Chess Openings

by Michael Basman, Mike Basman

Chess Openings explains the principles which underlie correct opening play and shows how they can be developed to produce strong positions for attack and defense in different situations. Mike Basman consolidates these lessons by investigating five classic openings―the Queen's Gambit, Giuoco Piano, Nimzo-Indian, Morra Gambit, and Sicilian Dragon―which together can be used to form the basis of a formidable opening repertoire.

Genres: Chess

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1987

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the presentation of openings as full games were shown with incremental improvements for the losing player each time. This gave me a very clear view of ways to play in the case of non-book moves.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the deep, dark past, folks who wanted to learn something would actually go out and find a book about it, rather than looking at tiktok videos, or paying a monthly fee for an app. This had certain limitations, and probably the game of chess and its literature are some of the strongest cases against book-learning that can be made. It is extremely difficult for someone who has spent thousands of hours of his or her life learning through hard experience and re-shaping brain pathways to think like a chess-player to pass that skill along textually. In general, only some beginning principles can be taught, and it is up to the reader to internalize them by taking up the challenge of playing against opponents.

Still, I would rate Basman’s effort here as probably the second-best teaching guide for a beginning chess player that I have seen. The first is “Bobby Fisher Teaches Chess,” which, interestingly focuses mostly on the end-game where Basman wants to show what to do at the beginning. I think perhaps the reason Fisher’s approach worked better for me is that as a beginner the concept of “checkmate” is still pretty alien, and learning from the back that way is part of the necessary re-shaping of brain pathways I was talking about there that turns a beginner into a real chess player. That said, the problem one always has, even if you do understand the kinds of moves that will help you win, is what to do in those first moments when strategy has yet to be formed, when the board is “undeveloped” and you want to move toward a position of strength vis-a-vis a still-powerful opponent.

Basman not only sets out some good, basic rules for you, he also takes you through multiple example games to show how those principles have been applied by masters. I found it useful to set up my chessboard once a day and walk through these games, one at a time. This still isn’t a replacement for actual play, but I did find my game was slowly improving as I went through this, based on test games against (yes) a chess app on easy-setting. My last game was rated at only four mistakes and zero blunders (!) by Dr. Wolf. Learning chess requires patience and constant practice, but this book is reasonably successful at what it set out to do.

[Balaamanikandan Seelan]

very good

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource. Basman explains many of the common openings and reasons for playing e4 or d4.

[Steve Clark]

Paperback