Chess Openings the Easy Way

Disagree with other negative reviews here. I actually enjoyed this book very much and it fitted my purposes exactly. it's a handy shortened reference text from MCO. I'd rather not wade through a huge tome to learn the major openings.

I liked this book. I like it a lot better than Reuben Fine's Ideas Behind The Chess Openings. This book is MCO-light. That's exactly what it is. Many players don't really need the complete MCO. This book was less than half the price and has all of the openings that I think I need at this stage in my game. The book is organized in a meaningful way into King Pawn, Semi-Open, Queen Pawn, Flank, and Indian openings. The introduction to each set of openings provides a basic explanation of the ideas. Yes, this book would be even more useful if there was MORE explanation of the theory behind the various openings and WHY white or black has a better game, or WHERE white (black) should go in the ensuing Middle Game. That would make this book even more useful. But as far as having something that provides an entry point into the study of many popular openings, this book is satisfactory. In a way, I like it better than many of the Starting Out books. Those books also lack much in the way of explanation that would be useful to the intermediate-beginner and focus on only one opening; de Firmian's book actually gives you more at a much better price. The only other thing that would make this book better for the intermediate beginner would be if there was a clear, complete explanation of how to read the tables. I eventually figured it out, but it was very frustrating at first and I almost didn't buy the book in the first place because I couldn't figure out how to read the tables while thumbing through a copy at the bookstore. Bottom line: A good book for the player who is willing to STUDY the game of chess, the intermediate player who maybe knows an openig or two but is now ready to branch out. You start with this book, and then once you've exhausted its potential you can graduate to a more in-depth book about a particular opening. This is a good place to start, the book is relatively inexpensive, and it has most of the major openings.