This inclusive guide to every unorthodox opening used by chess players contains more than 500 weird, contentious, controversial, unconventional, arrogant, and outright strange openings. A powerful part of any chess player's arsenal, these tricky tacky surprises fly in the face of tradition. 1,000+ illustrations and diagrams.

This objective guide covers all 16 of White's alternative to 1 e4, 1 d4, 1 c4 and 1 Nf3. Some of these lines have a cult following while others are just sensible ways of starting the game, with their own subtleties and pitfalls for the unwary, while a

"Dealing with the English, R'eti, King's Indian Attack and other annoying systems"..cover.

No matter how unconventional, irrational or even crazy an opening is, sooner or later every chess player will have to face it. When that happens, you can count on a well-prepared opponent who is more than happy to roll out his pet line. John Watson and Eric Schiller provide club-players with solutions to a huge selection of these rarely-played or tricky chess openings. They concentrate upon ideas and strategy, with enough analysis to satisfy the needs of practical play. Only when a sharp reply is required, Watson end Schiller will recommend a more complex variation filled with tactics. In the vast majority of cases they present a simple and safe way to approach the position, requiring little memorization and still leading to a promising game. There is a lot of fun material in this book, and you may be surprised to see how even strong grandmasters have indulged in the craziest variations. Chess isn’t all main lines and 20 moves of theory!

Gambits, where one side sacrifices material for an advance in development, are the most exciting and popular openings in chess! This book contains every important gambit opening and variation ever played - more than two thousand opening strategies in all! Each gambit is covered in detail with a diagram showing the standard position representative of the gambit, the move orders taken to get there, and an explanation in plain language of the thinking behind the moves. More than one hundred games show you how the ideas behind the gambit influence the development of the game. 784 pages

This manual fills a big gap in chess literature. After 1.d4, probably the most widely played opening move in the world, Black can avoid main line theory by deviating into a whole variety of irritating unorthodox sidelines. White players often stumble into unknown and dangerous territory where their tricky opponent awaits them, fully prepared. Acclaimed chess author Valeri Bronznik provides sound and user-friendly answers to no less then nineteen unusual variations and gambits. Against the Budapest Gambit, Marshall Defence, Englund Gambit, Baltic Defence, Schara-Hennig Gambit, Keres Defence and many others, chess amateurs are presented with easy-to-learn plans and comprehensive counter-attacks. After studying this book, club and internet chess players will be fully armed to deal with all of Black's offbeat tries. From now on they will be able to beat the guerrillas!

Presents information on the ideas and strategies for chess openings.