Entry level opening literature recommendation

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spice_boy

Do you have any recommendations for opening literature for the entry level player, something like an overview of the most popular openings?

bensbookshelves

“Winning Chess Openings” by Yasser Seirawan may be what you’re looking for.   I like the way Seirawan has grouped the openings into classical, modern and hyper modern and explores the variations of each opening based on the development over time.  It gives you a great insight into why certain approaches to the opening are now used.

John Emms also has an excellent book called “discovering chess openings” which is less focused on specific variations and more focused on the principles behind the openings.

Be very careful spending time studying the openings, however, as knowledge of the opening will really only take hold after you have many games behind you.  It can be folly learning book lines when you don’t understand the principles behind each move and a good tactics book will see a much greater return on your results.  Dan Heisman has an excellent tactics book “back to basics: tactics” which has a section on openings.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Shivsky

I liked Chris Ward's book ... very nicely written without the usual variations-vomit that can really be difficult for new players to deal with. The amazon link below allows you to browse a few pages inside the book. You'll see what I meant by "easy to read" :)

http://www.amazon.com/Improve-Your-Opening-Play-Chris/dp/1857442369/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307965906&sr=1-1

Salaskan

Paul van der Sterren's "Fundamental Chess Openings", Sam Collins "Understanding the Chess Openings", Neil McDonald's "Concise Chess Openings" and Kallai's "Basic Chess Openings" and "More Basic Chess Openings" are excellent for this purpose and give the ideas and main variations on all openings and from there on you can see which appeals to you.

Seirawan's book is largely a King's Indian repertoire book and that opening system isn't that good to start with and Emms' book is decent but very basic and only spends about 50 pages on lines in specific openings.

spice_boy

Thanks for your replies. I had a quick look at van der Sterren's FCO. Looks quite good to me.

Any more comments on this particular book?

Jazzist

I use van der Sterren's FCO and I'm very pleased with it, but I have no experience with other opening books so I really can't compare it to the alternatives suggested in this thread.

_Wulfgar_

Eric Schiller's "First Chess Openings" is a real winner for entry level.