Unorthodox Chess Openings (Cardoza Publishing's Essential Opening Repertoire Series) [Paperback]

Eric Schiller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2003 | Series: Cardoza Publishing's Essential Opening Repertoire Series

This inclusive guide to every unorthodox opening used by chess players contains more than 500 weird, contentious, controversial, unconventional, arrogant, and outright strange openings. A powerful part of any chess player's arsenal, these tricky tacky surprises fly in the face of tradition. 1,000+ illustrations and diagrams.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Cardoza; 2nd edition (January 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580420729
• ISBN-13: 978-1580420723
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #756,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Grandmaster Tony Miles' review said it best:, December 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Unorthodox Chess Openings (Cardoza Publishing's Essential Opening Repertoire Series) (Paperback)

Miles' two-word review in Kingpin magazine of this typical Schiller book: "utter crap." (Miles was noted for unorthodox play himself, btw. For example, he famously won a game against Anatoly Karpov by responding to 1. e4 with 1... a6.)

Schiller is noted for sloppy database-dump books with lots and lots of errors. Use your chess funds for books that will teach you something valuable and are written by real players. Try authors like Silman, Nunn, Gallagher, Gligoric, Seirawan, Euwe, and Emms. All of these authors are MUCH better players and also use time and care in writing their books.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Schiller get Fritz and use it, March 9, 2005

By 

R. Hutchinson "ChessNut" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Unorthodox Chess Openings (Cardoza Publishing's Essential Opening Repertoire Series) (Paperback)

What this book will give you is a brief history of each opening. Like so and so played this for the first time 1872, blah, blah. Now that part of this book I liked! It's nice to have this chess history.

The part I did not like was the analysis part of this book. At least have enough moves in the analysis to match Basic Chess Openings let's say. Have Fritz come up with some new moves for you in these rare openings. It takes work, and the reader should get this at least.

I could of given this book 2 stars for the history part, but the lack of real analysis really got my goat.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Must have for any UCO or Gambit player, November 26, 2008

By 

S. Lee - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unorthodox Chess Openings (Cardoza Publishing's Essential Opening Repertoire Series) (Paperback)

People play chess for different reasons. If you want to study one or two main openings/defenses and study only them, then this is most definitely not the book for you. If your goal is to know theory 20 moves deep and 'hope' to use it all in your next tournament game, then leave this page now. BUT, if you're like me and enjoy throwing off opponents early in the opening then you should definitely buy this book. I am nowhere near being a master nor am I the best at my local club but if there is one thing I've learned about chess it is this: a big part of chess is taking the opponent into positions that YOU are comfortable with and they are not. You will be amazed at how much time runs down their clock while they analyze positions you've seen a hundred times or watch in amazement while they ruin their position even more trying some off the wall defense/counterattack.

Another reviewer on here told Schiller to get Fritz. I use Fritz all the time and use it mainly to run engine tournaments on these exact opening/defenses. After a couple of nights analyzing an opening I am prepared to 'shock and awe' my opponents/spectators.

Everyone plays chess for different reasons. I enjoy chaotic positions and exciting games. Studying this book will definitely give you both. The price is right for this book and I am very happy that I bought it.

Now for the reason I only gave it 4 stars. I agree whole heartedly with another reviewer on here. He said that some of the analysis on the lines are flawed and yes they definitely are. A lot of Schiller's books seem rushed to me. As I stated before though, I always use Fritz on these openings and find the main refutations. Fritz has helped me immensely. Without it I would have to play through too many games over the board because there are no databases online or in books for 95% of the openings. Someone without Fritz would have a hard time with this book in the beginning but still I think it would be a great and fun learning experience.