Chess Openings for Juniors

Engaging use of story along with illustrative game fragments. Emphasizes principles and main lines. Great book for novice chess players who want to develop an opening repertoire. Also useful for chess coaches.

Despite its title, this book really works as an introduction to opening play for players of all ages. It's not as simplistic as you might think. The only real concession Walker makes to juniors is in introducing a few characters with silly names, such as Mr. Woodpusher, Bobby Blunder, and Count Alberic O'Kelly de Galway.The first two sections explain the principles of development, space, and controlling the center. Walker uses full games to illustrate his points. I have to admit, I've never been a fan of this method because it seems to imply that sound opening moves automatically lead to checkmate by move 30, which is an oversimplification. Still, these sections nicely (re-)enforce the basic principles of opening play.In the next section, Walker surveys the openings by showing the main lines of about 25-30 different openings. The lines go about 10-15 moves deep, but probably do not include enough explanation for you to actually play them without other sources.In the final section, Walker provides a full repertoire to use as White (Giuoco Piano) and as Black vs. e4, d4, c4 and Nf3. Here he shows you more than just the main line. I think any player below Class C can probably use this repertoire in actual play. I know people will complain that he doesn't give you enough options as to what to play, but I think you pay the price if you want a book that shows you detail on every opening.I'd recommend this book as a first opening chess book and perhaps the only opening text you'll need until you reach at least 1400, provided you utilize Walker's repertoire advice.

I have not seen much better on the subjects of space, development, and time. I have used this book to coach many chess players and they quickly become much harder to beat. I think it is a great buy.

Text book openings are described move-by-move including justification and capitalizing on error