num_pages: 352
description: For many chess-players opening study is sheer hard work. It is difficult to know what is important and what is not and when specific knowledge is vital or when a more general understanding is sufficient. Tragically often once the opening is over a player wont know what plan to follow or even understand why his pieces are on the squares on which they sit.In this highly-acclaimed and popular series John Watson helps chess-players achieve a more holistic and insightful view of the openings. He explains not only the ideas and strategies behind specific openings but also the interconnections of chess openings taken as a whole. By presenting the common threads that underlie opening play Watson provides a permanent basis for playing openings of any type.This third volume focuses on the English Opening while also drawing together many threads from the first two books in a wide-ranging discussion of general opening topics. Particularly in the context of reversed and analogous forms of standard structures we understand why certain ideas work and others dont and experience the concept of Cross-Pollination at work in even more varied forms than seen in the first two volumes.International Master John Watson is one of the worlds most respected writers on chess. His groundbreaking four-volume work on the English firmly established his reputation in the 1980s and he has produced a string of top-quality works since. In 1999 Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy  Watsons first book for Gambit won the British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award and the United States Chess Federation Fred Cramer Award for Best Book. He reviews chess books for The Week in Chess and hosts a weekly radio show on the Internet Chess Club.
language: English
title: Mastering the Chess Openings, volume 3
publisher: Gambit Publications