RHP player Mahout has sent me another book review and I’m very grateful for his contribution and is very happy to present it to you here:
“Beating Unusual Openings”
by Richard Palliser IM
Everyman Chess ISBN -10: 1-85744 – 429 – 9
Suggested rating: 1500+
OK to be fair a 1200 could easily follow the main lines in this book, but it’s clearly aimed at higher rated players or lower rated players willing to put some work in. There are no 1.a4 openings and it rather cheekily suggests that if you need help with the likes of 1.a4 then you need a more introductory book – (thanks mate but I’ve already bought it – maybe you could pop that info on the cover next time!). So what we have is a comprehensive and up to date book (Chessbase Big Database 2006 is credited) showing responses and continuations to everything credible that’s not either 1.e4 or 1.d4.
Part 1 of the book gives us four chapters on The English - about half the book judging by the thickness of the remaining pages. All the analysis stems from the reply 1…c5 and the chapter headings of this first section on The English are:
1. White Fianchettoes and plays Nf3
2. White Fianchettoes without Nf3
3. The Three Knights Variation
4. White Plays an Early d4
It’s worth mentioning the chapter headings because if you were looking for lines other than 1…c5 against the English then they aren’t here, and this seems a reasonable approach, as the idea is to prepare with the minimum study.
Part 2 of the book is for unusual first moves that are not The English or 1.Nf3 - including 1.g3, The Grob, The Nimzo Larsen, Birds Opening, 1.Nc3 (with the lovely name: Der Linkspringer), and the Sokolsky.
Part 3 gives us three chapters on dealing with 1.Nf3 - all comprehensive and thorough.
The is just such a good idea for a book. It’s great for OTB preparation and a good reference to help understand the book moves whilst playing correspondence. You have the option of either glancing through the lines or going into more detail. The layout is clear and well populated with references to games and comments on alternate continuations.
At first I found one minor irritation as when a continuation splits into a few options e.g. line a), b) or c) etc. the page number for the continuation isn’t given. But it’s easy enough to find the continuation and when you do find it - there’s a useful recap of the game from move 1. at the beginning of the new paragraph - so you don’t have to go backwards and forwards through the pages.
Although no whole games are annotated (something I would normally want from an openings book) it’s easy enough to look up the references and find the games on the Internet to play through them… and including whole games in such a wide-ranging book wouldn’t be a good use of space.
Clearly I’m not in a position to contest the author’s analysis, but where I have used the book so far I found it to be user friendly and informative. Given the thoroughness of the research I’d recommend it for higher rated players of any level.
As a taster here’s an extract from the book. I’ve chosen the beginning of chapter eight on 1.Nc3 partly because, until I read this book, I just assumed that no one played this line and it would therefore be easy to play against….not so:
START OF EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK:
1.Nc3
A much more popular choice in the correspondence world than OTB, although I’m not quite sure why. Perhaps the majority of players remain ignorant that 1. Nc3 is both an independent system and not just a transpositional tool, as well often allowing White early free piece play. This opening has been referred to as the Dunst, the Van Geet and Der Linkspringer (The Knight on The Left), and Black certainly should not neglect it in his preparation unless he wants to join the ranks of miniature victims (particularly in the lines featuring an early …e5: either on move one or after 1.Nc3…d5, 2. e4…dxe4, 3. Nxe4). We will focus on:
A: 1…d5
B: 1…c5
The latter is a common choice with Sicilian players, but not everyone has the Sicilian in their repertoire. Instead, French players should meet 1. Nc3 with 1…e6, when Keilhack suggests that white has nothing better than 2. e4 (or 2.d4…d5, 3. e4). It may also be useful for French players, when reaching their favourite opening via a 1. Nc3 move order to know that Keilhack’s impressive work also covers following up 1. Nc3…d5, 2. e4…e6 with each of 3. Nf3, 3. g3 and 3. f4. Likewise the Caro-Kann player should begin with 1. Nc3…c6, and once again white hasn’t really anything better than 2.e4 (or 2.d4…d5, 3.e4). Just like against the French, Keilhack doesn’t abandon the 1. Nc3 player after 1…c6, 2.e4…d5, but considers in some detail the offbeat systems 3. f4, 3.Qf3, 3.g3 and 3.d3
Another major defence to 1. e4 is 1…e5, but unfortunately 1. Nc3…e5, 2. Nf3!?…Nc6, 3.d4…exd4, 4. N x d4…Nf6, 5. Bg5 is quite a tricky system.
END OF EXTRACT
OK so the above extract is less than half of the info given in the book on the early moves in this line but hopefully it’s enough to give you an idea of the thoroughness of the research. It continues with suggestions for the Ruy Lopez player and the Petroff player etc.. And where he’s not supplying the detail of a continuation there is a reference such as above he refers to Harald Keilhack’s book “Knight on the left” (listed in the bibliography). The use of bold for references to familiar lines - Sicilian, Caro-Kann etc. - makes it easy to dip into.
So I highly recommend this book… and next time someone plays 1.g4 or 1.b3 or 1.f4…I’ll be smiling!
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) I played an interesting 1. round game against 
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