A Startling Chess Opening Repertoire: New Edition

Remember that one chess game when your opponent rushes out their 2 knights after pushing their pawn to block your pawn? e.g. every other game you've played... well Chris Baker and Graham Burgess have a startling opening for that in their first chapter which immediately throws your opponent off balance. I've used the opening in tournaments and seen the results personally [opponent used 10 minutes to ponder what was happening on the 5th move and every move after that].Other highly effective counters are inside the book including against the Caro–Kann, French, Scandinavian, and others.You're going to want to add this book to your arsenal of openings. Those who begin with the King's pawn. And others will want to return to this opening knowing how to put their opponents on the ropes in just a few moves.

I bought this book mainly for its coverage of the French Defence with 2.Nc3 and the Alekhine Defence with 2.Nc3 giving many fresh new ideas and analysis. If the Alekhine turns into a 4 Knights they suggest 4.h3 which is wild. Also fresh new analysis in the Max Lange Atack as well as Koltanowskis tricky system. The other systems in this book I use other reference material but these mentioned openings are good surprise weapons at club level.

The book provides some interesting suggestions on how to play against Blacks common answers to 1. e4. These variations are sometimes too far off the main lines played in tournament practice (Sicilian) but at other times offer in depth analysis (Max Lange).

This repertoire is not just composed of unusual lines but includes some that are pretty dodgy as well. A better title might have been "A Risky Repertoire For Gamblers In Chess".

Burgess ha fatto un lavoro di revisione del precedente libro di Baker ma non si è ammazzato di fatica! Poche linee sono state aggiornate e, a mio parere, non vale la pena di acquistarlo se si ha l' edizione precedente.