Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #172139 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Superb mix of Openings and Strategy
This is an openings manual, but with a difference. John Watson provides coverage of many of the top King's Pawn opening variations, but more than this, he provides details of the strategies connected with each line. The first third or so of the book is devoted to strategic ideas, and it is this feature which makes this book so worthwhile. The market has no shortage of openings manuals, some better than others, but most have little or no coverage of strategy, which means that the reader is given little idea of why he is playing the moves in the book. Watson's aim is to tie in the recommended moves with the strategies behind the openings, and the explanation is detailed but clear and very easy to follow. This is the openings book that many of us have been waiting for. Watson has written accounts of strategy before, so he really knows what he's talking about, and I really can't recommend this book enough. I'm eagerly awaiting the second volume.

Disillusioned
I was expecting a lot from this volume, particularly in light of Watson's previous work on strategy. I didn't get it. The book tries to cover a lot of material, using theory and games. Topics like IQPs, various other pawn features, middlegame themes etc are covered. However, I found that it covers none of these topics conclusively, leaving the reader with more questions than concrete directions. I'm not using the word "answers" here, as in big subjects with a considerable theoretical element, answers are always outnumbered by questions - that's a good thing; however, when reading a book on openings, you also want to gain some practical directions to your play. If you are looking for a basic openings primer: Emms or Seirawan. If you are looking for a reference: one of the big chess publication house multi-volume works, e.g New In Chess, Informator. If you are looking at pawn structures, Marovic has two good books.