A Simple Chess Opening Repertoire for White

by Sam Collins

A quick-to-learn king's pawn repertoire with healthy development and attacking chancesNew ebook each diagram is also a link to a lichess analysis board of that position!“I like the book very much. The author presents some fresh and amusing ideas” – IM Dirk Schuh, Rochade EuropaBy choosing variations that lead to similar structures, highly experienced player, writer and teacher Sam Collins has put together an ideal repertoire for players with limited study time. White opens with 1 e4 and develops his pieces to natural squares and seeks open lines and the initiative. The dominant theme of this sound and active repertoire is that – where reasonable – White seeks out Isolated Queen Pawn (IQP) i.e. with the c3 Sicilian, Panov Caro-Kann, Tarrasch French, and the Italian Game with early c3 and d4. There are no speculative gambits here, just plenty of healthy aggression and new ideas.A successful repertoire is more than a set of variations; it also requires strategic understanding of the resulting positions and a knowledge of the key tactical methods and patterns. Because many of Collins’s recommendations lead to IQP (Isolated Queen’s Pawn) structures, ideas can easily be transplanted from one opening to another. He gives complete illustrative games that emphasize the main themes. The specific analysis is up-to-the-minute and features many new ideas that have proven their worth in recent grandmaster practice. Throughout there is a great deal of attention to move-order subtleties and on finding nuances in ‘sidelines’ that your opponents are most unlikely to have examined in detail.Irish international master Sam Collins won the championship of his home country in 2002 and 2014. He has represented Ireland in numerous olympiads, winning a gold medal at Bled in 2002. He is also an experienced chess teacher who has lectured at the Berkeley Chess School in California. His previous books for Gambit were Chess The c3 Sicilian and the highly successful general opening work Understanding the Chess Openings.“A worthy addition to the opening repertoire books on the market ... highly recommended” – Miguel Ararat, Gainesville Chess Training“Sam Collins delivers a small but very well thought out repertoire book for White, based on lines that I have seen hardly before – for example the Giuoco Piano line 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 c3 Nf6 5 d4 exd4 6 cxd4 Bb4+ 7 Nbd2!?. One of the most interesting repertoire books at this moment!” – John Elburg, chessbooks-nl“A Simple Opening Repertoire for White could be subtitled play the IQP and win. Indeed the IQP or Isolated Queen's Pawn is the heart and soul of this cleverly designed opening repertoire.” – IM John Donaldson, Gold-Medal Winning USA Team Captain

Genres: Chess

353 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 24, 2016