Beating Unusual Chess Openings

by Richard Palliser

You may be happy with your main openings – sorted with the Sicilian and content with the King’s Indian – but are you afraid of the unknown? Do you fall to pieces if your opponent plays something strange in the opening? Here’s some good news... Beating Unusual Chess Openings is a godsend to those chess players fed up with struggling against all opening moves other than White’s main two: 1 e4 and 1 d4. From the respectable (English Opening, Réti and King’s Indian Attack) through to the offbeat (Nimzo-Larsen Attack, Bird’s Opening) and the totally bizarre (Orang-utan, Grob); everything Black needs to know about facing unusual openings is covered within these pages. Richard Palliser gets to grips with all of White’s possibilities, examining their strengths and weaknesses and in turn organizing a reliable and practical repertoire for Black. He discusses the key strategies, tactics and move-order tricks for both sides, arming the reader with enough know-how to face this assortment of chess openings with renewed confidence.

*Everything you need to know about facing unusual openings
*Written by an openings expert
*Ideal for improvers, and club and tournament players

Genres: Chess, Reference

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Cormac Zoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book that gives you sound beginnings in combating the English, Reti, King's Indian Attack and even Bird's Opening, an odd one you'll see quite regularly at clubs here and there. Palliser does a good job of laying out what the openings are trying to accomplish and then how to combat these ideas in straight-forward, clear explanations. I've run into the Bird's, English, Reti, and Nimzo-Larsen in correspondence online fairly regularly where someone is looking for a bit of a curve-ball to throw and this book is one to have near at hand to refresh the strategies.

Definitely one to put on the shelf if you're playing online and clubs ... most players like to try something different rather than grinding out the same standards over and over. I agree in that it's not only helpful but gives you a fresh look at the old board.

[Ken Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beating Unusual Chess Openings by Richard Palliser is certainly not for the beginner, as it’s quite complex. Personally, I found it useful and full of great ideas on how to deal with off-beat White openings. There’s a lot of sub-variations, in fact so many sidelines that it’s not recommendable to consume it all in one go. This time, I focused on the mainlines. When I read the book again, I’m going to delve into all the sidelines that are presented here.

A large portion of the book is devoted to the Symmetrical English, as that is the system one is bound to meet the most of the ones covered in this book. However, other systems also get their fair share of attention, such as the Nimzo-Larsen Attack, the Orangutang, and the Grob.