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Chessville
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Remember the old restaurant complaint? The food is bad. And the portions are small. Not to be too snarky, but it’s hard not to feel a bit like this after finishing Albertson’s latest offering from Cardoza. The author is not new to chess writing. He is co-author of 303 Tricky Chess Tactics, 303 Tricky Checkmates, 303 Tricky Chess Puzzles, 303 More Tricky Chess Puzzles, and 202 Checkmates for Children. The first two of these were reviewed positively here at Chessville: 303 Tricky Chess Tactics & 303 Tricky Checkmates. So, what to make of 51 Chess Openings for Beginners? Even if we tip-toe past the oxymoronic title (i.e. I think beginners should not be studying openings, they should be learning the principles of opening play: control of the center, efficient development, King safety, etc. that are applicable to every game) it’s not possible to get further than the cover. On the front, there is the sub-title “What the Chess Openings Look Like,” which would seem closer to what the author has accomplished; but on the back we see in the biggest font “PLAY THE OPENINGS LIKE A PRO!” Please. Then we learn “No other book so perfectly presents the openings in a manner so easy to learn and use!” To which your Reviewer replies: As if. After the Table of Contents (Alekhine’s Defense – for beginners? Benko Gambit? Bogoljubov’s Defense?...) there is a 1-page Introduction which outlines the ideas behind the book, in part:
This is a fair description… so far. If the book had been labeled How to Talk (Sparingly) About the Openings Like A Grandmaster (But Not Too Deeply) it would have been spot on. But the Introduction continues:
This simply is not a fair and accurate description of the contents of 51 Chess Openings, except in the most lean of senses, or as a derivative of the old saw that “ignorance is bliss”. Let me elaborate. Flip to the Giuoco Piano, a favorite of new chess players. Each move gets a decent, basic explanation: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3. There is no mention of 4.c3, with the idea of a subsequent d2-d4. 4…Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 and the last note has a cautionary tale of carrying symmetry of position too far. (For the same line arising out of the Four Knights Opening, see the Kennedy Kids tale, “Double Double Trouble Trouble”) True, the reader has made it through 5 moves and 7 diagrams and has a new chess name to toss out – but not a whole lot more. Looking at the Four Knights’ Game, another early player favorite, we get 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.0-0 0-0, again with thumbnail notes for each move (but no alternative moves along the way), whereupon there is a diagram, then the comment “The rest goes 6.d3 d6 7.Bg5 and now probably 7…Bxc3 (not allowing Nd5) 8.bxc3 etc.” then a final diagram, with the note “The game goes on.” So it does. The French Defense shows with notes 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6, although there is a comment after White’s third move that “This is just one of several ways to avoid losing a pawn; 3.exd5 and 3.Nc3 also come to consideration.” The Ruy Lopez gets three pages, as do the Sicilian Defense, the King’s Indian Defense, and for that matter most other openings. Sometimes the lines are silly –Philidor’s Defense is illustrated with Black falling into Legal’s Mate and the Budapest Defense ends with an 8-move trap, a diagram and the enjoinder “Don’t fall into that one.” Does anybody want to join with me and repeat: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing...” But if that’s what you want to know about the openings, you’ll find it in Albertson’s book. (To be fair, he does dedicate 4 pages in the beginning of the book to Some Opening Ideas in which he does mention the center, development and King safety.) 51 Chess Openings is double-columned with plenty of diagrams and effective white space. I do not recall any egregious typos. A certain sloppiness shows up in the names of openings, however, as some given in the Table of Contents and chapters (e.g. Bird’s Opening, Bogoljubov’s Defense, Budapest Defense, Evan’s Gambit) change their names by the time they reach the Schematic Overview of the Openings at the back of the book (e.g. Bird Opening, Bogoljubov Defense, Budapest Counter Gambit, Evans Gambit).
My evaluation?
If you truly are a beginner at chess, you will probably find what you need
to know at this point about the openings in the various introductory books
you are already using. Or ask somebody at your club to give you a
vocabulary lesson. Or visit the library and take out some classic
Reinfeld or Chernev. If you must get something on the
openings (“I want to Benko his Colle when he tries to Catalan my Slav…”),
find yourself a decent collection of understandably-annotated games –
Tartakower and DuMont’s 500 Master Games of Chess is a classic book
for about the same price as 51 Chess Openings, and the analysis, even
55 years old, is more relevant.
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