Starting Out

Building and maintaining a chess opening repertoire can be a demanding task – for a start there are an enormous number of different lines to chooses from. There's a strong temptation amongst aspiring players to opt solely for tricky lines in order to snare unsuspecting opponents, but this approach has only short term value. As you progress and your opponents become stronger, very often these line don't stand up to close scrutiny and suddenly you are back to square one with no suitable opening weapons. In these two books, brought together now for the first time in one volume, John Cox and Neil McDonald solve the perennial problems by providing the reader with strong and trusty repertoires with white pieces based on the popular opening moves of 1d4 and 1e4. The recommended lines given here have stood the test of time and are regularly employed by Grandmasters. These books are written in Everyman Chess's distinctive Starting Out style, with plenty of notes, tips and warnings throughout to help the reader to absorb ideas.