now (the new edition of) my book (as on Lulu) also is available on Amazon again:
Better Chess Openings (paperback)
as found with latest Nnue engines (and minimax/backsolving with Bookbuilder).
The new bonus chapters at the end with 1.d4 are anti-Gruenfeld (3.f3)
and Catalan.
An update for Kindle probably follows later.
The only chess book about openings most amateur players will ever need.
Just finished a new edition of my (paperback) book
'Better Chess Openings'
(from beginners to advanced, in different sections).
available at Lulu
The only book which nowadays covers most of all modern opening theory
(based on 'nnue' top engines and other books) in one single book.
In recent month, updated the awesome Chess Gambiteer (open source) package (and gambits
in the polyglot book) again. You can get this free chess training software at:
(being open source, it's completely free (suitable for chess training).
Ofcourse you also can buy the GM Alterman video series:
but playing around with with the Chess Gambiteer package (play against an engine where
you can set the strength in Elo) or watch mastergames with gambits, based on Winboard
and without one combined GUI but simple double clicking on the .bat files should be easy
enough (for most users, and then there is a readme.txt as well ofcourse).
As GM Alterman states (in his book with White gambits), players at lower levels (than GM)
learnmuch more from playing gambits, especially tactics (but also attacking plans) than
simply parroting positional GM games (eg. Ruy Lopez, or Slav). In the old days of
chess it was thought by many players (including Gm's) that you can build up a positional
advantage with White, if you choose the 'best' opening moves. This turns out to be not 100 pct
solid, if Black defends well, also knowing such lines, you can't get a fundamental advantage
in the game (for top engines at longer time controls the end result is draw).
Thus playing sharp (often gambit) lines, especially those you know, is a better way to
induce tactical opportunities or exploit possible tacticial mistakes of your opponent in the
game; whereby in blitz it often doesn't matter how sound the gambit is (in the above Chess
Gambiteer package, the gambits in the big book are quite sound, and in the small
(Polyglot) opening book, reasonable sound. And when playing against a weakened engine,
which plays such sound gambits, you first learn defensive skills and then also by learning
those gambits for yourself, you can also practice those gambits against the comp (or online
opponents eg. on chess.com or lichess.org).
Good luck!
Nb in recent two months updated the content of some gambits in my educational book about
chess openings (link below), especially the Smith-Morra. Compared to known theory (and
historical games). It should be now again a higher quality, of importance for those
intermediate players who may choose to play gambits e.g. in blitz or rapid.
Edition 2.04 (July, 2024):
Kindle version of the book
In general, talking about modernized opening theory (as result of the Nnue engines), besides some recent opening books with 'Modernized' or 'Revisited' in the title as from Thinkers Publishing in Belgium, i don't know of any other chess opening books which is dealing simultaneously with all new theory at once (which i've done by chosing an optimal repertoire, at two levels, intermediate or advanced). You can buy Chessbase 17 ofcourse, for 190 $ or so, but for intermediate players this book (with lots of diagrams) should give sufficient info for opening study at such levels. And it's a lot cheaper too :)
The new edition of my chess opening book has arrived!
End December a new version was ready, with everything corrected
according to the new neural net (NNUE) evaluations, and layout
changed/updated (less info for beginners, and the former intermediate
chapter(s) now changed to 'advanced'.
The new intermediate chapters (the former chapter with 1.e4 for 'beginners')
after the updates, now are called the chapters for intermediate players,
more in line with the educational guidelines e.g the Dutch step method
(with mostly only general openig guidelines at the beginners phase).
Although the basic repertoire did not have to be changed,
many moves in variations >5 or 6 ply or so had to be updated.
March 2024: final corrections to the book, the result now
is a high quality, solid opening/repertoire book for all levels of play
(up to IM level or so).
Ofcourse it's a matter of taste at the advanced levels, what variations
you want to choose for your repertoire, but at least the lines given
in this book are solid, and give high practical chances for achieving
an opening advantage during the opening (if your opponent deviates
from the recommended lines).
E- book available at Amazon Kindle:
