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Chessville
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Discovering Chess Openings (Building A Repertoire from Basic Principles) Reviewed by Michael Jeffreys
Opening Basics Explained Oftentimes the stronger a chess player is, the less likely he is able to remember what it was like when he was just starting out. Ideas and concepts that he takes for granted frequently baffle or completely elude the beginner. This is why chess authors like Irving Chernev, I.A. Horowitz, and Fred Reinfeld were so loved by beginners; even though they were strong players their books did a superb job of explaining things in easy to understand terms. By the way, some of you may not think that Reinfeld was actually a strong player, but he was. For example, take a look at what he does to Reshevsky in the following game (and with the Black pieces no less!):
Reshevsky-Reinfeld
Nice one Freddy! And now joining the ranks of strong players who publish material for beginners is British GM John Emms. While Emms has put out several good books in the recent past, those were aimed for the club player whereas this one is truly for the neophyte. Specifically, this volume focuses on how to play the opening. The Chapters breakdown as follows:
1.
Central Issues Let’s take a brief look at each chapter: Chapter 1. Central Issues - Emms kicks things off by discussing the key central squares on the board which he says not only include d4, d5, e4, and e5 (the“sweet center” as I heard GM Seirawan refer to it on his chess DVDs), but also the surrounding center squares: c4, c5, f4, f5, d3, e3, d6, e6. Says Emms: 1) Let’s use an analogy between chess and some other sports and games (chess has been described as many things; just for the record, I would classify it as a mind sport). In soccer, for example, I often hear commentators using phrases such as, ‘Control the midfield and you control the game.’ Something similar could easily be used to describe a game of chess. For one thing, if you control the centre then it should be easier for you to access all sides of the board. 2) Chess pieces are generally more powerful, more mobile and thus more influential when placed in the centre of the board. Put simply, they are able to control more squares from the centre. Emms goes on to show (using diagrams) how the knight, for example, controls 8 squares whilst in the center, but only 4 from the side of the board. He concludes the chapter by explaining the importance of White trying to set-up a “classical” center (pawns on d4 and e4) and how Black spends the opening trying to prevent or at least make it difficult for White to achieve this. Chapter 2. Introducing development - In the second chapter, Emms discusses the importance of rapid development, and goes over Scholar’s Mate and how to defend against it. He also goes over each piece and talks about “the best squares” for each. Says Emms: We know that queens should be handled with great care early on, while it seems that rooks are almost allergic to the opening phase of the game. So what does that leave? By a process of elimination it could be said that the opening is reserved mainly for minor pieces and pawns to strut their stuff. For one thing, minor pieces and pawns are less likely to get harassed than the queen and rook. Because of their low value, an attack can often be ignored if the piece is already protected. The example he uses to illustrate this last point is after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5, even though Black’s knight is attacked he does not have to move it because it’s defended by the pawns on e7 and g7. Next Emms explains how after the moves 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 White must deal with the threat to his e-pawn as it is under attack and not defended. (see diagram)
White’s e4 pawn is under attack This simple example actually brings up two key concepts that the new student must understand. First, actually seeing that a piece/pawn is attacked in the first place. Because I teach chess at numerous schools throughout Los Angeles, I can attest to the fact that oftentimes my beginner students don’t even notice that their opponent’s move attacked one of their pieces/pawns! They are so caught up/overwhelmed with just keeping track of how all the pieces move that when something of theirs is attacked, they often fail to realize that a proper response is required on their part to deal with this threat. So, my first job is to get them to actually see the threat. However, this is still not enough. Next, I have to get them to understand that they now have to figure out the best way to deal with this threat, i.e., they can’t simply ignore it! In the above example in the French defense, Emms explains how the student has three options: he can advance the attacked pawn: 3.e5, exchange it: 3.exd5, or guard it: 3.Nc3 (for some reason he doesn’t mention 3. Nd2). He then talks about how 3.Nc3 is White’s most popular choice because it does two things: defends the pawn AND develops a piece. After the moves 3…dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7 5.Nf3 Bc6 Emms explains how White could move the attacked knight on e4, but he can do better by playing 6.Bd3!, which both develops a new piece AND defends the knight. As you can see, Emms really emphasizes the importance of development which is something beginners can’t be reminded of often enough. (In fact, Emms repeats several themes throughout the book, but again I think this is a good thing, as it serves to reinforce the key concepts). Other topics covered in this section include: Development Count, Ideal squares: The Knight, Ideal squares: The Bishop, and The Fianchetto. Chapter 3. King Safety - This section covers the perils of leaving your king in the center, i.e, not castling, and gives examples of what can happen if you ignore this critical concept. Once again beginners at first fail to understand why leaving their king in the center is such a big no-no. Indeed, I usually have to show them several games where one side fails to castle and the opposing side rips open the central files and quickly delivers checkmate before the importance of getting castled begins to sink in. Other topics covered in this section include: Fools mate, Attacking f7, and the point value of the pieces. Chapter 4. Delving Deeper - In this section Emms begins to cover more advanced material. First though, he brings up a point that I have seen beginners do all too often: make luxury pawn moves. Says Emms: One of the things I’ve spotted amongst those fairly new to the game is the tendency to play unnecessary pawn moves early in the opening. In many respects these could be described as luxury pawn moves: they are not necessarily weakening; they might even have a useful point; however, crucially they lose valuable time in the development race, and this is often the most critical factor of the position. The ‘reasoning’ behind such a pawn move is normally to prevent the possibility of an enemy piece entering into home territory. If time were not a factor this would be all well and good, but of course this is usually not the case. The problem is that often the fear of the intrusion proves to be unfounded, and it turns out that the tempo could have been more purposely used elsewhere (development). Actually, I think Emms may be giving beginners too much credit for their reasoning behind making excessive pawn moves in the opening. I often see my new students making almost all pawn moves in the opening and when I ask them why they are doing this (especially after I just gave a 30 minute lesson on the importance of piece development!), they just look at me blankly. Apparently it was their move, they HAD to move something, they know how the pawns move, and so out they come! Indeed, I once watched two of my beginning students play the following five moves to start their game: 1.b3 e5 2.c3 Nf6 3.d3 Bc5 4.e3 0–0 5.f3 (see diagram)
The Chicken fence defense?? I asked the young player of the White pieces what on earth he was doing? He said proudly, “It’s the chicken fence defense! I invented it!!” Exasperated, I said, “Yes, but you’re WHITE! You shouldn’t be defending!” He just shrugged and went back to his game; apparently if I couldn’t grasp the brilliance of his new found opening set-up that was my problem! By the way, I should mention these students were around 8 years old. A bit too young for Emms' book, which is laid out like your standard chess book (i.e., not like a children’s book with cartoons, etc.) and whose target age range looks to be 12 years old to adult. Other topics covered in this section include: Moving a piece twice; Grabbing pawns; Gaining time; The queen: exposed or not?; Holding up and restricting; Pinning and unpinning; Gambits; Never miss a check, it might be mate!; Patzer sees a check!; and Springing off the edge (in this short section, Emms gives a few examples of when putting a knight on “the rim” may actually be a good move, e.g., when using the side of the board as stepping stone to a juicy square!) I should also mention that at the end of each chapter Emms gives a handful of exercises for the reader to solve. Here’s one example from the “Delving Deeper” chapter:
Says Emms: “In this position White can play 7.Nb5 with the threat of Nc7+, winning an exchange. Is this a good idea?” * * * And the answer from the back of the book:
Chapter 5. Pawn Play - Emms kicks off this chapter with the following: So far we’ve concentrated mainly on pieces and how they should develop, whereas the role of the pawns in the opening has been somewhat neglected. In this chapter I’m hoping to redress the balance by studying a few basic pawn structures arising from the opening before moving on to some typical pawn breaks that are worth remembering. Finally, there’s the much misunderstood subject of doubled pawns: when they are a clear weakness to when they prove to be a strength. He begins with an example of a classical pawn center (pawns on d4 and e4 for White) and explains how this is favorable for White due to the extra space and control of the center it gives the first player. However, he points out that in constructing this center, White has to correctly time when to play pawn to c3 in order to support a d4 push. For example, after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.c3?! can be met by 2…Nf6! (see diagram)
And suddenly White’s e4-pawn is under attack, and the natural Nc3 is off due to the pawn on c3. Emms discusses how 3.d3 does protect the e4 pawn, but then any dreams of playing d4 will have to wait. And 3.Qc2, 3.f3?!, and 3.Bd3?! all allow Black to take over the initiative with 3…d5! 4.exd5 Qxd5 when again White would like to play Nc3 but can’t due to the little fella on c3. Again, this may all seem a bit simple to you, but think back to when you were just starting out… you had to learn these concepts somewhere! And a book like this can quickly get the new student up and running, set in the knowledge that he (or she!) has learned the proper fundamentals of chess opening theory. Other topics covered in this section include: Building a classical centre against the Sicilian; Pawn Play with 1.d4 d5; Introducing the Queen’s Gambit!; The Blocked Centre; The Hypermodern School; Pawn Breaks; Attacking the f-pawn!; Understanding Doubled Pawns; and A Choice of Pawn Captures. Chapter 6. Chess Openings in Practice - This is the most advanced chapter in the book as it covers opening theory for the following: The Giuoco Piano, The Two Knights Defence, The Petroff Defence, The Sicilian Dragon, The Sicilian Sveshnikov, The French, The Caro-Kann, The Scandinavian, QGD, The Slav, The Dutch, KID, The Grunfeld, and The English. Emms goes approximately 10-14 moves into each opening and gives a brief explanation as to why each move in that particular opening is played. By the time the student has gotten to this last chapter, hopefully he or she will be ready to see all the concepts they have learned in the previous pages put into practice. The Bottom Line In many respects a book such as this is not easy to write. Opening concepts and rules that most players take for granted have to be broken down and explained step-by-step being careful not to leave anything out, no matter how “obvious” it may be. Emms does a good job of not only doing that in this book, but of also keeping the reader engaged with his friendly commentary throughout. The book starts out with very basic opening/chess principles and gradually becomes more advanced with each chapter. In the book’s final section, as I mentioned, Emms takes the reader through several popular openings. Closing out the book is a short glossary of chess terms and an index of the openings covered. I think a careful reading of this book for those between rank beginner and 1100 Elo will give that person a solid foundation from which to build their opening skills upon. Indeed, when a friend of mine whom was unrated (she had only been playing chess casually for six months) asked me to recommend a book for learning the openings, this was the one I recommended. Furthermore, even those rated up to1400 Elo will learn quite a bit about opening play from the second half of this book.
On a scale of 1-10, Discovering Chess Openings gets an 8.0
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