Back to Basics: Openings by Carsten Hansen 2010 Russell Enterprises, Inc. Milford, CT USA 1 Back to Basics: Openings Back to Basics: Openings by Carsten Hansen ISBN: 978-1-888690-44-6 © Copyright 2010 Carsten Hansen All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be used, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any manner or form whatsoever or by any means, elec- tronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Published by: Russell Enterprises, Inc. P.O. Box 3131 Milford, CT 06460 USA http://www.russell-enterprises.com
[email protected] Cover design by Janel Lowrance and Zygmunt Nasiolkowski Printed in the United States of America 2 Table of Contents Author’s Dedication; Bibliography 4 Introduction 5 1 My Own Experiences with Openings 8 2 Opening Principles 13 3 How do I Decide which opening to choose? 30 4 An Introduction to Opening Theory 34 5 The Open Games 39 6 The Semi-Open Games 84 7 The Closed Games 141 8 The Semi-Closed Games 167 9 Flank Openings 207 10 Where do I go from here? 231 Index of Names and Variations 236 3 Back to Basics: Openings Author’s Dedication To my mother, who taught me to play chess, and my father, who motivated me to improve. Bibliography Collins, Sam, Understanding the Chess Openings (Gambit Publications, London, 2005) Donaldson, John and Hansen, Carsten, A Strategic Opening Repertoire (2nd edition, Russell Enterprises, Milford, 2008) Emms, John, Play the Open Games as Black (Gambit Publications, London.