FCO: Fundamental Chess Openings

by Paul van der Sterren

* The perfect survival guide to the chess openings
* All openings covered
* Detailed verbal explanations of plans for both sides
* Up-to-date and featuring many tips and recommendations
* Insights into the ‘character’ of each opening
* Written by one of the world’s foremost opening experts

The first moves of a chess game define the nature of the whole struggle, as both players stake their claim to the critical squares and start to develop their plans. It is essential to play purposefully and to avoid falling into traps or reaching a position that you don’t understand.

This is not a book that provides masses of variations to memorize. Paul van der Sterren instead offers a wealth of ideas and explanation, together with the basic variations of each and every opening. This knowledge will equip players to succeed in the opening up to good club level, and provide a superb grounding in opening play on which to build a more sophisticated repertoire. The strategies he explains will, unlike ever-changing chess opening theory, remain valid as long as chess is played, and so the time spent studying this book will be rewarded many times over.

Grandmaster Paul van der Sterren has won the Dutch Championship on two occasions, and in 1993 reached the Candidates stage of the World Chess Championship. He is an internationally renowned chess writer and he was one of the founding editors of New in Chess , for whose Yearbooks he has contributed more than 150 opening surveys.

Genres: Chess, Reference, Nonfiction, Games, Textbooks

448 pages, Paperback

First published November 24, 2009

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book written by someone who REALLY loves openings - for readers who shares the same passion.
I believe that the most difficult thing for the writer was to avoid to repeat himself by using the common phrases time and time again - and I think that regarding that he has done a great job. Take, for example, how he introduces the Advance Variation of the Caro-Kan: "Strange as it may sound, theory of the Advance Variation is practically brand new.By decades nobody was interested, since 3 e5 was not taken seriously. The old theoretical 'assessment' can be summarized as follows: "Black plays 3...Bf5 and since he has developed his queen's bishop outside his pawn-chain he now has an improved version of the Advance French. Black will pay ...e6, probably ...c5 at some point and he has solved 'the problem of the French bishop', period." Sometimes the variation 4 Bd3 Bxd3 5 Qxd3 was added to show how little promise this line holds for White. Today, this view of the Advance Variation has changed beyond recognition."
I remember that the books would add the maneuver 5...e6 6 Nf3 Qa5 followed by 7...Qa6, thus encompassing the picture of the impotence of White's set up.
The author also knows how to insert from time to time a touch of humor, like in this sentence: "It took a long time for the chess world to realize that this pawn sacrifice is more than just an empty macho gesture".
Even if one will never play some of the openings mentioned in this book, reading about them is still a pure joy.

[Rik Herrygers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for chess players who want to understand the openings.

No advanced explanations though. Most lines stop after approximately 10 moves...

[James E Mathis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent opening reference book. A must for any chess library.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

An invaluable reference book for all but very strong players; if I had just bought this to begin with I could have saved myself the purchase of several opening-specific books. By delving into the theoretical development, considerations, and plans from every line, any player hoping to advance their play will find FCO to be a goldmine. At the same time, by including coverage of all major lines, the reader is able to explore different options and find those lines that best suit their temperament. Assuming you already have a grasp of basic opening principles, pick this up and bingo bango your opening prep is taken care of.

[Andre Hermanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good:
* Great overview of chess openings.

Bad:
* Missing some of the newly popular variations such as anti-Grünfeld (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. h4).

[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, informative, entertaining (to weirdos), but a little out of date as opening books tend to be

[Pawan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many would have tried a few of them without having studied them as this book does. I often launch the king-side bishop against D4, also known as King's Indian Defence, and the Four Knights Game against E4.

It is more of a reference book, but reading it cover to cover is fun too. Paperback allows making notes on the edges of the page. Learning openings saves time in blitz.

Heel erg bedankt.

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb comprehensive walk-through of most of the common openings in chess. Van der Sterren does a very thorough job of examining these openings from both white's and black's perspectives. This is a reference book that should be on chess player's bookshelf. If you're a beginning player, or it has been a while since you've played, I'd suggest reading John Emm's Discovering Chess Openings (Everyman Chess, 2006) first. Once you're familiar with the very useful material in Emm's book, you'll be ready for Van der Sterren's FCO.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful reference covering not just the important ideas and variations in all of the openings of Chess, but the history of the development of the openings. Terrific reading that helps you understand why as well as what to do.

[Ville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives the ideas behind most chess openings. Easy to read even without a chess board.

[Pzaaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

v good

[Susan Lerner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I

[♡ Naisha ♡ ♫ · Rating 4 out of 5]

honestly very helpful ngl

[Zac · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bible of openings. E4 + D4 galore. Easy to follow guides of each opening and defence, including some of the more complex lines that may arise in certain cases.

[JT Neville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, a bit technical and kind of outdated with the way digital media can now teach. But still worth the read. My chest is still terrible but not because of this book. 😂

[Tanmay Srivastava]

great

[HD · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book mainly covered the two most important -and most played- opening moves by far; e4 and d4. Not without reason, both of these openings are classical, which means it's essential to learn the fundamental before moving to a more complicated strategy. It speaks about and discusses the most basic, fundamental and most important parts of an opening; what kind of weakness and strength behind each opening. The openings presented in the writing here can be confusing if you can't read chess notation, even with all of the images. However, if you already could read the notation, the book becomes a breeze.

Some of the opening examples are;

French Defense
Black allows his opponent to form what is called ‘the ideal pawn-centre’ by playing 2 d4 and thereby voluntarily accepts a more cramped position than 1...e5 would give. This may look like a disadvantage but the great benefit of this plan is that White is not given any targets. There is no black pawn at e5 begging to be attacked and the a2-g8 diagonal, so often Black’s Achilles’ Heel in the 1 e4 e5 openings, is firmly closed: there will be no white bishop leering at f7 in the French Defence!

Caro-Kann Defense
Just like in the French Defence, Black is planning to play 2...d5, attacking White’s e-pawn. He is using the c-pawn rather than the e-pawn to support this central advance because he wants to keep the c8-h3 diagonal open for his bishop. And no matter how closely related the starting moves 1...e6 and 1...c6 may be, this tiny difference immediately causes a fundamental divergence.

Petroff Defense
By playing this move, Black approaches the position in a way which can be described as the diametric opposite of 2...Nc6. Instead of defending his epawn, Black copies his opponent and attacks e4. This may seem more aggressive, but the idea is in fact to keep the position (relatively) simple and straightforward.

There's no way you could break the mediocrity in chess within without mastering the basic opening. The book gives you that one piece you need.

[F. Dum · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite chess books. I have checked out a few similar overviews of openings, and this is by far the best, in my opinion. I've always been looking for a book that covers all openings and doesn't just give the lines (there's opening databases for that), but instead he focuses on the rationales and ideas BEHIND the moves.

I'm currently reading the King's Indian Defense section and for the first time ever I get a feeling WHY the main lines are the main lines. Of course, there's some good stuff on YouTube too (Hanging Pawns), but for me, reading a book just makes the information stick much better -- together with playing the moves out on my Lichess analysis board.

As a history buff I also really appreciate van der Sterren giving lots of information about when lines became popular and why.

Of course, the opening theory has evolved quite a bit since the book was published, so take his evaluations with a grain of salt. Also, while it goes into quite some depth in some main lines, this book of course can't possibly cover everything.

But to get a basic feel for the various openings and some context, to understand WHY those openings are played, to help you find an opening repertoire that fits your playing style -- I just don't know any better.

[Tacitus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to follow the move lines in prose, as they move backwards and forwards, jumping around, often confusingly.