Chess Openings - Chess E-Book for Download

Chess Openings
by Isidor Gunsberg

A ChessCentral E-Book

One thing most players enjoy is for a top notch chess player to give his opinion on what are the best opening moves. Isidor Gunsberg was one of the best players in the world during the 1883-1893 period, and after he retired from play in 1914 he published this book on chess openings. Even if you know a lot about chess openings, you'll learn even more from this book.

Gunsberg covers 34 openings, classified into five broad groups - "open" games, "semi-open" games, etc. It is interesting that, between the "open" and "closed" sections Gunsberg inserts a stand-alone King's Gambit group of openings. Throughout the book each opening is introduced by an overview or summary, in which the author sets out opinions and guidelines for proper play. The opening analysis is thorough but not in the mind numbing detail common today; we get enough to comprehend the main variations and play the opening with confidence. The analysis itself is woven together with plenty of good text commentary, so that the whole is a pleasure to read.

Many players will never want more than this handy pocket guide, while others will treat the book as a synopsis or outline to build upon. It is a practical book, meant to be employed over the board, and even today the ambitious player can take the knowledge found here directly into the tournament hall. The author has taken good care to provide a solid basis for playing any major chess opening - and so, we might ask, who was this Gunsberg fellow anyway?

Isidor Arthur Gunsberg had a impressive 40 year chess career as a master and chess journalist, and was a contemporary of Steinitz and of Blackburne. He was born on November 2, 1854 in Budapest, but his family moved to Great Britain when he was nine years old.

At age 12 Gunsberg was considered a child prodigy in Paris, and by the 1870s he was beginning to make a name for himself in chess. Then a wealthy designer of mechanical devices and orthopedic equipment, Charles Godfrey Gumpel, hired Gunsberg to operate the chess automaton "Mephisto." In that capacity, and perhaps in the device itself, Gunsberg won the Counties Chess Association Handicap Tournament of 1878, launching his chess career.

Gunsberg played in many strong tournaments during the last 20 years of the 19th century, and also had a very credible match record. He won the 4th German Chess Congress (Hamburg, 1885), and took 3rd place in the 6th American Chess Congress (New York, 1889 - a monster 20-man double round-robin event). He lost a match vs. Blackburne but then won the re-match; he won two matches vs. Bird, and drew a 23-game match vs. Tschigorin. Then in 1891 he lost a 19-game match for the World Championship vs. Steinitz by only two points.

Shortly thereafter, he development serious health problems that affected his play for the rest of his life, so that most of his chess activity was devoted to writing columns and books. Honored by his fellow chess masters and admired by the public, Gunsberg died on May 2, 1930.