Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #313481 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Synopsis
Presents a reliable repertoire for Black against one of White's principal ways to open the game Aimed at club, tournament, internet and correspondence players From the author of the feted Understanding Your Chess The Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA) is a popular opening amongst players at all levels as it gives Black free development and counter-punching potential, especially if White rises to the challenge. The QGA's soundness is demonstrated by the number of top-class grandmasters who have used it in critical games - it was key factor in Short's victory over Karpov, and has even been used by Kasparov at world-play level. Rizzitano recommends reliable main lines of the QGA, and throughout emphasizes how Black can create winning chances and White's typical ways to go wrong.

Customer Reviews

World-Class Opening Repertoire Book!
'How To Beat 1 d4' is a world-class opening repertoire book! The opening coverage is divided into two sections: Part 1 (roughly two-thirds of the book) features the Queen's Gambit Accepted and Part 2 (roughly one-third of the book) features Queen's Pawn Games (White plays without c4). These openings include the Hodgson Attack (1 d4 d5 2 Bg5), Veresov Opening (1 d5 d5 2 Nc3), London System (1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Bf4), King's Fianchetto (1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 g3), Torre Attack (1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Bg5), Colle System (1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 e3), Stonewall Attack (1 d4 d5 2 e3 Nf6 3 Bd3 c5 4 c3 Nc6 5 f4), and the always-controversial Blackmar-Diemer Gambit (1 d4 d5 2 e4 dxe4 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 f3) - I should point out that this opening absorbs a tremendous beating from Rizzitano's analysis and will send its fans scurrying back to the drawing board.
'How to Beat 1 d4' offers the first comprehensive, authoritative coverage of several of these Queen's Pawn Games by a well-respected titled player - James Rizzitano earned the World Chess Federation International Master title back in the early 1980's. The idea is somewhat similar to an earlier Gambit offering for King's Pawn players - John Emms' excellent 'Play the Open Games as Black'. The difference is that here Rizzitano also covers the Queen's Gambit Accepted as Black versus 1 d4 - Emms' book was directed toward White's attempts to avoid the Ruy Lopez (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5). The layout of the book is excellent - Gambit has gone with the larger book format and included plentiful diagrams - I think this trend was begun with the earlier Gambit book 'The English Attack' by Tapani Sammalvuo.
Rizzitano is an excellent writer; his earlier Gambit book 'Understanding Your Chess' is very highly-regarded. After reading a few pages of this book it was apparent that this guy is all business - the bibliography is among the most comprehensive I have ever seen in an opening book, and there is also a complete Index of Variations at the end of the book to make it easy to locate a specific line. Rizzitano is not afraid to take on anybody and he backs up his evaluations with variations and good explanations. I also like the fact that he appears to go out of his way to give credit to earlier opening book authors for their ideas. Another nice feature is that there are a lot of correspondence games quoted in this book - this is a big weakness in many other opening books, so it is nice to see that Rizzitano used one of the major electronic correspondence chess databases as one of his game sources.
I think this is one of the best opening books of the young 21st century and I am looking forward to more books by this author. Congratulations to James Rizzitano and Gambit Publications on another excellent book!

Won my first two QGA games after reading this book
I'm an ICCF Master Class player and I recently bought Rizzitano's book "How to beat 1.d4". I ever had problem with black vs 1.d4 and I read with great interest Rizzitano's book. The book was clear, extremely interesting, up to date, with all strategic ideas behind the opening well analysed and explained.

I recently tried the QGA in an ICCF Master Class tournament (EM-M-307) and the result was : +2 =0 -0 that is 100% for the first 2 QGA I ever played!!!!

Compliments to the author: the good result I get in the tournament is fully due to his book!!!

Dr.Mauro Marchisotti, Torino, Italy