Side-stepping Mainline Theory: Cut Down on Chess Opening Study and Get a Middlegame You are Familiar With Paperback – October 30, 2019

I am not a very good chess player, about 1100. This is a book that is written for someone my level and a little bit above. I am not an expert but I would say about up to 1500. It delivers exactly what it claims to. The book gives you an opening against, d4, e4, and flank openings. It also gives you an opening when playing white. The openings are not world beaters but the goal as the authors state is to give you a decent entrance to the middle game. The authors' thoughts are that if you are a player in this range, like I am, you do not have a great deal of time to study. Also, you need to spend your time studying the middle game and then the end game. Also, the authors have a really good writing style and do a pretty good job of explaining things. It is a book that is enjoyable to work with. I have used the openings a couple times and they have done just what the authors said they would. In one game the opening got me into the middle game in which I blundered and lost. In the other game I played a higher rated player to a draw. After analyzing the game I saw that my inferior middle game play kept me from a win. If you want to simplify your opening play so you can work on your middle game, this book is for you. I highly endorse it for those of us who love chess and cannot find books at our level that really help us on our journey to understand this fabulous game.

The book suggest playing the Old Indian against 1.d4 and the Hanham against 1.e4. AND it suggest playing the system as White as a Philidor reversed/KIA.There is a brief introduction of the strategy and thinking, followed by game examples.The good part is there is clear explanation. It's a solid system that can be played against anything and everything. That's the point... to be able to play the same thing in every game. Cuts down on study time and limits the game possibilities. The problem is there is little opportunity for advantage out of the opening since the position (strategy) is passive in nature.I've played the Old Indian and the Hanham reliably for almost 20 years. I was surprised because I learned a lot from this book about them. My hesitation comes in figuring out how to play it as White since I am not an 1. e4 player.To be comfortable with this system, you will need to be comfortable playing with your Knight on d7/d2 and blocking the King's Bishop with the pawn on d6/d3. Play generally revolves around Queenside play, which can be slow. Expect to play many endgames.I think in a world dominated by computers and young players this might a perfect remedy because there is little opportunity for tactical complications.

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There are basically two universal openings that I've heard of. The first is the Hippopotamus Defense. The other is the Old Indian - Hanham Philidor that gets recommended in this book.I bought another book on the Hippo Defense first, before buying this book. Although is Hippo is useful and truly universal, it requires a much greater knowledge of other openings because it can evolve into the middle games of of those openings. And you don't have a lot of control over which ones the opponent will choose in order to attack your Hippo Defense. So the Hippo is best for advanced players.The Old Indian is different. The author does an amazing job researching this. Using the opening lines recommended, it's nearly impossible for the opponent to stop you from setting up your bread and butter position each time. Well, he could stop it...but only if he's willing to accept a major disadvantage to do so.You will emerge with a solid Old Indian position every time. You won't get tripped up in the beginning with clever tactics. And it guarantees a positional style middle game, slow and steady. You opponent won't be able to create sharp, tactical situations in the beginning. This will leave you with a greater margin of error to make sub-optimal moves later on.It's a really great book.

Gives middlegame plans and a nice opening table in the back. Very good opening book.

I was lucky enough to review a friend's copy, and not waste my money. The premise of the book is logical, but the choice of openings is IMO just terrible.There is a reason that popular openings are popular, methinks.A much better effort is Keep It Simple 1. d4.YMMV