Customer Reviews

Starting Out: The Scandinavian

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This book is written by Jovanka Houska, a young woman who plays the opening. She primarily covers the ...Qxd5 and ...Nf6 (without ...Qxd5) variations. The bulk of the book is on ...Qxd5. Throughout the book are tips, notes and points of danger. She makes a convincing argument.

The Scandinavian, also known as the Center-Counter, was my "first" defense that I used to win my first few tournaments. It has been useful in games against Master class opponents.

While an introduction, the book seems geared to players who know more than just the moves and can understand basic combinations and positional concepts. However, this book can offer fresh ideas to those at least through Expert class.

The book is formatted to be heavy on explanation, illustrated by games. The idea is to introduce the ideas in a way the average player can understand. She details and explains how the player of the dark side can get in trouble very quickly, and how the light side can go very wrong. The best part is that there does not seem to be a way for White to win without serious mistakes by Black. In some sense this book is truly for "dark siders" because it will muddle the mind of the first player, confuse them, and blind side them with a very solid opening.

The book is filled with interesting ideas born out of Houska's personal experience and research. One interesting idea is on the "Scandinavian Bishop" (...Bf5) and the resulting fight for the light squares. My preference is for Ian Rogers' ...Bg4 set up but Houska's instructions are so clear and precise I just might have to give it try.

It's time for you to join the dark side and stack up easy wins!

A fine job on all major lines of the Scandinavian. The reviewer who commented that this really should not be a "Starting Out" book is correct - The coverage is too deep for beginners. But lines are explained and concepts discussed very well, from both sides. Very useful whether you play the white or black side of the Scandinavian.

This is probably one of my favorite chess books. Extremely easy to study along with and covers the main 3..Qa5, 2...Nf6, and 3...Qd6 lines as well as a few others. I personally like to play the ...Nf6 defense and have won many games with it. Highly recommended !

I am going to keep this simple. You must buy this book. It is extremely well written, and is easy to pick up the threads. I was amazed at the number of scandinavian openings in this year's Olympiad, so it is more than timely.

Written by Scandinavian chess opening expert Jovanka Houska, Starting Out: The Scandinavian is another of Everyman Chess' premier titles ideal for intermediate to expert chess players seeking to hone their skills. Covering all the main lines, Starting Out: The Scandinavian uses an abundance of sample games with diagrams to illustrate its points, techniques, and recommendations. Starting Out: The Scandinavian is especially recommended for any chess player who wants to try out the Scandinavian, or has to learn to defend against it! An excellent, in-depth resource from cover to cover, featuring an "Index of Variations" for quick reference.

I have to say that although the book is well organized, I think some of the lines given are not above suspicion.

I have been testing some of them against the hard setting on Shredder chess online. That program has caused me to be less certain of the validity of the analysis. One example would be the idea of 10 Nh4 ( on page 76) followed by Bf4. Shredder likes this and it appears to be sharp and threatening. Another example is on page 173, Shredder plays Qe2 and castles long. At that point I did not see a lot of good places for the black pieces. After 8 "lessons", I looked for a work around. Still looking. :-)

My last example is page 53. Shredder simply plays 12. d5. It got nasty at this point.

I appreciate the time is of the essence and not everything can be checked, but I would advise the reader to definitely check out some of these variations against a computer before expecting serious use.