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Chess Openings Theory and Practice by I. A. Horowitz
Out of Print Extremely RARE 1964 1st American Ed. Monster 789 page, Hardcover, with Dust Jacket, protected with a Bro-Dart DJ cover, from Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, USA * Collectable - Good * Pages MINT, binding MINT * Not a remainder or ex-library. * 23 hr shipping or quicker!! Safely packaged with delivery tracking, with confirmation email. * From a SMOKE-FREE home * We will try to add new items and correct previous listing errors daily. Being a 2 person operation, my office manager REGINA & Myself, I have set a goal of 100,000 new listings within 3 years. I am honest, not infallible, thus, I only make one guarantee...I will make mistakes. If there is a mistake/problem with an item or description, please let me know and I will do my utmost in resolving it, and making you VERY HAPPY!!!! "Always Buying Chess Libraries" THANK YOU * Edward Labate National Chess Master Spring Valley (LV), NV 89103
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First published January 1, 1964
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 17, 2015
Of course it must be admitted, any chess book on openings that is fifty years old runs a great risk of being seriously out of date, what with changing fashions and very deep analysis of the openings now done by computer.
BUT … if you’re like me, and play other players like of comparable skill, that doesn’t matter!
Israel Albert (I.A.) Horowitz (1907-1973) was born in Brooklyn. He became the chess columnist for the New York Times for ten years, writings three pieces a week. One of the best players in the U.S., Horowitz won the U.S. Open titles in 1936, 1938, and 1943. In 1933 he founded Chess Review, and edited it until it was bought from him in 1959 by the United States Chess Federation.
He is best remembered now for the numerous books he wrote about chess. I have three of these: The Golden Treasury of Chess (1943), Solitaire Chess (1962), and the book here reviewed (1964). There are a couple other books by Horowitz which are rated by more readers here on GR: Chess Traps: Pitfalls and Swindles and How to Win in the Chess Openings. Curiously, these often-rated books are given average ratings lower than most of his books.
The cover of this book says “A Definitive study of all the important openings, with 2,660 fully analyzed variations and 439 complete illustrative games.” The main text ends on page 784, and is followed by in index which is useful in looking up quite a bit of variation names. The table of contents simply gives a list of the 41 chapters, each devoted to a major opening. The openings are given in three sections, “King’s Pawn Openings”, “Queen’s Pawn Openings”, and (you guessed it) “Other Openings”.
One of the nice things that Horowitz does is allow himself a couple paragraphs in most chapters to talk about the history of the opening, sometimes how it got its name, things like that. For example, in the chapter on the Caro-Kann Defense, he writes
Second, Horowitz makes much of the way that this particular opening came in, then out, then in again as its popularity waxed-waned-waxed. This, he points out in his Introduction, is very typical for chess openings.
By the way, the Ruy Lopez opening [1. P-K4 P-K4 2. N-KB3 N-QB3 3. B-N5] was named for a Spanish clergyman, Ruy Lopez of Safra (in Estramadura), who edited a systematic work on the chess openings around the middle of the sixteenth century. Horowitz does not explain where the name Giuoco Piano [1. P-K4 P-K4 2. N-KB3 N-QB3 3. B-B4 B-B4] came from. I always thought it meant “quiet game”, but I see that in Italian it is “game plan”. He does say that it’s one of the oldest openings, and the first to ever be closely analyzed; it was played by the Portuguese player Damiano in the sixteenth century, and by the Calabrian, Greco, in the seventeenth.
The format of the book is this. For each opening, the text is divided into parts, one for each major variation. The Giuoco Piano has three parts (Moller variation, “7 B-Q2 variation”, and Center-holding variation). Then for each variation the first several moves are given which lead to the classical variation, a diagram of the position is given at that point, detailed notes are given on alternative moves that could have been made on the way to the key position, and why they are not recommended – or possibly that they transpose into a different variation covered elsewhere. The key position is then analyzed. Several “Idea Variations” from that position are given and commented on; several “Practical Variations” are given in columns, with detailed commentary using small-type notes occupying the main text space of the page; and finally some complete historical games are given (without commentary). Sometimes at this point even more “Supplementary Variations” are shown, in the same format as the prior “Practical Variations”, followed by more historical games. The Giuoco Piano opening thus strides across 14 pages in this manner.
And the Ruy Lopez lumbers across 113 pages.
I used to use the book quite a bit when I was playing computer chess against a computer opponent, following moves of a given opening as long as I could, to try to get an advantage on the computer. I think it helped. 8)
BUT … if you’re like me, and play other players like of comparable skill, that doesn’t matter!
