Chess Explained: The English Opening
By Zenon Franco
Zenon Franco is a grandmaster from Paraguay who now lives in Spain. For more than a quarter of a century, he has written a popular column for Spanish-language chess magazines. He is an experienced chess trainer, his most notable pupil being Paco Vallejo, now one of the world's top grandmasters, whom he taught from 1995 to 1999.
Chess Explained is an excellent new series of books about chess openings. They are not theoretical works in the traditional sense, but more a series of lessons from a chess expert with extensive over-the-board experience with an opening. You will gain an understanding of the opening and the middlegames to which it leads, enabling you to find the right moves and plans in your own games. It is as if you were sitting at the board with a chess coach answering your questions about the plans for both sides, the ideas behind particular moves, and what specific knowledge you need to have.
The English Opening is a flexible and dynamic choice for White, which avoids a great deal of sharp and well-mapped opening theory. It is popular with all levels of chess-players, and has been used to good effect at world championship level by Kasparov, Korchnoi, Botvinnik and other greats of the game. The English gives rise to an immense variety of structures, ranging from reversed Sicilians to Hedgehogs and fluid or locked central structures. It is an opening where strategic mastery of typical positions is of immense benefit, and where Black needs to combine circumspection and vigour to obtain a viable game.
This book has 3 main sections. They are Symmetrical English (1.c4 c5), Reversed Sicilian (1.c4 e5), and the Nimzo-Indian and Mikenas Attack (1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6).
At the beginning of each chapter Franco explains a bit about the general ideas, plans, and characteristics of the variation. Then he lists the games contained in that section showing what variations and plans the players used. "...In this game, after weakening the black king's position, white successfully employs the thematic sacrifice Nd5. This is an idea which both sides must take into account..." Making it easy to find the game you want. After that are the games. Here Franco examines the ideas deeper and shows many important ideas in instructive top class games. Also each variation has a nice summary, putting the ideas in a nutshell.
Altogether I found this book really helpful in both the white as well as the black side of this opening. Although there are a few variations that aren't listed in this book, such as the reverse closed sicilian (1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.0-0 d6) etc. I have had to face this structure somewhat often but it is not listed in the book. This is the only drawback but I'm sure you could stick it on the computer and find a line or even make up your own using some of the ideas and similar lines from this book.
NSG rating = 9.6 of 10