Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

You play chess. No one else reads these these kinds of books. The title includes the word "unorthodox." You know what that means... funky, unusual, not the norm... Should it surprise you that the Four Knights Opening, that favorite standard of every high scool chess player is not highlighted?

Pshaw! This is a fun book for the pure enjoyment of chess culture... come on, we all know the world of chess players is unique. Who else gets a kick out of replaying every move from a just-lost game AND can do it from memory? Relish in being a chess 'player.'

Buy this book knowing it is what it says it is. Set aside your favorite Fischer and Lasker books, break open your roll-up board, turn on some old rock-n-roll and drink something cold on a Saturday afternoon... go over some of these with a buddy and have a great time with it.

Then go back to some competitions, and never use these openings in a tournament... OK... play with them in between matches... but not during the match. You still want to win, right?

Buy this book... have fun with chess as a game like when you learned as a child.

Five stars? Yep... you believe it. The book makes no pretenses about being the standard lines... it is what it is, and is much what it is. Five stars!

Anthony Trendl

When I got this book I thought it would be like another of his books I've got: Who's Afraid of the King's Gambit. It turns out that I was wrong. I like that there's so many openings and variations, but I noticed SEVERAL mistakes that sometimes made it hard to understand. I couldn't decide to rate it 3 or 4 stars, but I picked 3 because I was hoping for more diagrams. If I could I'd rate it 3 1/2 stars, but...

Chess inspires curious acts of faith and fortune. Theoreticians seek to dissect its systems and strategems into elaborate cosmologies--a rational world of "right moves" and "forced wins". Computers hum mercilessly, hanging (to paraphrase a song) the chess angels from the gallows of science. The opening moves of the game are elaborately named, studied at length, categorized and data-based. To the uninitiated, chess can seem like a frightening orthodoxy, determined to force the creativity of the winner and the folly of the loser into rigid, almost moralistic rationalism.

Unorthodox Chess Openings reminds us that not only is chess a game, but it is a game of endless sideroads and frightening stray beauty. For every "good" strategem, artlessly constructed like workers' housing in a communist state, there are innumerable "weird" strategies, furtively appearing in blitz chess games and the epic matches of the fourth tier player. We who play such openings live in a gnosis in which the experience of the game counts more than whether a particular opening grants long-lasting salvation.

It's a daunting task, writing about openings which grandmasters don't respect and devotees worship. But Schiller handles the task well. He patiently explains the virtues and flaws in each offbeat opening. He never loses sight of the fact that those of us who play the esoteric are seeking not only literal truth of "correct play" but also the truth of fun and the inner spirit which is the heart of the game. The book has only minor flaws. Some opening strategems which are frequently played but quite unorthodox could receive greater attention, while some very unorthodox but extremely rarely played openings receive a good bit of attention. No doubt some lines will require different attention in the next edition.

Mr. Schiller's style is clear, concise, and straightforward. The book can be comfortably read by anyone from beginner to my OTB "B" rating level, and I suspect that anyone shy of master category could find wonderful blitz and bullet weapons there.

We need more books about the joy of chess, and fewer writings about how people wish to stifle the game in mazes of misbegotten politics and misplaced engineering.

As an Internet Chess Club player, I find Unorthodox Chess Openings an essential blitz weapon. If it is not the fully comprehensive work that one might hope, this is because Mr. Schiller has done as much as he can in one book with such a broad subject--the rest should be left to the more courageous monographer on an opening by opening basis.

If you wish to take a first step to reclaim chess from the hegemony of "correct play", you might try buying this book. I know I can speak with equanimity on this point--I like the book very much even though it contains my own decisive defeat in the esoteric Guatemala Defense.

I hope you enjoy this reference as much as I have.

I really enjoy this book a lot. It is definetly my favorite Eric Schiller chess book. Eric has a love of the unusual in chess. He is a member of the yahoo unorthodox chess openings group, and posts there frequently. In this book he goes into territory most Masters would rather stay clear of.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I would consider it chess "light reading" rather than something that will help you gain 400 points to your rating. I literally was laughing outloud at some of the absurd openings that are featured, and what Eric Schiller had to say about them.

I personally like to play unorthodox openings such as the grob (1. g4), even in tournament play. Most of the openings in this book are REALLY unorthodox, not just slightly off the path of main opening theroy. You could play 10 years of tournament chess and never see most of the openings that are in here.

I liked Schiller's comments on what constitues an unorthodox opening, specifically how two opening principles must be broken. For example just bringing the queen out early is not enough to be unorthodox, like the Center Counter defense. The names of some of the openings are quite fun too!

So I would recommend reading this book if you want to take a walk on the wild side, and not as something that needs to be seriously studied so that you can be prepared for the next tournament. One of Schiller's best and most original efforts!

If you're looking for a treatise to prepare for a major tournament, you deserve what you get out of most of the openings in this book. However, if you want a good light chess read to make you smile, Unorthodox Chess Openings will amuse you and make you think.

The late Tony Miles, a grandmaster, once reviewed this book for a magazine. Here was his review, in its entirety.

"Utter crap". I concur wholeheartedly. This book should never have been printed. I mourn the loss of the thousands of trees that were chopped down to provide the wood pulp necessary to print this blight upon the chess world.

I cannot express in strong enough language that this book should be avoided at all costs. Real chess players do not own this book. Ask anyone in the chess community if this book should be purchased, and once their laughter dies down, you'll get a "No."

If you wish to read a real opening manual, purchase Modern Chess Openings instead of wasting your money on this.

I'm not sure what attracts some players to these orphans of chess. Maybe they like to lose or are intentionally delaying their development as players. If you insist on playing garbage, this might be the book for you. If you, like the rest of us, have to face garbage on a regular basis, get Schiller's (with Watson), Big Book of Busts. It is excellent and will supply you with decent lines against all the weird and/or unsound openings out there. If you've already bought this one, don't despair -- it'll make a good doorstop and it can always be recycled...