"Starting Out" or "Play the..."

Which chess book series would you reccommend? I am considering buying a few openings books. In general, would you reccommend the "Starting Out" series, or the "Play the ..." series?

Originally posted by wittywonka
Which chess book series would you reccommend? I am considering buying a few openings books. In general, would you reccommend the "Starting Out" series, or the "Play the ..." series?

The 'Starting Out' series are fairly thin on content. I would probably bypass them unless you like collecting books. The everyman books seem to be somewhat hit-or-miss in general. Play the French is a nice compliment to the Psakhis series however.

It really depends on how strong you are and if you know anything about the openings. I always prefer the in depth coverage over dumbed down material.

Originally posted by !~TONY~!
It really depends on how strong you are and if you know anything about the openings. I always prefer the in depth coverage over dumbed down material.

I agree. There is no point studying openings without a good fundamental knowledge of tactics and stuff.

I know about tactics (discovered checks, skewers, forks, pins, x-ray attacks, etc.), and I know a little (first 5-6 moves in several variations) already about the openings for which I want to buy books. For example, I'm pretty sure I will want to buy a book for the French Defense at some point. I was just curious how Play the French and Starting Out: The French compared to one another. I'm interested in any suggestions.

(I'm also considering buying a King's Indian Defense book and an English Opening book if anyone has specific suggestions for those openings either.)

Originally posted by wittywonka
I know about tactics (discovered checks, skewers, forks, pins, x-ray attacks, etc.), and I know a little (first 5-6 moves in several variations) already about the openings for which I want to buy books. For example, I'm pretty sure I will want to buy a book for the French Defense at some point. I was just curious how Play the French and [i]Starti ...[text shortened]... k and an English Opening book if anyone has specific suggestions for those openings either.)

I have Play the King's Indian by Joe Gallagher, and he is also the author of SOKID. I have personally never gone read SOKID but like all the Starting Out books, I'm sure that it is less comprehensive than Play the King's Indian. Gallagher also mentions that he focuses on different lines of certain variations in each book.

Originally posted by YUG0slav
I have Play the King's Indian by Joe Gallagher, and he is also the author of SOKID. I have personally never gone read SOKID but like all the Starting Out books, I'm sure that it is less comprehensive than Play the King's Indian. Gallagher also mentions that he focuses on different lines of certain variations in each book.

This is true, I have both, somethings are explained better in SOKID... but PKID goes into more depth. There is some cross over of material.

Originally posted by wittywonka
I know about tactics (discovered checks, skewers, forks, pins, x-ray attacks, etc.), and I know a little (first 5-6 moves in several variations) already about the openings for which I want to buy books. For example, I'm pretty sure I will want to buy a book for the French Defense at some point. I was just curious how Play the French and [i]Starti k and an English Opening book if anyone has specific suggestions for those openings either.)

If you're interested in the English, you should definitely check out Tony Kosten's "The Dynamic English". They sell it at amazon. Very good book. It changed the way I play the English. It recommends c4, g3, & bishop g2 for every opening as white though (I'm pretty sure). If you're comfortable with that approach. If you want an idea how a game like that would look, check my current and most my past games. I play this way in most.

Favorite games of mine where i played c4, g3, bishop g3:

Game 3759072 Pavlo87 vs. SergeLih
Game 3689843 Pavlo87 vs. wnmyers
Game 3679104 Pavlo87 vs. charliedave
Game 3689571 Pavlo87 vs. thesag2
Game 3675241 Pavlo87 vs. VY Canis Majoris
==============================================

here also is the table of contents to "The Dynamic English":

Part 1: Reversed Sicilian: 1...e5
1 The Botvinnik System: 2...knight c6 and 3...g6
2 Grand Prix Attack Reversed: 2... Knight c6 and 3...f5
3 The Three Knights System: 4...Bishop c5
4 The Three Knights System: 4...Bishop b4
5 Dragon Reversed: 2...Knight f6 and 3...d5
6 The Keres System: 2...Knightf6 and 3...c6
7 Other Second Moves for Black

Part 2: Symmetry: 1...c5
8 The symmetrical Variation: ...g6 and ...Knight c6
9 The Rubinstein Variation: 2...Knight f6 and 3...d5
10 The Keres-Parma Variation: ...e6 and ...d5

Part 3: Other First Moves for Black
11 The Pseudo-Grunfeld System: 1...Knight f6 and 2...d5
12 The Dutch: 1...f5
13 1...g6
14 1...c6
15 1...e6
16 The English Defence: 1...b6
==============================================

Hope this helps! Good luck! 🙂

-- Paul

Originally posted by wittywonka
(I'm also considering buying a King's Indian Defense book and an English Opening book if anyone has specific suggestions for those openings either.)

