Baroque Chess Openings, Or, How to Play Your Betters at Chess and on Occasion Win

This book was recommended to me by an "A" player back when I was rated 1300. He said it helped his game by 300 pts. It did the same for me. Its kind of like Nimzo on tranquilizers.

This book is a Pythonesque take on chess openings. And now for something completely different. "Baroque," explains the author, is used here in all its senses: ornate, complex, to some degree indecipherable, and not least sort of ugly. The openings Wincor describes are truly all these things. But if you can appreciate the British sense of humour, you'll enjoy reading it regardless of your attitude or knowledge about chess. I left my copy on a train years ago, and the loss still haunts me.