Israel Albert (I.A.) Horowitz (1907-1973) was born in Brooklyn. He became the chess columnist for the New York Times for ten years, writings three pieces a week. One of the best players in the U.S., Horowitz won the U.S. Open titles in 1936, 1938, and 1943. In 1933 he founded Chess Review, and edited it until it was bought from him in 1959 by the United States Chess Federation.
He is best remembered now for the numerous books he wrote about chess. I have three of these: The Golden Treasury of Chess (1943), Solitaire Chess (1962), and the book here reviewed (1964). There are a couple other books by Horowitz which are rated by more readers here on GR: Chess Traps: Pitfalls and Swindles and How to Win in the Chess Openings. Curiously, these often-rated books are given average ratings lower than most of his books.
The cover of this book says “A Definitive study of all the important openings, with 2,660 fully analyzed variations and 439 complete illustrative games.” The main text ends on page 784, and is followed by in index which is useful in looking up quite a bit of variation names. The table of contents simply gives a list of the 41 chapters, each devoted to a major opening. The openings are given in three sections, “King’s Pawn Openings”, “Queen’s Pawn Openings”, and (you guessed it) “Other Openings”.
One of the nice things that Horowitz does is allow himself a couple paragraphs in most chapters to talk about the history of the opening, sometimes how it got its name, things like that. For example, in the chapter on the Caro-Kann Defense, he writes
Polerio mentioned 1 … P-QB3 in response to 1 P-K4 as far back as 1590. The opening owes its name, however, to M. Kann, a Viennese, who introduced it about 1880, and to H. Caro, a Berlin chessmaster, who shortly thereafter recommended it very highly.This brings up a couple points. First, I need not point out that this book from the 1960s used the so-called “Descriptive notation”, instead of the more prevalent (at least nowadays) “Algebraic notation”. In the latter notation, the Caro-Kann’s first moves would be given as 1. e4 c6 instead of 1. P-K4 P-QB3. I must say that of all the chess books I acquired in my younger days, none of them used algebraic notation. I must assume that it was quite unused in the U.S. at that time.
Close to half a century passed before the Caro-Kann gained a measure of respectable recognition. The defense achieved its peak popularity in the 1920’s when Capablanca, Nimzowitsch, and Tartakover were its chief exponents. In the 1930’s the Caro-Kann found favor with Flohr, who was almost its sole advocate until the late 1950’s. Today the defense is experiencing a remarkable revival. Led by Botvinnick and his countryman Petrosian, chessplayers around the globe are once again placing their faith in the Caro-Kann, probably the most solid of Black’s defenses.
Second, Horowitz makes much of the way that this particular opening came in, then out, then in again as its popularity waxed-waned-waxed. This, he points out in his Introduction, is very typical for chess openings.
Popularity, as well as soundness, plays an inevitable part in determining how much space may be usefully devoted to the discussion of any particular opening. Needless to say, if a variation is unquestionably refuted, nothing more can be said. Certainly no informed player will permit the Tarrasch Trap in the Ruy Lopez. But the Giuoco Piano, an old-time favorite, is also not seen much these days, even though no one could reasonably maintain that it is unplayable.
By the way, the Ruy Lopez opening [1. P-K4 P-K4 2. N-KB3 N-QB3 3. B-N5] was named for a Spanish clergyman, Ruy Lopez of Safra (in Estramadura), who edited a systematic work on the chess openings around the middle of the sixteenth century. Horowitz does not explain where the name Giuoco Piano [1. P-K4 P-K4 2. N-KB3 N-QB3 3. B-B4 B-B4] came from. I always thought it meant “quiet game”, but I see that in Italian it is “game plan”. He does say that it’s one of the oldest openings, and the first to ever be closely analyzed; it was played by the Portuguese player Damiano in the sixteenth century, and by the Calabrian, Greco, in the seventeenth.
The format of the book is this. For each opening, the text is divided into parts, one for each major variation. The Giuoco Piano has three parts (Moller variation, “7 B-Q2 variation”, and Center-holding variation). Then for each variation the first several moves are given which lead to the classical variation, a diagram of the position is given at that point, detailed notes are given on alternative moves that could have been made on the way to the key position, and why they are not recommended – or possibly that they transpose into a different variation covered elsewhere. The key position is then analyzed. Several “Idea Variations” from that position are given and commented on; several “Practical Variations” are given in columns, with detailed commentary using small-type notes occupying the main text space of the page; and finally some complete historical games are given (without commentary). Sometimes at this point even more “Supplementary Variations” are shown, in the same format as the prior “Practical Variations”, followed by more historical games. The Giuoco Piano opening thus strides across 14 pages in this manner.
