Starting Out: 1 e4!: A Reliable Repertoire for the Improving Player (Starting Out - Everyman Chess)

this is a great little starter for any chess player who wants to play 1. e4...just like the great 'Fischer' who once claimed that it is the strongest move possible! Lots of good options for you to consider ...and then you have to decide how you want to proceed. Again, the author is very creditable as a writer & player! I play almost nothing else except 1. e4!

I thought I was a 1. e4 player, but this book really showed me that I'm not. I learned a lot the author sets up all types of problems that the reader/ student needs to figure out. Good book for anyone who plays 1.e4 or not like I said eariler I learned a lot and will be reffering to this book a lot more in the future.

Maintaining and preparing an opening repertoire is a very demanding task and requires A LOT of thought in terms of move orders and transpositional considerations. In this book Neil does a lot of the work for you. He reccomends lines that have stood the test of time and will NOT be refuted.The layout of the book is pleasant with a discussion on ideas and then a miniture game illustrating those ideas. And follows up with annotated model games where it goes over pitfalls for both sides and deviations from theory. A well balanced discussion to say the least.Looking closer; although I do not agree with some of the lines that he suggests due to the fact that I am a lover of the Ruy Lopez "The King of Openings", and would prefer playing that opening rather than the Scotch, but that's just me. Also I feel that it does give an adequate amount of open sicilian material to stay afloat but would require an entire book (such as beating the sicilian 3) for adequate preparation against strong opponents (elo 2000 and up-and the ones who religiously go over reams and reams of memorized theory every waking hour). But the idea is to pick and choose what positions that you like to have and learn the theory behind it.Here is an overview of the reccomended lines.. e5 : ScotchSicilian: Open SicilianScandanavian: Bd2 variationCaro-Kann: Panov-Botvinnik AttackFrench: Tarrasch-Korchnoi GambitPirc: 150 attack* and uses easy to learn strategic set-ups with less frequent lines, thus saving the reader time.

I like this Kindle book and I'm glad I bought it. It was easy and enjoyable to read all the way through. Neil McDonald's notes generally address the thing I was wondering about. The formatting for Kindle is good. The "complete games" approach may not be logically compelling, but I finished this book, and I've bought "variation tree" opening books that I didn't finish. Neil McDonald picks fast wins, so you can see how the opening might work in your favor, but he doesn't pretend his chosen options all just win. This note is typical:"An instructive moment. Black should have played 24 ... f4!, even though it concedes the e4-square to the white pieces. In doing so, he would be converting the e5-square into a de facto outpost for his knight, as it is hard to see how White could ever arrange to attack it with a pawn. Then after 25 Ne4 Qf8 26 f3 (to stop 26 ... f3) things are by no means clear, though White has more scope to improve his position."The down-side is skimpy coverage. For example, after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 a6 5 Bd3 Bc5 6 Nb3 Ba7 7 Qe2 he shows how White can try to get an edge by eliminating Black's black-squared bishop. That's good. What if Black plays 6 ... Be7 instead? He does not mention that possibility. That's bad. This is not a place you want to be with no idea what's going on or even that this is a setup that there's dangerous theory on. There are many other examples where the author could at least have said: "here be dragons!"

This book will take you well beyond what most players will ever need to know about opening with 1 e4. Neil McDonald feeds us openings which encourage you to play with the attacking freedom an improving player needs to enjoy while trying to keep the theory to a minimum. A careful assembly by an experienced GM. Grab these ideas with both hands and if you ever find yourself needing something more then you have already a very good player,

I'm only half way through the first chapter and have already found three notation errors.

Few variations in each line...too shallow.

This book will take you well beyond what most players will ever need to know about opening with 1 e4. Neil McDonald feeds us openings which encourage you to play with the attacking freedom an improving player needs to enjoy while trying to keep the theory to a minimum. A careful assembly by an experienced GM. Grab these ideas with both hands and if you ever find yourself needing something more then you have already a very good player,