Understanding before Moving 1

Starten på en ny serie åpningsbøker fra IM Herman Grooten, der han vil vise hovedideene i åpninger, gjennom særlig instruktive mønsterpartier. Første bok handler om noen hovedvarianter i Spansk, Italiensk og Prøyssisk.

Dn erfarne sjakktreneren Herman Grooten har i de siste årene kommet med noen nyttige treningsbøker til mellomnivået Også denne nye serien virker å være rettet inn mot et klubbspillersegment, og mest treffer han antagelig fra ratingstyrke cirka 1200 til 2000.

Første del av boka inneholder også endel nyttig lesning om hvordan studere åpningsspillet, der han konkluderer med behovene for å forstå strukturene i stillingene og å se gode mønsterpartier.

Fra forfatterens forord:

A wild and original idea does not often turn out to be a successful concept. This is true not only for chess itself, but also for a chess writer’s practice. Nevertheless, we believe that the fundamental concept behind this book is one that will prove very valuable to average club player.

As a trainer of both youth and adult players I look at many games of my students. I noticed many of them had enough knowledge of the opening at their disposal. Yet as soon as the opponent deviated from theory, they were groping in the dark. Because how should the game continue?

This book series is about that central question: what matters in the opening? What plans are on hand? Which (hidden) concepts are concealed in the current position that has arisen just after the opening?

In Schaakmagazine , the journal of the Royal Dutch Chess Federation , I started writ- ing a series of articles in which I go into the above - mentioned issues. I tried to clarify in this series what specific openings are really all about , without falling into compli- cated side - lines .

This line of thought may have beg u n with my own irritation when I tried learning openings from a book myself. My dislike of a “ variation tree ” , in which deviations are written down like , for example , B1.2a) or C4.3b1) , not only made my wires cross, but also took away the pleasure of learning new things about chess. Th e at- tentive reader will catch me later using a similar way of enumerating in this book. Yet I hope the explanations accompanying the variations won’t make you quit read- ing!

When I became better and got more understanding of the strategic ideas within cer tain openings, I became much more capable of studying an opening. I mainly owe this understanding to the grandmasters who were willing to write their thoughts down, of course accompanied by variations.

In my view the average club player will be more plea sed with an opening book in which a profusion of ideas is offered. If this is also structured, you can hope that the readers will acquire the necessary understanding of standard positions. On the basis of this guideline , developing an opening repertoire could easily turn into a pleasant pastime.