And the Ruy Lopez lumbers across 113 pages.
I used to use the book quite a bit when I was playing computer chess against a computer opponent, following moves of a given opening as long as I could, to try to get an advantage on the computer. I think it helped. 8)
September 6, 2011
NOT LOST YET, BUT I'M GETTIN' THERE
(if Bob Dylan played chess)
Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
Trying to master the Nimzo and the Ruy Lopez
Any sense of optimism has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there’s always some kind of pain
I’ve been down on the bottom of a world full of lies
Now I'm lookin' for hope in Capablanca's eyes
Sometimes this gambit seems more than I can bear
I've not lost yet, but I'm gettin' there.
My favourite variation was refuted - in 1954
These guys are too devious - I can't remember any more
My deepest thoughts are their footnotes - it's a bitter pill
I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still
None of these dead Russians is my long lost pal
Not Korchnoi or Spassky or Alekhine or Tal
I don't see how my bishop can go anywhere
I've not lost yet, but I'm gettin' there.
(if Bob Dylan played chess)
Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
Trying to master the Nimzo and the Ruy Lopez
Any sense of optimism has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there’s always some kind of pain
I’ve been down on the bottom of a world full of lies
Now I'm lookin' for hope in Capablanca's eyes
Sometimes this gambit seems more than I can bear
I've not lost yet, but I'm gettin' there.
My favourite variation was refuted - in 1954
These guys are too devious - I can't remember any more
My deepest thoughts are their footnotes - it's a bitter pill
I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still
None of these dead Russians is my long lost pal
Not Korchnoi or Spassky or Alekhine or Tal
I don't see how my bishop can go anywhere
I've not lost yet, but I'm gettin' there.
December 24, 2019
Fun to browse this edition and see my notes because it was the book I used when first learning opening theory.
October 26, 2019
Very interesting book for any Chess players who want to see the basics of a lot of different openings. I really enjoyed playing out the first few moves and looking at the analysis.
May 24, 2012
It was Great .... There are Better now ....
No question about it, this is one of the best Chess Books of the ages. It was put together before the advent of computers and databases and the amount of work put into was an amazing accomplishment.
The problem is, that chess theory develops over time and what you have here is a snapshot of the best there was to offer in 1965. Last I checked my calendar we're beyond that.
Don't get me wrong, any relatively new player could use this book and would grow tremendously. A beginning or intermediate player would come along just fine using it as a foundation and then could no doubt move on.
The question is, why would you do that? Why not start with something that is up to date and not have to unlearn or relearn things?
I understand the nostalgia. I used this book and loved it back in the 70's and early 80's. I just can't recommend it beyond that for now despite its rich heritage. It's like stating that a Commodore64 is still a great starter computer and then you can move onto a PC. Why would you do that?
An updated version with newer notation, and addressing those issue would be an improvement, but there are already better books and tools available and they should be used. Books in fact are my second choice for coaching. Computer based programs and databases teach the opening while simulating real movement like you would experience in a game, tournament or on-line. That is the way to learn now, not a book, no matter how good the book might be.
No doubt 20 years from now people will speak nostalgically of the best books today (maybe even more likely a program or database.) This was great. It's good enough for the average player. If you aspire to be more, go elsewhere.
No question about it, this is one of the best Chess Books of the ages. It was put together before the advent of computers and databases and the amount of work put into was an amazing accomplishment.
The problem is, that chess theory develops over time and what you have here is a snapshot of the best there was to offer in 1965. Last I checked my calendar we're beyond that.
Don't get me wrong, any relatively new player could use this book and would grow tremendously. A beginning or intermediate player would come along just fine using it as a foundation and then could no doubt move on.
The question is, why would you do that? Why not start with something that is up to date and not have to unlearn or relearn things?
I understand the nostalgia. I used this book and loved it back in the 70's and early 80's. I just can't recommend it beyond that for now despite its rich heritage. It's like stating that a Commodore64 is still a great starter computer and then you can move onto a PC. Why would you do that?
An updated version with newer notation, and addressing those issue would be an improvement, but there are already better books and tools available and they should be used. Books in fact are my second choice for coaching. Computer based programs and databases teach the opening while simulating real movement like you would experience in a game, tournament or on-line. That is the way to learn now, not a book, no matter how good the book might be.
No doubt 20 years from now people will speak nostalgically of the best books today (maybe even more likely a program or database.) This was great. It's good enough for the average player. If you aspire to be more, go elsewhere.
March 11, 2011
An impressively thick book that is now quite out-of-date. The detailed description of the closed variation of the Ruy Lopez is very instructive. Too bad the author didn't do this for the other openings.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews