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Good books on openings

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Juggalo_Mike

I have some knowledge on the queens gambit and a little bit of know how on some others but I want to learn more about them. I'm willing to invest into some good opening books (Not sure which, recommendations?) Can anyone recommend any books (or openings that I should learn which I'll look for some books on) that would be of use. Any advice would be appreciated.

JuliusH

I like the classic "Ideas behind  the chess openings" by Reuben Fine, though that might not be detailed enough. I would browse around online and see if there are any "interesting" books that might quote different games as opposed t recycling te same old stuff. Case in point, I randomly found this book called "King Pawn Openings" by Marovic and Susic. It's cool because they quote a lot of games from the Balkans and every author has their take on traps and what are good lines, what is novel, etc...and this has been a pretty enjoyable book. So of course you will find big famous books by well known authors, but it's fun to branch out a little. If you're interested in researching an opening in particular though, download some games! This is a GREAT site:

 

http://www.pitt.edu/~schach/Archives/index2.html

 

Good luck! 


lochness88
THe starting out series is good.
Lousy

I see you are fairly well rated at 1400++ and is 16 years old. So you are young and have plenty of time and is decent rated enough. However, at this level any decent openings will do.

Let me give you an advice about opening. I wasted lots of time on opening which I should have spent on middlegames and endgames.


The most important advice is

1) Do not change your openings frequently. For example, play 1.d4 and then after a few months change to 1.f4 and then a few years later to 1.Nf3 and then later to 1.e4.  If you play Queen Gambit stick to it. It is a decent opening that gives even GMs and world champions problems.

Why stick to one? We all are amateurs and we don't have time to learn everything and it seems that the more experience we are at some positions the better we get from evaluating it.

 Anand has been playing 1.e4 almost all his life. He did change to 1.d4 but now seems to have switch back to 1.e4

Ward and Amir Bagheri have also been playing 1.d4 all their lifes.

 Watson, Krochnoi, Uhlman, Short etc have been playing french defence most of their lifes.

So it seems even professional players have make certain openings their specialisation.

To answer your question what opening books are you looking for?

General books or specialist books. 

For general opening books

1) check out Understanding Modern Chess opening vol 1&2 by John Watson. 

For more specialist books

1) check out starting out series.

2) any books related to your opening. 


DineshCH
An excellent catalog of openings is presented in "Traps and Zaps" by Pandolfin(sp)
ChessDweeb

Don't waste time studying opening. Instead, study tactics until you reach around 1800. Look around online for the basic opening principles (like the ones below) and stick to those. Tactics, tactics, tactics.

  1. OPEN with a CENTER PAWN.
  2. DEVELOP with threats.
  3. KNIGHTS before BISHOPS.
  4. DON'T move the same piece twice.
  5. Make as FEW PAWN MOVES as possible in the opening.
  6. DON'T bring out your QUEEN too early.
  7. CASTLE as soon as possible, preferably on the KING SIDE.
  8. ALWAYS PLAY TO GAIN CONTROL OF THE CENTER.
  9. Try to maintain at least ONE PAWN in the center.
  10. DON'T SACRIFICE without a clear and adequate reason.
skeptical_moves
my advice for opening books that i have and both are great are: "World Champion Openings" and "Unorthodox Chess Openings" both by Eric Schiller. I recommend both of them... great books and in depth.