Customer Reviews

Starting Out: The Queen's Gambit

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

 

 

If you are interested in playing the queen's gambit, or in discovering how to play against it, then this general introduction book is right up your alley. It covers all the options for both white and black in a neutral way, meaning that good and bad moves for both sides are explored.

The only possible problem I can see with this book is, due to its scope, it can not pay too much attention to any one variation. So if you decide you like the Slav Defense, or the Cambridge Springs Variation, then you'll probably have to purchase another book to delve deeper into that particular variation. Why? Because you'll find at most 2-3 games covering each variation in the book, which is no where near enough to allow you to master the opening.

This isn't meant to be that much of a criticism of the book however. As the title suggests, this is a "starting out" book, designed to whet your appetite for a particular variation and allow you (with or without help from another book) to explore that variation.

So why only four stars when the book does all that it claims to do? Because the book probably should have been about 75-100 pages longer to really give a nice introduction to the openings covered. With all the openings covered, that would mean adding about 5-10 pages per section, which isn't too much to ask. The book feels rushed. However, it is still an excellent introduction to the queen's gambit and is usable by people playing from either side of the board.

I was looking forward to this book coming out as the other books in the series are great. However, this book covers too many openings and as a result lacks focus. Covered in this book is the Queens gambit declined and all resulting variations (orthodox, tartakower, cambridge springs, exchange, etc.), Tarasch defence, Queens Gambit Accepted, Slav and Semi-Slav. The end product provides little coverage of any lines in these families. This is unlike the other books in teh series (Caro-Kann and KID) which provide a great introduction to an opening system and provides a great starting point for an opening repetoire. The writing is good, but the book is not helpful. A better approach would have been a starting out book covering QGD or Slav individually.

This book deals with the various lines of the Queen's Gambit(QG), and covers all the major variations: the Tartakower, the exchange variation, the Slav and the Semi-Slav, the Tarrasch and the Queen's gambit accepted. The writing is clear and the presentation of the different lines is well organized. On the plus side, it needs to be acknowledged that it provides a neat and tight summary of an opening with an enormous ammount of theory behind it. However, as a fan of the QG, this book was a bit diappointing to me. In contrast with other volumes of the excellent "Starting Out" series, this book does not ever present the basic ideas behind each line and the verbal analysis of most lines is simply too shallow. As such, it is deffinitely not useful for begginers, which is really a shame. Even intermediate players will probably have a hard time figuring out what the basic ideas behind each line are. And for advanced players, this book is probably too basic. Also, one can't help getting the impression that the book is written mostly from white's point of view. If you play the QG with black, you'll probably be disappointed by this. Summarizing, this book unfortunately is not as good other opening books in the "Starting out" series, and, if anything, will be useful for intermediate rather than beggining players.

As other reviewers point out, this book is indeed rather superficial, dedicating just a bit of space to the concepts behind every QG opening, and illustrating them with a few games. Said that, the book is very short, so I really don't see how to do a much better job. There is just not enough space to provide anything other than a quick tour of the QG openings. As a quick tour of this massive opening complex, the book is actually pretty useful and beginners should definitely read a bit about each opening before concentrating all their efforts on a single one. Furthermore, transpositions and shared strategic themes are very common in the QG, so having some general ideas about every opening is essential. In summary, if you are looking for a reasonable introduction to the QG openings, "Starting Out: The Queen's Gambit" is an acceptable choice, but it feels light-weight and pricey.

By the way, John Shaw is an e4 player, which makes this QG tour undertaking rather odd. For an excellent book, related to this one but with a much narrower focus and written by an actual practitioner, see Sadler's book on the Queen's Gambit Declined.