Winning with the Najdof: Daniel King, its an old book by now but it was the foundation of my Sicilian and I will always recommend it.
Looking to rebuild repetoire
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There are these 2 old books. "Mastering the French defence" and "mastering the king's indian defence". They are really old or outdated books but it discusses more of principles and less memorization
teranz0 wrote:
So I peaked in my chess abilities at ~1620 USCF shortly after high school. ... What are some good books for someone in my rating range for learning ideas in:
1) Open Sicilian (preferably something with more ideas and less memorization)
2) King's Gambit (lines okay; is it easier to prepare this or the Ruy?)
3) King's Indian Defense (more ideas, less memorization)
4) French Defense (I don't mind memorizing lines for the Winower, but again primarily an idea-based text)
Maybe:
The Sicilian Taimanov: Move by Move
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7070.pdf
The King’s Gambit by John Shaw
http://www.chessvibes.com/?q=review-the-king%E2%80%99s-gambit
The Ruy Lopez: Move by Move by Neil McDonald
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627022042/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen153.pdf
The King's Indian Defence: Move by Move
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7736.pdf
The Classical French: Move by Move
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7472.pdf
Moskalenko's The Flexible French is excellent, like all the books of his I've read, full of ideas and very entertaining. Since then he has published The Wonderful Winawer and The Even More Flexible French, neither of which I have, as I don't play the French much these days.
opticRED wrote:
There are these 2 old books. "Mastering the French defence" and "mastering the king's indian defence". They are really old or outdated books but it discusses more of principles and less memorization
I have those books, and they are excellent introductions to the French and KID. Because they focus on the standard pawn structures resulting from those openings instead of specific variations, they are still useful despite their age. Once you have studied the standard plans and tactical motifs for the pawn structures, you can understand the reasons behind the moves in variations. That makes studying the opening moves a lot more meaningful than just memorizing moves.
I also have the Spanish and Nimzoindian books from that series, and they are very good. The series does have a book on the Sicilian, but I haven't seen it and have read some negative reviews about it.
Indeed. Since you're interested in the French, learning the Sicilian e6 systems would be ideal. The KID is complex but going by your initial preferences, the Nimzo/Queen's Indian again would be my suggestion. Brushing up on the QGD would be another solid choice. Offensively, I would use the KG only occasionally in classic, as I opt for Spanish more often. It's cool in faster time controls to me though. But yeah, as with any mainstream opening, ya gotta lot to learn!
https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/MayhemintheMorraExcerpt.pdf
"... Though the analysis often runs deep, the presentation is very straight-forward. ..."
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2012/08/review-of-mayhem-in-morra-and-smith.html
http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/games/java/2012/mayhem-notes.htm
So I peaked in my chess abilities at ~1620 USCF shortly after high school. This was a time when I was able to spend a lot of time memorizing obscure lines in the Traxxler and Halloween Gambit etc. since I really enjoyed them. I'm looking to get back into chess casually now, but have forgotton almost all my old theory. What are some good books for someone in my rating range for learning ideas in:
1) Open Sicilian (preferably something with more ideas and less memorization)
2) King's Gambit (lines okay; is it easier to prepare this or the Ruy?)
3) King's Indian Defense (more ideas, less memorization)
4) French Defense (I don't mind memorizing lines for the Winower, but again primarily an idea-based text)