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.
In this highly-acclaimed and popular 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 third volume focuses on the English Opening while also drawing
together many threads from the first two books in a wide-ranging
discussion of general opening topics. Particularly in the context of
reversed and analogous forms of standard structures, we understand why
certain ideas work and others don't, and experience the concept of
'Cross-Pollination' at work in even more varied forms than seen in the
first two volumes.
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. He reviews chess books for
The Week in Chess and hosts a weekly radio show on the Internet Chess
Club.
