Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's a shame that no one has reprinted this book, August 26, 1998
This book is more than twenty years old now but the lessons it contains are timeless. I have not seen it for some years, but I recall that a group of top GMs (Gligoric, Hort, Evans & Larsen among them) collaborated on this book which ranges from the general principles of the opening through the development of a tournament repertoire. This is not an opening manual full of variations, but more an explanation of why moves are played. Somebody like Dover should reprint this book so a new generation of chess players can learn its lessons. If you can get a copy, buy it!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent book about chess openings, November 28, 2005
This book is plenty of fun to read. In it, seven very strong chess players discuss the question of how to open a chess game.
We start with Larry Evans, who tells us (hopefully reminds us) of the basic principles of opening play, namely dominate the center, develop all your pieces fast, castle early, don't sacrifice any material unless you see how to get it back or force checkmate, don't move the same piece twice, make only enough pawn moves to free your pieces, develop Knights before Bishops, don't indulge in early adventures with your Queen, avoid giving useless checks, and do not play for traps unless desperate.
Next, Svetozar Gligoric expands on these principles, with some fine examples from games played by leading grandmasters (including himself).
Well, that alone will get you to play openings reasonably. But there are some simple traps that you'll fall into unless you learn how to avoid them. The next chapter is by Vlastimil Hort, and it is superb. We see some terrific examples of how to play in the opening, and some more sophisticated principles. One game that I particularly liked was 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nf6 5 Qd3 e5 6 dxe5 Qa5+ 7 Bd2 Qxe5 8 0-0-0 Nxe4 (Oops! This gets mated at once. 8...Be7 would have kept Black in the game.) 9 Qd8+ Black Resigns.
Hort continues with a 9-page introduction to the Trompowsky Opening. At the time, this was a brand new try for White, and I remember reading all about it quite eagerly. It still is worth reading today.
In the following chapter, Lajos Portisch gives some advice on developing an opening repertoire, and he has a bunch of suggestions, with some interesting lines. For White, the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation. For Black, he then shows the Modern Steinitz defence to the Ruy, as well as an interesting variation of the French, with an early Queen deployment to a5 and a4.
Portisch recommends 1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 g3 for White. And he has some suggestions for White in the Caro-Kann and the Pirc. Plus, there's material on how to play the King's Indian Attack for White, the King's Indian Defence for Black, the Symmetrical English for White, and the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined for White. And he concludes with eight pages on how to play the Nimzo-Indian for White.
Former World Champion Tigran Petrosian has a fine chapter on how to study and learn opening theory. He gives some spectacular examples of how simply copying recommended moves can lead to disaster. And he shows how to carefully examine lines for possible improvements.
Bent Larsen, in an unforgettable chapter, has more advice on the same topic. We see some games where he opened 1 e4 c5 2 f4. And there's a great example of how not to play the Gruenfeld for Black, to demonstrate that one needs to know quite a few variations fairly well to be ready to play an opening line.
The final chapter, by Paul Keres, shows how he prepared some lines at home for use in tournaments. It's fascinating. We see the Keres variation of the Chigorin, with 11...Nd7 (a line Nigel Davies recommends for Black in his 1 e4 e5 repertoire book, written in 2005!). And we see ideas for Black in the Siesta Variation of the Ruy as well. Plus a few other tidbits.
This book needs to be reprinted. I highly recommend it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bent Larsen's Chapter is Amazing, February 27, 2009
I bought this book at one of my first chess tournaments in 1975 and read it immediately. While there is much to recommend the book, at the time I was particularly impressed by Bent Larsen's chapter. For whatever reason, I've recently spotted various references to and quotes from that chapter in current articles and books. I was somewhat surprised that, after so many years, I vividly recalled every reference and quote I encountered. Because of these reminders, I dug out the book and reread the entire thing. After this review, I'm inclined to say that Larsen's chapter is the most provocatively brilliant piece of chess writing that I have ever encountered. Period. Full stop. No qualifications. Perhaps the most famous argument from this chapter is that White's trade his of d-pawn for Black's c-pawn in the Sicilian is justified only by White banking on Black falling for a cheap trick. If that goal is unsuccessful or unrealistic, the pawn trade is strategically unsound. This is just one of the many provocative gems in this brilliant essay, so many of which have informed my opinions for lo these many years.
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