Schilling Out (Pt. III): Black Initiatives?
Written: May 05 '08 (Updated May 09 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good intermediate-level book detailing the art of the opening gambit for Black...
Cons: May be too tedious for newer players...
The Bottom Line: Schiller provides a detailed discussion of the opening gambit in a practical series of applications...
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| lansky2000's Full Review: Eric Schiller - Gambit Opening Repertoire for Blac... |
Eric Schiller, according to the bio on over 75 chess books he has authored, is a National and Life Master, an International Arbiter of F.I.D.E., and a professional chess trainer. Undoubtedly most of his success as a player stems from his prodigious study of chess openings, which makes one wonder whether he owns, or has ever felt the need to own, a computer chess program. For the 21st century newbie, it normally takes a slip of the disc into the old PC and, voila, one is ready to rumble. Back in the day (and for that matter, since chess was imported from the Far East), serious students relied on chess notations to trace the paths of battles of yore, much like students of sheet music. It is still a preferred method of study for upper-echelon club players, and Schiller’s work is directed towards this audience. Yet we find that some of his work is more valuable than others, and hopefully this review will steer readers into the desired direction.
Gambit Opening Repertoire for Black is representative of much of Schiller’s work. What the author does is use a defensive or offensive formation as a theme for the literature, then cites several classic matches in helping the reader develop a personal system in inducing the author’s theories. Gambit focuses largely on the Scandinavian Defense and numerous variations in the first part of the book, then goes on to the Queen’s Gambit Declined before finishing up by touching on flanking and other unorthodox openings. Basically what we are looking at is Black offering up a pawn sacrifice to White’s pawn opening on d4 or e4. The strategy is to throw White’s attack formation out of alignment as Black sets a trap that does more than change the tempo of the game as White’s first move initiative is lost. What Schiller does is lead us through a series of classic games where different sequences by Black resulted in victory. By replaying the games over and over, the reader will eventually recognize patterns that will allow them to duplicate the victories recorded in the text.
The downside is the fact that there are so many possible deviations in chess that not even the IBM supercomputer, Deep Blue, could calculate them all in playing the immortal Garry Kasparov in their historic match. Having a multitude of counters memorized in playing Black is certainly a plus. Yet relying on them could cause the unwary player to fall into a trap if White has read the same book and figured out a preemptive strike. What we would prefer to see in Schiller’s work is a detailed discussion of the various gambits, giving the reader more whys and wherefores in contributing to their understanding of the mechanics of the gambits and how they can be translated into a personal system. To his credit, he goes into brief dissertations on the various openings but there's just not enough here to carry the newbie past the opening flurries.
Like his other books, Schiller’s work is documented in algebraic notation which is easy to follow on the board. Unfortunately this is like one of those algebra books we tend to bypass in the library for reason of too many problems and not enough explanation. Schiller’s illustrious background certainly qualifies him to expound upon the theories of opening gambits, and the book would have been of far greater value had he chosen to do so.
For intermediate players, this is worth a read. Newbies may look for something less laborious.
Recommended:
Yes
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