CHESS OPENINGS THE EASY WAY

Author: Nick de Firmian

248 pages

$15.95

Random House (2003)

Reviewed by John Watson

CHESS OPENINGS THE EASY WAY by Grandmaster Nick de Firmian is a solid and useful book. The subtitle is MCO-BEGINNERS, a silly one except for the “MCO” part. This book is way too advanced for beginners. Each long section of moves without words gets only a short introduction with a mix of strategic talk and a limited outline of what follows. Only the book’s twelve-page Introduction begins with first principles such as center, development and paragraphs on fianchettos and gambit. Other beginners books do this much better, however. And even six of those pages are devoted to defining “opening groups”, which is too sophisticated especially when one doesn’t limit oneself to a couple of groups. Fine’s IDEAS BEHIND THE CHESS OPENINGS this is not.

Nevertheless, I strongly recommend this book for the right audience. It is a perfect mix of simplicity and depth for those who already know a bit about an opening but need guidance on which specific or approximate move orders to play. But not too much depth, and that’s the key. Unlike most of the books we’ve been looking at in the last two columns, the Club player, Internet player, or lower-to-middle-range tournament player can carry this one volume and no others with the guarantee of getting something intelligent to check his own moves against. As de Firmian proved in the earlier and huge MCO 14, he is a genius at paring down variations while retaining the absolutely necessary information. The book does it again – I hate to think how much material actually survives (nothing technical), yet it’s all there as far as the middle-range player is concerned. 

CHESS OPENINGS THE EASY WAY is laid out with large reader-friendly spaces between columns and getting used to how to use his system (the same as MCO’s) is no problem. I’d like to spend more time examining this excellent book, but I’ll leave it as is. If you get a chance to look at a copy before you buy it, you’ll be able to make your own assessment about whether it applies to your rating range.