Customer Reviews

Opening Repertoire for the Attacking Player

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

 

 

My problem with this book is that some of the recommendations in this book are very complex defenses which beginning and intermediate players might find difficult to use. They are very tactical, and Gufeld does little explanation of them. There is some analysis, but many times he will just attach a game fragment and say who's better with no explaination of why or what to do. He gives brief strategy summary at the beginning of each section, but as an intermediate player (USCF Rating of 1650) I find it difficult to use these recommendations in my own play, because there is little explaination of the variations. If you use the recommendations, you may need to do your own research and analysis (which you should do anyway), but isn't part of a repertoire book's job to do some of the homework for you? What it does do is give a repertoire for most major defenses so that a player does not have to pick one himself. My best use for it was to look at the sections and find my own choices for variations and use the sections as a list of defenses I need to prepare for using other sources.

With all due respect to the other reviewers, who are likely more accomplished players than I am, I found this book fairly useless, and worse yet a waste of time that I could have been spending learning more opening concepts. The problem may have been my expectations for the book -- it's obviously intended for an advanced audience -- but I took Gufeld at his word when he says that players of all levels can benefit from the book... Note especially the point about people buying repertoire books to save time, whereas GM Gufeld's choices require far more time to digest tons of theory.

For us patzers, the best opening "repertoire" I've found so far is in the last three chapters of Seirawan's _Winning Chess Openings_. It may lack the sheer volume of variations that a strong player would require, but it's very strong on concepts, which is what I need.

I will always be indebted to this book for introducing me to the Sicilian Dragon and giving me enough information to start playing it with confidence. There is just enough information for all the openings to carry you to a good middle game position. I appreciate the explanitory notes too, just enough to explain what is going on without getting too verbose.

This book is about as thorough as a one-volume repertoire book can be. I strongly recommend this to the sort of player who wants to play sound, aggressive opening systems that give him good chances of early victory. None of the lines require one to study them twelve hours a day, and all are sufficiently complicated to offer good chances to both sides.

On the down side, there are only fourteen illustrative games, but all the games are extremely interesting. This is not just a book of ideas; there is plenty of analysis of variations, too.

WARNING: These openings are not for the faint of heart.

Unless you are a master, you should play open, tactical games--this book teaches openings which lead to such exciting chess. However, I did find that some of the analysis was behind in theory, like in his recomendation against the Alekhine Four Pawns attack. This is a minor detail; all in all, for its size, a terrific openings book.

I love this book, and finally found a book that presents a comprehensive repertoire that I can live with. The recommendations rae internally consistent, such as the Vienna along with the Grand Prix attack, as both involvve an early f4, along with the Dutch, which involves an early ...f5. As another reviewer pointed out, this book contains enough information to get you up and running, to do further research. The book also is good in providing recommendations for all the other second moves you will see as black if you play the Dragon. I was pleasantly surpised by this book! It is really wonderful.

This is a great book; it is very well-indexed and right tothe point. Its recommendations are all sound and all are open attacking game. It does require further research if you wish to play many of the lines, but it is a great place to start. It is very well-done, and very easy to follow. Excellent!

I find myself turning to this book again and again. At my level of play, lower intermediate, I want something on the order of guidelines to get me into a good game with chances all around. I'm not talking about playing at the 2000+ level where you really need to know your theory. For the rest of us down in the trenches we need ideas and concepts backed up with suggested lines of play.

This book delivers all of that and more; by following the play outlined in the book I'm able to get into situations where the play's the thing, against players up to about the 1700-1800 level. My four star rating therefore applies when this book is used by the intermediate player. The expert player won't find much here, though.

This is something that is so often overlooked. In class play you aren't up against super players, you're up against other humans such as yourself and you want positions that give opportunities for the other guy to go wrong and for you to take advantage (of course, the reverse can and does happen too).

To move to the next level, though, you will have to supplement this book with more extensive and complete treatments found in specialist books on various openings. For instance, the treatment here of the Dragon is fine to get you going but at an advanced level this is a line filled with deep theory and you will some day have to go to specific Dragon books.

Overall: a good book with plenty of ideas which will take you far in class play, and which will need considerable supplemental material beyond that.

I'd recommend this to any attacking player who needs to develop an opening repertoire.

As a an intermediate player I have Played for Years from another book called "An Opening Repertoire for the Attacking Player" written By Raymond Keene And David Levy (2nd edition published 1994 by Batsford) and I can't recommend this highly enough for players trying to learn to apply tactics in aggressive,sound openings.I wouldnt look past it to buy this volume!That said I haven't actually read Gufelds book!