David's Bronstein on the King's Indian seem to be a very good book to me.
And I'm also looking for good books or resources on the English.

OK I admit to liking the Starting Out series. I think they are well structured and cover the basics very well. In fact some of them are really good but worth checking through it first to make sure the presentation suits you. After covering what's in the SO book you could then go on to get up to speed on the latest theory.

On a more advanced level John Watson has done a two book opening series which is more advanced. Book 1 covers 1.e4 and book 2 covers 1.d4. I've not had them long but what I've seen so far is quite impresive and comprehensive. There is quite a lot of text explaining principles too...although it is probably aimed a slightly higher level player than me. If you add to those two volumes the Richard Palliser book: "Beating Unusual Chess Openings" which has a big section on the English...you'll have covered a lot of ground!

Originally posted by adam warlock
David's Bronstein on the King's Indian seem to be a very good book to me.
And I'm also looking for good books or resources on the English.

I have the book and don't like it. One of the reasons is that it
recommends black to play the old indian setup in wich white in the ML
have a very impressive score of 73% !! (the reason no good player
except for maybe Gufeld uses it). While it might be good for a
beginner to learn the old indian I think he/she makes a mistake in
learning such a poor opening, as he sooner or later will discover that
white can get a huge advantadge. I think anyone would be better off
learning one of the main lines instead (from the black side), although
it is not that easy since it involves learning a lot of theory. The outline
of the book is also rather confusing since it is mostly based on 50
games by Bronstein played around the 1950th (from the white side as
well as the black). Theory wasn't really important back then I think.

Talking about the SO-books some are good and some are bad.
Among the ones I've come across in the SO-series (Starting Out) I
liked the ones on; the Grünfeld, the Kings Indian, the Ruy Lopez, the
Queens Indian and the Pirc.😉

PS: If some newbe is looking for a good and easy to learn opening I
think the Scandnavian and the Czech Benoni are solid and sound
(apart from rather easy to learn).

The "Play the..." series should be good. I would get one to check it out to see if you like the style; Watson's "Play the French" is a classic and one I would recommend you get to test the series out. I quite like them myself. Stay away from the "starting out" though.

Also, to get the most improvement, I recommend a tactics puzzle book (I favor Reinfeld's "1001 winning combinations" myself, along with study at chess.emrald.net ) and a book on the endgame (Fundamental Chess Endings maybe?).

Originally posted by Pavlo87
If you're interested in the English, you should definitely check out Tony Kosten's "The Dynamic English"....It recommends c4, g3, & bishop g2 for every opening as white though (I'm pretty sure). If you're comfortable with that approach....

Game 3759072 Pavlo87 vs. SergeLih
Game 3689843 Pavlo87 vs. wnmyers
Game 3675241 Pavlo87 vs. VY Canis Majoris

...

-- Paul

Thanks for mentioning that book; I had heard of it before but forgotten about it. From what you described, it looks pretty good, and overall I like the fact that it presents most of the openings as c4, g3, Bg2, and Nc3. Also, thanks for posting the games. Do you have any where you played e3 & Nge2 instead of d3 & Nf3? I sometimes play that line, too.

Originally posted by wittywonka
Thanks for mentioning that book; I had heard of it before but forgotten about it. From what you described, it looks pretty good, and overall I like the fact that it presents most of the openings as c4, g3, Bg2, and Nc3. Also, thanks for posting the games. Do you have any where you played e3 & Nge2 instead of d3 & Nf3? I sometimes play that line, too.

I've looked at that book. It seemed pretty good but
I can't think that it can cover everything you need to
know as white to play the fianchetto-english,
due to the small size and small amount of pages...
Anyone who disagree?

Has anyone read Karpov's book on the english opening? I was thinking about picking that up.