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 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.
For many chess-players, opening study is sheer hard work. It is difficult to know what is important and what is not, and when specific knowledge is vital, or when a more general understanding is sufficient. Tragically often, once the opening is over, a player won't know what plan to follow, or even understand why his pieces are on the squares on which they sit.
John Watson seeks to help chess-players achieve a more holistic and insightful view of the openings. In his previous books on chess strategy, Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy and Chess Strategy in Action , he explained vital concepts that characterize modern chess. Moreover, he did so in ways that have enabled these ideas to be understood by club players. Here he does likewise for the openings, proceeding from the fundamental ideas that apply to all openings to more advanced ideas that are essential for substantial improvement.
In this major two-volume work, Watson presents a wide-ranging view of the way in which top-class players really handle the opening, rather than an idealized and simplified model. This volume, focusing on king's pawn openings, is a book that will make chess-players think hard about how they begin their games, while offering both entertainment and challenging material for study in openings such as the Sicilian and Ruy Lopez.
The beginning of the book starts off with a few chapters discussing some of the basics of openings including Fundamentals, Ideas, Positional Features, and Structure. Some of the examples here are "What is an opening?", "The centre", "Development", "King safety", "Space", "Activity and Initiative", "White's goals", "Black's goals", "Center types", "Weaknesses", "Fianchetto themes", "Prophylaxis", "Pawn chains", and more. This section is geared more to bringing beginners up to speed with the basics of the openings.
After this the book is split into two sections, Section 1: Introduction to 1e4 and the Open Games and Section 2: The Semi-Open Games.
Introduction to 1.e4
Open Games
1.Giuoco Piano
2.Two Knights Defence
3.Philidor Defence
4.Ruy Lopez
5.King's Gambit
Semi-Open Games
1.Sicilian Defence
2.Caro-Kann Defence
3.French Defence
4.Pirc Defence
The main factor that sets this book apart and makes it unique is the way Watson explains the openings and the ideas behind the moves giving the reader a broad view of the openings and a good idea of how to play the opening and then proceed from there. Many of the works out today focus on long lines without much explanation except for short evaluations at the end of the variations. Watson's book is the perfect manual for beginners, intermediate, and even many advanced players who are wishing to study and improve their opening! All I can say is I highly recommend this book and I am eagerly looking forward to volume 2!