101 Chess Opening Surprises (Gambit Chess) by Graham Burgess

Product Description

Most chess players are fed a set of dogmatic rules about how the opening must be played. The result: stereotyped, unimaginative play. The opening surprises in this book land like bombshells in the apparent calm of standard openings and disorientate your opponents as they grapple with original problems. This book is a treasure-trove of unusual ideas at an early stage of the opening, yet running against the grain of conventional play. Each idea has quick-strike potential and is supported by enough concrete analysis to enable you to try it with confidence.

All major openings are covered. There are surprises for both White and Black, deeply researched and up-to-date. Each idea is assessed in terms of its soundness and its ability to surprise and shock. A thought-provoking introduction examines the underlying concepts of opening play and considers how the standard principles need to be modified in the light of the highly combative handling of the opening now favoured by the world's top players.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #859557 in Books
Published on: 1998-03-01
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
128 pages
Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher
Gambit Publications specialises in chess and has an unrivalled reputation for originality and editorial excellence. The company is owned and staffed entirely by leading chess masters and grandmasters.

About the Author
FIDE Master Graham Burgess holds the world record for marathon blitz chess playing. He is a highly versatile chess writer, whose "Mammoth Book of Chess" won the British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award in 1997.
Customer Reviews

Entertaining book of a combination of OPENING CHESS TRAPS and IRREGULAR OPENING MOVES
I really found this to be a FUN book to read. Like after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a5! OPPS! I meant to move the Pawn to "a6". Your opponent will look at you and say, ah "touch move!". Then he thinks your are a real FISH and will relax thinking he has "gotcha!". Then you play your best and play well. This isn't really sound chess, but it is fun chess, and I wouldn't really do that. But what about 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 Bg4 6.h3 h5! - OPPS! I meant to put my Bishop on "h5" not the "Pawn", can I take it back? Your opponent will say "touch move!" and then falls for the trap by greed, 6 hxg4? hxg4 7 Nxe5? (he just cannot stop feeding his army!) Qh4 8 g3 and checkmate cannot be stopped. I like this book, but give it four stars intead of 5 because it might give a beginner some bad ideas to play weak moves to try to trick your opponent instead of playing sound moves. I would also therefore suggest getting a book on "sound" opening traps like "Winning Chess Traps, Tactics in the Opening". Also, "Winning Chess Traps" is old but still good. Do I recommend "101 Chess Opening Surprises" - I do if you are getting it for fun first and understand that you shouldn't really use some of the ideas in it, but get some fun reading them.

Puts the fun back into playing the openings
I remember back to when I first began playing chess, and the excitment that came from springing a big opening surprise on an (equally) inexperienced opponent. To me this book recaptures the experience, and boy does it deliver the promised bombshells!
Each surprise is graded for soundness and surprise value. An example at the extreme end of the Soundness scale would be surprise 16, the Spanish Bulgarian Defense. The shock move 3...a5 is assigned a Soundness ranking of 1, but can you imagine the effect on your opponent? As Burgess says, the move has never been clearly refuted.
An example of a more main-stream idea is Surprise 71 in the Queen's Gambit, 7 e4. Burgess reminds us that this old pawn sacrifice has been resurrected with some dangerous new ideas. The Soundness ranking is 4, a tribute to the quality of players adopting it with white, including Sokolov and Gelfand.
As with the other 101 titles, it is pleasant to be able to browse at random. Great book.

By the book ?
He's (or she's) playing chess by the book'is very often a disdainful remark. But every chessplayer, sooner or later, wants to increase his knowledge of chess. He won't be able to do it on his own. He will need help, help from '101 Chess Opening Surprises', say. This book is very userfriendly. It has only 128 pages but the most important openings are discussed. The notation uses co-ordinates (the easiest way it seems to me) Moreover, on every page are three diagrams to illustrate the moves that are discussed. A must!