Chess Openings

The more I study from this book the more I appreciate it. The author really understands the subject matter he is writing and explaining. I am quite confident even a chess expert could read through this book and learn some new things. It is fitting my class D tournament level mind like a glove. The chapters on attacking have been quite useful to me. Is the book perfect, definitely not. As, literally, it takes an encyclopedia size book to cover everything about chess openings, a book of this size can only do so much. But the book is well written, the book is good work!

Published in 1987, IM Michael Basman offers over 250 pages of 3 White openings and 2 Black openings which are considered very soild, plus chapters on Principles, Tactics, Gambits, King in the centre, Attacking the castled King and Entering the Middlegame. Even though Basman has been a leading proponent of 'irregular openings' such as Grob's Attack and the St. George, his aim here is quite simply to help the lesser player improve with the ideas expounded upon by using more conventional openings. For White: The Guioco Piano (1.e4 e5, 2.Nf3 Nc6, 3.Bc4) is one of the oldest openings known. The Queen's Gambit (1.d4 d5, 2.c4) is also a solid choice if the player as White prefers a Queen pawn opening. For Black: The Sicilian Dragon (1.e4 c5, 2.Nf3 d6, 3.d4 cxd4, 4.Nxd4 Nf6, 5.Nc3 g6, 6.Be2 Bg7) is the most basic variation. This is a very popular opening defence for Black. For White: The Morra Gambit, more recently called the Smith-Morra Gambit. This is a response by White to the Sicilian defence (1.e4 c5, 2.d4 cxd4, 3.c3) which is a true Gambit, unlike the Queen's Gambit, but offers open lines of play for White that can throw Black for a loop if they're not expecting it. Lastly, for Black, The Nimzo-Indian defence (1.d4 Nf6, 2.c4 e6, 3.Nc3 Bb4) which can be quite dynamic. Of all the 'Indian' defences, this one is my favorite unless I really want to shake things up with the Benoni defence. Overall, if you're a beginner or novice player who has very little knowledge of opening theory, I would suggest a copy of this book. It's flexible and done rather nicely by Mr. Basman.

I think most poeple would now agree that Chess for Dummies by James Eade should be everyones first chess book, but this would be a good choice for your second. It might be a little overwhelming for someone who has never read a book on chess, but this book is excellent for getting you to think about basic strategy of openings. He then thouroughly goes over five classic openings;Queen's Gambit, Giuoco Piano, Nimzo Indian, Morra Gambit and the Sicilian Dragon. While Chess for Dummies should be your first book on chess, this would be a good choice for your first book on openings