“How to think ahead in chess” I. A. Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld
Many opening books are just engine vomit, or they edit/copy/past games or they don’t age well. So here I am giving three stars to an opening book not for the openings but instead for the method in which they were presented. The authors first make an argument for the opening, then they show a series of games in that opening with move by move analysis. Nothing is surprising so far. Now they make a ‘Normal Position for the Pieces’ chapter which I found as gold. The authors go through every piece and pawn telling you what their role is in this opening. I quote for the f-pawn, “The King Bishop Pawn plays to KB4 where it assists White’s Pawn at Q4 in keeping a strong grip on the center (K5) preventing …P-K4, and in many cases supporting a White Knight located on the magnificent outpost K5. Should Black capture White’s powerful Knight at K5, the King Bishop Pawn recaptures at K5, opening the King Bishop file for White.” Having now seen a ‘Normal Position for the Pieces’ chapter, it has changed how I write openings for my students. Now on to some of the nuts and bolts. My book was in descriptive notation (P-KB4). The Openings discussed are Stonewall for White, Sicilian Dragon for Black vs e4, Lasker’s Defense vs d4. I imagine the lines are a bit dated but I put the book at three stars for teaching me a new way of presenting openings.
