There are lots of chess books these days, and authors and publishers are looking for any niche, gimmick, or hook that can get them in the door with the chess playing public. While this book tries to be the smallest (size-wise) chess opening reference, it doesn’t really serve any purpose other than being able to fit in the palm of a player’s hand. The first thought that crossed my mind was, “why does a player need a book that measures 4.5 inches across and 5 inches from top to bottom?” Maybe it will fit into a pocket (although its one inch thickness makes that a bit of a stretch), but why is that such a big thing? You lose a lot more than you gain from its “concise” size – like margins, the ability to lay the book flat, and content.

From the beginning, this book has a cavalier approach. The author states, in the introduction, that “you should regard this book as a tour through the openings, if you wish you can start right at the beginning or just join it when it reaches a point that particularly interests you.” Unfortunately, if this book is a chess openings tour, it is a short one, and it misses a lot of the scenery along the way.

In this book, you’ll find a lot of stuff other than opening moves. You’ll find lots of diagrams – at least one, and often two a page; unfortunately, given its size, they take up about a quarter of a page each. You’ll find some discussion of basic main lines in the openings – but again, because of the page size, you’ll often turn through several pages to cover just one main line in one opening.

Mostly, what you will find here is the briefest of brief discussion of openings and defense in a hit-or-miss fashion. That, of course, is entirely predicated on the “concise” format of the book.

It’s unfair to make these statements without some examples. Of any book that I have ever reviewed, this is probably the easiest one to provide concrete criticism. Just turn to your favorite lines and take a look.

In that case, I will go to the Pirc Defense. The chapter starts with a discussion of the pluses and minuses of the Pirc versus Modern move order. While this is useful, it doesn’t do anything to help the player that has decided on one defense or the other; the thematic play for both sides is not developed.

On page 2 of this chapter, we get a discussion of the “150 Attack,” which is popular among amateur players. Unfortunately, the book examines it from the Modern move order (1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3) when, it is true, black can accelerate his counterplay on the queenside with 4…a6 (and the author points out some of black’s problems in lines where he has played an earlier …Nf6). The author analyzes these to reasonable play for black. However, he never gets around to saying what black should do if he has adopted the Pirc move order (1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3). Now the accelerated queenside options aren’t as quick for black because white gets on with his plan of playing Be3 and Qd2.

It gets worse before it gets better (on second thought, it never gets better). Next the author says “A similar scheme for White is 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.h3 (preventing Bg4 or Ng4) 5…0-0 6.Be3 – the Spassky System.” Now the astute reader might ask why black plays …Bg7 twice and then castles when his knight is apparently still on g8. Of course, somewhere in one of those Bg7s black should have played Nf6, but this isn’t the only time the player will be left wondering.

Perhaps the typo and the lack of direction on a common Pirc line in amateur play could have been overlooked if the rest of the coverage was acceptable. It is not. For starters, for years the main line in the important “Austrian Attack” (1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3) was 5…0-0 6.Bd3, which protects the e4 pawn and prevents …c5 tricks such as 6.Be2 c5 7.dxc5 Qa5. This book totally ignores this line – incredible! Make no mistake, whatever level you play, if you play this line as black, you will run into this line on a regular basis. The same can be said for 6.Be3 – probably white’s second most popular try in that position and also totally ignored.

There are lots of other misses as well. There are interesting white lines based on an early Bc4 (caveman approaches common in amateur chess) and none of them are covered. Same for lines with an early Bg5. Same for many other lines I could mention. I literally could go on and on, but anybody who has a pet line will get the point by looking at it in this book. The coverage gaps are huge, and the opening explanations cursory.

Ultimately, an all-in-one chess opening reference has several uses. It allows a player to study a line in sufficient depth to be sure that they are not missing entire main lines of an opening. It is also useful in looking up lines after a game to find where they diverged from theory. It should also be that “safety net” book that covers odd lines that an occasional opponent might spring.

This book will serve none of those purposes. If you are wanting an all-in-one opening book for these reasons, you’re better off spending your money on NUNN’S CHESS OPENINGS (click to see Silman’s and Watson’s review of that book). Only if you are looking for the sparest of the spare tour of openings and are willing to put up with the book’s odd format would I come close to considering this book’s purchase.

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