Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess Openings

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

 

 

Evaluating a survey/general advice book such as this requires keeping the purpose of the book in mind. The book is not intended to teach opening lines as such, nor provide information to support building an opening repertoire. It is intended to teach opening principles, and illustrate these principles with a high-level overview of major opening systems. The book does all of this well. It does not do more nor does it do less.

There are actually very few books available that provide a general survey of openings (at least compared with the thousands of titles that specialize in some line or branch). Mr. Aramil's book follows a simple but effective plan: explain the elements of opening play (material, space, time, pawn structure, king safety) and describe and briefly analyse major systems in terms of these elements. The approach works remarkably well, and the book feels suitable for beginners through intermediates (perhaps 1600 ELO).

The only drawback is in the writing style, which is sometimes a little awkward and lacking (verbal) accuracy. This however does not interfere with understanding the chess content.

I don't hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who buys it for the intended purpose, namely, learning general opening principles through description and example. Don't buy it looking for new lines to play or for depth of analysis. Keep the purpose in mind, and benefit from one of the best of the few books in this category.

This book is a great book for someone who is lost in the jungle called the opening. This book teaches you the general opening goals and how to reach the said goals.

This book is for openings, however, it helps with all aspects of chess, imho. It teaches you more how to think about which moves to play and about calculation. I'm an okay player and i havent really had time to absorb the whole book but i really think its helping me...also a very personal book it seems like you have a national champ teaching you how to play chess, great book!

Coming from a true master of chess, the book is a real pleasure to read and to experiment with. It is a perfect learning tool for beginners and advanced players.

This is a very simple book maybe for kids under 10 that don't want to be bored with details and plans to understanding opening moves; adults and experienced players should look at other titles. Contains the very basic move orders and doesn't cover anything more than about 9 moves deep and none of the sub-variations that are needed to handle complex openings. This is the first book I returned to Amazon because I thought it was a complete waste of money and found out I was charged $3.99 to return this horrible book.