I. A. Horowitz (1)Rezensionen

Descriptive Notation

3rd Printing, 2 Copies

Descriptive Notation

3/4/22

3/4/22

3/4/22

3/3/22

3/3/22

3/3/22

3/3/22

3/3/22

3/3/22

3/3/22

This was one of the first chess books I owned. I won the brilliancy prize in my first national championship and this was it. I won it for a Scotch Gambit and I suppose this book might have encouraged me along such paths. In practice, however, this did not happen...maybe once I realised that the road to victory was paved with traps, pitfalls and swindles, it moved me towards ways of playing that would avoid that whole short, sharp, painful way to lose.

I'm a coward, what can I say?

Oh, for the record, Reinfeld is great. He went through a period of being denigrated for no more than being popular. Maybe he still is??? But he made chess fun. And if you owned, as I once did, a library of his obscure, early, roneoed publications in purple ink, you'd realise just how much he loved the game.

I.A. Horowitz was a highly respected author of chess literature and articles in his day. This volume is a continuation of the original How to Win in the Chess Openings which covers the most popular opening lines. Modern Ideas in the Chess Openings picks up and continues with the less popular openings. While the general knowledge of opening theory remains more of less the same, there have been alterations in recommendations since the 1953 publication of this volume. I would categorize this volume as more of a collector's item than a modern manual.

Obsolete chess openings book, in Descriptive (English) notation

Of course, no one "wins" in an opening as such, and Horowitz wished in his foreword that marketing considerations would have allowed him to call this book How to Understand the Chess Openings. It is a sound resource for readers just getting their feet wet in chess strategy. He discusses the general principles that inform the openings in modern chess, after which each chapter is devoted to a specific opening or variant. Horowitz uses descriptive notation with ample diagrams, and provides very detailed discussion of the motives for each move.

A typical chapter includes a principal game to set forth the clinical logic of the opening, followed by one or more further examples in "movie" format, i.e. richly diagrammed, if more sparsely commented. Horowitz presents two of his own games among the chess movies, referencing himself in the third person, but mostly keeping to "white" and "black" for the players, unlike his usual movie narrative style.

Ten out of thirteen openings/variants treated are King Pawn openings, despite Horowitz's remark that "The unostentatious move 1 P-Q4 is nowadays considered the most effective way of beginning a game of chess. This is evinced by a preponderance of Queen Pawn games in modern master tournaments." (136) A single chapter treats the Queen's Gambit Declined, and the remaining two chapters are concerned with hypermodern openings that yield the center: the Reti (typically begun with N-KB3) and the English (P-QB4).

From my youth, I found this little book to be very instructive. If you are a beginner, this books title does not lie. You will win more games if you develop a decent understanding of the opening. It is dated and the anaylsis is not up to current systems however, an amateur or occassional player can improve their game wih the help of this text.½

As a teenager, I was struck with a condition that took me from school for a while. It was a lonely time for me. It was a time in which I studied much about chess. This book gave me a way to play games against history and to entertain myself. Mine is old and tattered, but is still meaningful and invaluable to me.

A standard endgame work. Originally written in the 50's, it is still a valuable edition for the amateur.

classic pre-computer data-base of openings; old style notation

3/3/22

Chess

Chess Rating

Chess Tactics