van der Sterren, Fundamental Chess Openings

* The perfect survival guide to the chess openings
* All openings covered
* Detailed verbal explanations of plans for both sides
* Up-to-date and featuring many tips and recommendations
* Insights into the 'character' of each opening
* Written by one of the world's foremost opening experts

The first moves of a chess game define the nature of the whole struggle, as both players stake their claim to the critical squares and start to develop their plans. It is essential to play purposefully and to avoid falling into traps or reaching a position that you don't understand.

This is not a book that provides masses of variations to memorize. Paul van der Sterren instead offers a wealth of ideas and explanation, together with the basic variations of each and every opening. This knowledge will equip players to succeed in the opening up to good club level, and provide a superb grounding in opening play on which to build a more sophisticated repertoire. The strategies he explains will, unlike ever-changing chess opening theory, remain valid as long as chess is played, and so the time spent studying this book will be rewarded many times over.

Grandmaster Paul van der Sterren has won the Dutch Championship on two occasions, and in 1993 reached the Candidates stage of the World Chess Championship. He is an internationally renowned chess writer and editor: he was one of the founding editors of New in Chess, for whose Yearbooks he has contributed more than 150 opening surveys.

Contents

Symbols and Notation 5
Introduction 6
The First Move 8

1 d4 9
Queen s Gambit Declined 11
Slav and Semi-Slav 27
Queen s Gambit Accepted 40
Other 1 d4 d5 Openings 46
Nimzo-Indian Defence 57
Queen s Indian Defence 77
Bogo-Indian Defence 89
King s Indian Defence 93
Grünfeld Defence 121
Benoni and Benko 140
Other 1 d4 Nf6 Openings 159
Dutch Defence 174
Other 1 d4 Openings 185

Flank Openings 198
Symmetrical English 199
Reversed Sicilian 222
1 c4 Nf6 and Other English Lines 233
Réti Opening 248
Other Flank Openings 261

1 e4 269
Ruy Lopez 272
Italian Game 301
Scotch Opening 312
Four Knights Game 318
Petroff Defence 322
King s Gambit 328
Other 1 e4 e5 Openings 337
French Defence 347
Caro-Kann Defence 375
Sicilian Defence 389
Alekhine Defence 447
Pirc Defence 453
Other 1 e4 Openings 461

Index of Named Opening Lines 469
Index of Variations 472