Mastering the Chess Openings vol.4

In this highly-acclaimed series, John Watson helps chess-players achieve a more holistic and insightful view of the openings. He explains not only the ideas and strategies behind specific openings, but also the interconnections of chess openings taken as a whole. By presenting the common threads that underlie opening play, Watson provides a permanent basis for playing openings of any type.

This final volume draws together many themes in a wide-ranging discussion of general opening topics. By looking at familiar situations from new angles, Watson helps us greatly increase our understanding of them. In the process, he covers a wide variety of opening structures and variations not seen in the earlier volumes and presents a great wealth of original analysis.

* Réti and Fianchetto Systems
* Reversed Openings
* Symmetry
* Irregular Openings
* Gambits: Primitive or Positional
* Universal Openings

In the final two chapters, Watson presents his views on the importance of opening study and explains how players should best prepare and choose their openings for the level at which they play. He looks at the future of chess openings and explains which skills will be most important as chess evolves in the forthcoming decades.

International Master John Watson is one of the world's most respected writers on chess. His groundbreaking four-volume work on the English firmly established his reputation in the 1980s, and he has produced a string of top-quality works since. In 1999, Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy, Watson's first book for Gambit, won the British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award and the United States Chess Federation Fred Cramer Award for Best Book. His former pupils include the 1997 World Junior Champion, Tal Shaked.

Download a pdf file with a sample from the book

"...far from being just an opening monograph, Volume 4 is an oracle of practical advice that everyone would benefit from..." - GM Glenn Flear, New-in-Chess Yearbook.

"…I've learned a lot from it - especially how much I don't know about chess yet. One of the reasons is that Watson gives a lot of practical advice that tells a lot about grandmaster practice as well. … This is often the difference between Watson and other authors: Watson is not afraid to mention things that may be painfully obvious to insiders, but can be real eye openers to club players. ... This book is not only essential for chess players who already play the English Opening, but can be a source of new inspiration for people who, like me, have always looked at it with a mixture of wonder, bewilderment and horror." - Arne Moll, www.chessvibes.com

"The publication of this series is a bellwether event in chess publishing, and all players should avail themselves of the opportunity to read these books." - Mark Donlan, Chess Horizons

"When your reviewer was a teenager in 1964, there were no databases, no Internet, precious few really good chess books and no DVDs. I picked up a copy of Nimzovich's Chess Praxis and a copy of My System. Over the course of my summer vacation, I read those books. My rating jumped from 1400 to almost 1700. I actually started to understand some key chess ideas. For those of you who want a similar epiphany in the 21st century, these two volumes by Watson will do the job." - Pete Tamburro, Chess Life

"Even though volume one mostly deals with 1 e4 and volume two deals with 1 d4, the books nonetheless represent one body of work that should best be enjoyed together, and they are written by one of the finest authors of the last several decades. ... To say that these books are about opening strategies or opening theory would be a disservice to the importance of the material covered in them. ... I found his chosen examples excellent and his commentary instructive and very enlightening. Whether you are an inexperienced improving player or a seasoned tournament player, you will learn loads from studying these books. His discussions of pawn structures and their interconnected strategies are worth the price of both books. Even I feel as though my game has improved after having studied both volumes at length. ... The books convey an understanding of the opening that even specialized opening works do not provide. ... I highly recommend the two volumes of Mastering the Chess Openings to anyone who truly wants to improve their understanding of the openings and of chess in general. - Carsten Hansen, www.chesscafe.com

"If you are aspiring to be a strong player you should really like this book. ... I've been putting off writing about this book because there is so much in it to read it's hard to figure out where to start. The section I started out with this morning was the Sicilian Poisoned Pawn, Fischer's contributions, and latest theory (which by the way holds that Black has excellent winning chances, AND, so does White!). In fact, it seems that this is the currency of this book-openings where the better prepared player and student has chances of winning. ... In the beginning he writes about 'Fundamentals' and covers 80 pages on that, structure, opening ideas and positional features, and the introduction to the Open Games. Here's a thought - read those 80 pages if you read nothing else. You will learn a lot about chess and it will probably spur you on to looking at the later chapters. This section has been very ably written and it explains a lot of the things the rest of us take for granted, but for which we really don't know all that well. Seriously, read this. ... In fact, just get this book. Full retail is $29.95 and it's worth every cent - it'll teach you chess." - Bob Long, www.chessco.com 

• Casa editrice Gambit
• Code 6115
• Anno 2010
• Pagine p. 320