How to Win in the Chess Openings
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How to Win in the Chess Openings Paperback – March 7, 1986
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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188 of 190 people found the following review helpful
A Kid's Review
on July 30, 2006
Format: Paperback
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This is not really a book on "How to Win in the Chess Openings" as the title says. It is a book that covers ideas behind some selected openings. You should not plan to "force" a win in the opening, but to be prepared for tactics at all parts of the game. But, to best be prepared for Tactics in the Opening you should be looking at a book on Opening Traps (there are a couple good ones published).
This book, which is not up to date on the openings, is written in the old form of Descriptive Chess Notation - these should be fixed by an updated version. I personally like "Understanding the Chess Openings" by Collins far better as a general book on the openings since it covers a lot more material and is up to date. I feel Collins book and an opening traps book together is the most ideal way for someone just starting out learning openings to get started.
This book, which is not up to date on the openings, is written in the old form of Descriptive Chess Notation - these should be fixed by an updated version. I personally like "Understanding the Chess Openings" by Collins far better as a general book on the openings since it covers a lot more material and is up to date. I feel Collins book and an opening traps book together is the most ideal way for someone just starting out learning openings to get started.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By
"chandler27"
on December 8, 2002
Format: Paperback
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The first chess book I ever waded through, was all about tactics, mating patterns, etc. After reading it, I schooled all of my friends. But I had a rude awakening in my first tournament when I got had by fool's mate in the first game. So I commenced on learning openings in order to get into position to use my tactic skills. How To Win in the Chess Openings is a book I've studied in two phases. The first phase was just learning the different patterns and typical sequence of moves. I really didn't understand the theory and logic behind most of the opening moves. So at first, I was pretty disappointed in the book and left it alone. But now, 5 years later, I've been using the book to really get the logic behind the opening moves and it's finally making sense.
As some of the other reviews have stated, it only goes over a few different openings and not to a depth of being able to learn every variation. However, the openings covered are very common and the knowledge provided is very good for someone trying to get into the middlegame.
As some of the other reviews have stated, it only goes over a few different openings and not to a depth of being able to learn every variation. However, the openings covered are very common and the knowledge provided is very good for someone trying to get into the middlegame.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By
N. Beach
on July 16, 1998
Format: Paperback
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Beginning players often pound out their first moves of a chess game by rote, merely imitating moves they've seen in a book or magazine. When they run out of pre-learned moves, they are often at a complete loss as to how to proceed because they do not understand the reasoning behind those memorized moves. In this little book, the late Al Horowitz uses lots of clear prose to explain every move -- not reams of confusing variations that are gibberish to most of us amateur players. The book covers only certain variations of openings popular in the 1950's, so one will not see the King's Indian Defense or Benoni. But warhorses like the French, Ruy Lopez (Spanish), Giuoco Piano (Italian) and the Queen's Gambit are given good coverage. A good companion book is Chernev's Logical Chess Move by Move. HTWITCO is suitable for players class E through B. After a few run-throughs, keep it for reference! I still refer to mine from time to time.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By
jbros
on February 20, 2000
Format: Paperback
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This book is as old as I am; we both apeared in 1951, but it has stood the test of time substantially better. It's still a very good first book for the player who knows how the pieces move and who understands the objective of the game, but who is still struggling to get his or her game organized. The reader who is willing to put the time into it will come away with a good understanding of a few very basic openings, an understanding that then makes it easier to begin to work on basic tactics. I bought it back in the seventies, and it quickly gave me the edge I needed to beat the little band of cut-purses and ne'er-do-wells with whom I periodically got liquored up and played chess. Then I put the chess set up and didn't play for a lot of years. A few weeks ago, when my young sons expressed an interest in learning to play the game, I pulled the dusty, weighted Stauntons down out of the closet, but I couldn't find the old copy of Horowitz. I was glad to see that it was still in print, and now I'm working my way through it a second time. Don't be put off by the fact that it uses descriptive rather than algebraic notation; It's still well written with copious diagrams and easy to grasp.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By
Patrick D. Goonan
on January 17, 2007
Format: Paperback
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There is an excellent kid's review of this book which I believe raises many valid negative points, I agree with them and I won't repeat them here. I also concur that "Understanding the Chess Openings" by Sam Collins is an excellent and more up-to-date book that is well-organized and relatively short with a logical structure and lots of diagrams with a minimum of unnecessary text.
What I would like to say about "How to Win in the Chess Openings" is that despite the book being somewhat outdated, it is short at less than 200 pages and covers a lot of ground. What is most useful about it is the good commentary which illustrates many important principles of the opening. Since there are more than a 1,000 trillion ways to do an opening, gleaning principles and themes from as many points of view as possible is an important road to simplifying all the possiblities.
This book covers about 15 popular openings and some of their variations. I have found the commentary to be complimentary to the book "Understanding the Chess Openings" by Sam Collins. However, the text is a bit more dense in the book I'm reviewing in terms of move-by-move commentary and I think this is very useful for a beginner and will help a more advanced player consolidate concepts.
I own several books on openings and for me this is essential. I need to see different openings from a lot of angles to truly internalize the principles. I realize not everyone learns like me, but for those of you who do you will probably find this a good text. In addition, it is often available for next to nothing used so why not pick it up along with "Understanding the Chess Openings" by Collins?
What I would like to say about "How to Win in the Chess Openings" is that despite the book being somewhat outdated, it is short at less than 200 pages and covers a lot of ground. What is most useful about it is the good commentary which illustrates many important principles of the opening. Since there are more than a 1,000 trillion ways to do an opening, gleaning principles and themes from as many points of view as possible is an important road to simplifying all the possiblities.
This book covers about 15 popular openings and some of their variations. I have found the commentary to be complimentary to the book "Understanding the Chess Openings" by Sam Collins. However, the text is a bit more dense in the book I'm reviewing in terms of move-by-move commentary and I think this is very useful for a beginner and will help a more advanced player consolidate concepts.
I own several books on openings and for me this is essential. I need to see different openings from a lot of angles to truly internalize the principles. I realize not everyone learns like me, but for those of you who do you will probably find this a good text. In addition, it is often available for next to nothing used so why not pick it up along with "Understanding the Chess Openings" by Collins?
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