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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
GOOD - BETTER AS A STUDY MANUAL THAN OPENING REPERTOIRE, September 22, 2000
This review is from: Easy Guide to the Reti Opening (Paperback)
I bought this book after I decided to drop e4, but I couldn't get my hands on Kosten's repertoire book for the English. I liked this book and it is one that can improve your chess if it is studied properly, and not just your opening play either. I did have a few quibbles with the book. The author remained true to his favored double fianchetto piece set up in as many lines as he could. Since I like to compare the similarity of plans emanating out of pawn structures, I really enjoyed seeing the subtle differences in the plans in those pawn structures. The author did a great job in making the themes from game to game really consistent - you see why in this line, he recommends this move - it aims for a type of position he has explained earlier. He discusses the alternatives, but explains that the move he presents/prefers is more in line with the rest of the repertoire he is teaching. The quality of the material in the book itself is in my opinion deserving of a 5 star rating if one is over 1600 USCF and this goes as high as GM. There are variations here as well as lots of words. There are also improvements on assessments on evaluations offered. You could play this opening comfortably if you studied the relevant line in this book. OFten, move order is not a problem and the critical play begins after a variety of typical set ups have been established. THe pawn structure play that characterises this opening suits players who are not fond of sharp opening complications. The danger of course is that you learn to play formations and not thinking chess, but I think the author presetns so many plans in this book that if you play lazy chess, he is not to be blamed. He definitely does not espouse a cookbook approach. However, he does produce positions with recurring themes. What do I think could be better about the book? Well, skipping defences like 1.. c5 and 1 ... g6 really hurt. Those moves are commonly played vs Nf3. While a good study of the book might still allow you to transpose into a line given in the book, I would still have liked to see Dunnington present plans which he liked. I think this is a great book. But the c5 omission weighs heavily against it becos it invites a Siclian transposition and is the choice of most players. As a game collection to be studied, it would improve your chess greatly - just comparing the lines and games in similar pawn structures would greatly increase your chess knowledge. If I Reviewed it solely on that criteria, it is a 5 star book.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Easy Guide to some of the Reti Opening, May 23, 2004
This review is from: Easy Guide to the Reti Opening (Paperback)
The books in the 'Easy Guide' series differ a lot in how introductory or analytic they are. This one is introductory, but is much more thorough in its treatment of some Black choices than others. Dunnington chooses exactly the right balance in describing the Reti Gambit declined. (1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 d4/c6/e6), with several alternatives given for White. However, in the case of the Accepted line (2...dc4) he analyzes only one repertoire choice: 3 Na3. He rejects 3 Qa4 out of hand, and although it's dead level at grandmaster level, it has a lot in common thematically with other flank openings, so I'd expect a class player to get a lot out of an analysis of it. There's also a good chapter on playing against Dutch Defense formations while avoiding d4. The exclusive recommendation against the King's-Indian formation (1...Nf6 2 g3 g6 3 b4) is bizarre -- not bad, just a little extravagant for a single line. It effectively transposes later into the English Opening with 1...e5 and 3...g6 with White expanding on the queenside and Black on the kingside -- pretty much as recommended in Donaldson's Strategic Opening Repertoire book several years ago. These positions don't play themselves, and players of the White pieces will get into them very often given that the King's-Indian is so popular at club level.
This chapter is too short: some of the Reversed Benoni material could have been cut in favor of more explanation and examples (and alternative move orders) here. With the publication of Davies' 'Dynamic Reti', this book may seem to have been superseded. Yet Dunnington stays truer to the hypermodern spirit of the opening -- Nowhere in Davies, I think, will you find the White queen on a1 -- so this book still has legs. In fact, the two books nicely complement each other. Is Dunnington starting to write too many books too quickly? This one suffers in comparison to his excellent introduction to the Catalan, which also deals with a tricky flank opening with many move order subtleties and affiliated lines in other openings. That that effort was so well executed underscores the patchiness of this one. I also don't see why Dunnington shies away from pointing out where transpositions to the KIA (d3/e4) might work better than the Reti c4/b3 (or b4) treatment -- since he has written a good book, now in its second edition, about the KIA. In the King's-Indian chapter, especially, White could delay this choice to good effect. I'm not saying he should have written a different book by including KIA material, just cross-reference it where it's relevant.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Big Disappointment, September 9, 2006
This review is from: Easy Guide to the Reti Opening (Paperback)
I bought this book along with Davies' "Dynamic Reti", and after trying the "Easy Guide" out in some games I proceeded to play, I was quite dismayed at the lack of guidance I was given by the different chapters in the book. Either I already knew what he was telling me or I couldn't understand why he was suggesting what he was because some moves didn't make sense to me. The other problem I had was trying to keep up with the progression of his games in between his notes and bold print. My suggestion is to skip this book and get Nigel Davies "Dynamic Reti". There is much more unique information and insight offered there in greater clarity.
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