined." It's hard to disagree with this statement knowing that I avoid the Ruy Lopez (for now) and have spent a great deal of (worthwhile) effort to be well prepared against the sicilian. I think however there was too much temptation by them to avoid any real theoretical lines. Basically in the space and target audience (a very wide one) they were trying to satisfy, it was difficult.

So let's look at their recommendations:

Against 1..c5 they recommend the "improved" grand prix attack with 2. Nc3 followed by f4 and the line with Bb5 so that white is not worse out of the opening. I think this is a very practical suggestion, and if I'm in their shoes I probably pick a similar line. However I think they try to sell the strength of this variation a little too hard and it has little surprise value. I guess I didn't know what to expect from this section, but it would have been nice had they gone for the gold with the open sicilian so they could give their always fun mini-novelties that tend to be quite reliable.

Against 1..e5 they recommend the Scotch Gambit. Now here I think this is an outright cop-out. I absolutely understand them wanting to avoid the mainline Ruy Lopez, but I'm generally not to impressed with this suggestion. I expected an exchange Ruy Lopez, perfect for their type of setups and typical of 1. e4 repetoir books. I'm not sure I would trust their analysis here and would definitely check it very carefully with multiple sources before dare employing this in a serious game. I think this is definitely a line where white can lose without seemlying having done much wrong, I haven't fine combed this section as in far as chess positions go, the scotch gambit really is just one position. I already play a somewhat inferior line against 1..e5, I don't see the amount of study required to just get out of well-trotted lines here to be quite worth it, maybe I'm wrong though. The other parts of 1.. e5 were quite good though with interesting suggestions for white that weren't even their primary recommendation. I think the problem is that advantages in these more positional systems aren't always as clear as equality (which is why covering the black side in openings for black explained was probably much better than covering the white sides here).

Against 1.. e6 they recommended a Winawer 5th move alternative with Bd2. As a french player I was enlightened by an impressive mini-novelty they provided (although played over the board with beautiful success by author Perelshteyn. I think the recommendation was good, the strategic approach was in line with most of the other recommendations. My major disappointment here was giving the Ne7 line for black kind of straightfoward (it is the main line) and just ending with a winning position for white, which after I double checked is true, but black has some serious alternatives along the way (one recommended by Watson in Play the French) that isn't even mentioned.

Against 1..c6 they recommend the exchange variation. I like suggestion a lot. This line is less common than the main line Nc3, the panov, but still holds some punch. If black knows very well what he's doing he will be able to equalize, but there will still be a good strategic battle on the board which I think the white player will be experienced to if he's also playing other lines in this book.

Against the Pirc they recommend a quiet positional system. I like that's it's universal, I think I need to do some more exploring here to see what they're really up to, pretty much the same story for me with their center-counter lines. I guess for me these aren't really trouble since I'm a somewhat classical player who doesn't have trouble maintaining a small edge against somewhat "wrong" openings.

As for the offbeat lines, also I haven't looked at these carefully, but these tend to be where their approach of simple, solid recommendations will likely really shine giving responses that take away the opponents attempt to get his desired position which I think most of the book is pretty good at.

Anyways, for players who feel there are holes in their white repetoir I would recommend this book, especially as a kind of goto for recommendations against lesser lines. As for the big 2 of the sicilian or ruy lopez I don't have any particularly great suggestions other than if you have some time and aren't afraid of theoretical, sharp positions I would highly recommend Experts vs the Sicilian as a nice complement to try to tackle the sicilian by the horns.