I said "yes, Alex Dunne has (had?) a column in Chess Life titled 'The Check is in the mail', about correspondence chess" (which I find very boring). I think he may have mentioned that Dunne is very active in this facet of chess, not sure.

<I think it might be Bobby Fischer teaches chess.> I got that for Xmas as a kid. A big snooze. Barely even useful for beginners. Talk about a big name being able to sell product!

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Ivkov vs S Webb, 1977

b) Now that you have done that one, the first move should be easy: Black to play and win:

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V Osnos vs E Shekhtman, 1967

c) something slightly different:

Black to play and win

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I have put in my order for my first three: as an homage to <hms123> Watson's 3 MCO books. I will order the remainder of Watson's books after that and go from there.

I have a suggestion/request. Now that you're a premium member, please open your forum. Yabba Dabba Do!

The first thing to understand is that this book was published in Britain in 1991 so it does not cover a lot of the openings that Garry played later in life. In fact, it begins with a discussion of why most world champions (Fischer a notable exception) seem to rely on 1.d4 over 1.e4 and then outlines a repertoire based on playing 1.d4 with White and imbalanced positions (KIDs and Sicilians) with Black.

It was this thin book that really taught me the basics of chess opening theory. It is here where I first saw the famous Lasker double bishop sacrifice (given in the supplemental notes), it is here where I first got my head around the concept that "An attack on the flank is best met with a counter in the center.", and in my case perhaps most importantly I first learned how openings are not just a "bag of tricks" designed to ensnare your opponent, but contain very long-range strategies that take you all the way into the endgame.

If you digest the contents of this book you'll end up playing chess openings like Kasparov did in the 1980's, and I'm sure you agree, there's nothing wrong with that. You'll be playing Queen's Gambits and the Saemisch attack with the White pieces, and you'll play KIDs and Sicilians with the Black pieces.

Smaller sections are devoted to lesser seen openings which often trouble club players, such as the too-sound-to-be-good 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3, and Bird's Opening, and the closed Sicilian. On the other hand, a large section is devoted to the Benoni.

A random quote to give you the feel of the author: <Once again, Kasparov begins the unlikely-looking plan of taking over control of e5, using a method similar to the one tried against Romanishin. We say 'unlikely' because at the moment this square is controlled three times by White and not even once by Black!>

All right, I have Watson Mastering the Chess Openings Vol2 the d4 openings.

As most of you may know the book is divided into chapters based on the major closed openings one may face when playing d4: Queen's Gambit Declined; Slav and Semi-Slav; Nimzo; QID; KID; Gruenfeld; and the Modern Benoni.

The book does not have an index or list of games. I think an index would be helpful. For example I kept running across statements like "this is also a good move in the London System" and it would be good to be able to find that again since I see the London System a lot. [I would have given a direct quote, but I literally could not find either of the two London System comments that I saw again].

I have read through the readable parts. The discussions at the start of each of the openings are very helpful. There is also a brief informative discussion at the start of each of the major variations which are good. Watson writes clearly and provides, what for me, is some new information.

But here is the question and it is a serious one: what am I supposed to do with the book? Do I put it on the shelf and look at when I have cause to think about a particular opening? Or do I play through the whole book, hoping that I will suck in enough information to get better?

These questions are difficult for me both because of my chess level (not so good) and because I can’t imagine facing the Gruenfeld, for example, more than once a year, if at all. On the other hand, if I were to (god forbid) take up the Gruenfeld, wouldn’t I want to get a book on that opening and study it hard rather than a book like this, as well written as it is.

I get that this book says: "if you want to play d4 here is what you are likely to face", but do I need to know so many options?

I also get that these questions may be just another way of saying that this book is above me.

Maybe that is the whole answer.

The 4th volume in the Watson opening series will appear soon. It's going to cover the flank openings, the Dutch, and, I hope, some gambits and other odds and ends, that weren't in the first 2 (the e4 and d4 volumes).

As if I have time to study the first 3...here are my quick thoughts on them.

One thing I really liked about what I have studied is that he gives some really good explanations of some things that "everyone" knows are bad, but that one rarely sees discussed in opening books. For example, in Volume 2, he devotes a few pages to analyzing the Marshall Defense (1 d4 d5 2 c4 Nf6) to the Queen's Gambit, in detail.

I have used it to quickly book up on something new to play - the 2 Knight's Line against the Caro Kann -just before a B class tournament, with great results (2-0).