Hello

I have been studying endgame theory for a while now. I really like the books Silman wrote on this topic.

Now I would like to study some specific openings.

Does anyone have recommendations on good books describing/explaining the following openings

1: The Italian (esp G. Piano)
2: Queens gambit accepted & Queens gambit declined, especially the Albins countergambit
3: Kings Gambit, especially the falkbeer countergambit

Thanks in advance for replying

one book that has those openings is 500 master games of chess....

its old but will be good.

other than that you'll have to buy seperate books for each opening.

"Play the Queens Gambit" by Chris Ward is an excellent book...covers the important lines for QGA, QGD, Slave, Semi Slav etc. plus some good illustrative games...all from the white side so it helps you avoid tricky lines like the Cambridge Springs. It has some but not masses on the Albins thing.

Originally posted by MetBierOp
Hello

I have been studying endgame theory for a while now. I really like the books Silman wrote on this topic.

Now I would like to study some specific openings.

Does anyone have recommendations on good books describing/explaining the following openings

1: The Italian (esp G. Piano)
2: Queens gambit accepted & Queens gambit declined, especially ...[text shortened]... gambit
3: Kings Gambit, especially the falkbeer countergambit

Thanks in advance for replying

forget those openings.....

play what i play....

1.a4! 2.h4!!

when I am having a bad day. I used to play the ha ha 1h4 2a4 3h5 4 a5 and I had a record of 1win 2draws and 1lost against a avg rating of 1900 uscf

1.a4 2.h4 THE CRAB!!!!

THE CRAB RULES!!!!

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Just get Modern Chess Openings, dude, it it's not there, you don't care.

ya MCO has all you need....anything played thats not in there is useless...

well except......THE CRAB!!!!!!!!!!

The starting out books are usually pretty good for explaining an opening, highlighting common traps, and going over the general themes. The tradeoff for them being easier to get through is that they wont be as comprehensive as some others.

If you like the Queen's Gambit accepted check out Rizzatono's "How to beat 1. d4" This is heavier than the starting out books and doesnt have complete games but very good.

QGA isn't as good as QGD ......

Originally posted by chessisvanity
QGA isn't as good as QGD ......

PFFFT 1.d4?....nah......1.a4 2.h4!!

At my level i've read through many books, probably 5 openings books. what did i learn? Pobably not a lot, a lot of lines that get confused from good lines and bad ones. If Icould go back and do it again Id study master games. If your looking for queens gambit games go to kasparovs predecesors books, great annotations and you'll learn more than just the opening. Stick to middle games and endgames and your play will improve. use openings databases for helping develop your opening skills.

I must agree with earlier statements that the book by Chris Ward is very good. I've got one of his books about the Sicilian Dragon and his writing style is very easy to read and he always adds anecdotes and funny comments so you don't get bored too quickly.

About the Kings Bambit I've got the book by Neil McDonald, but it has only one small chapter about the Falkbeer, so you might want to look further than that one. For the rest it's a decent book that explains most of the variations and basic ideas for offensive strategy. Still it's a pretty hard opening to play, for both sides, so I think you'd do better to learn the KGA with 3. ... - g5 or maybe Fischer Defence, but that one is rather difficult to play as well.