The English: move by move

Utdrag fra forordet

... Many books have been written on the English Opening, so I should say a word or two about the intentions of this one. Despite – or perhaps because of – the lack of hard forcing lines, there is actually a huge wealth of possible variations of the English, since both sides have great flexibility over how to develop. Some 30 years ago, the American author John Watson took four volumes to produce a comprehensive coverage of the English, and much more recently Mihail Marin needed three fat volumes, totalling almost 1200 pages, even to provide a comprehensive repertoire for White, based on one specific move-order. So, whatever else it purports to do, the present volume is not intended to provide a complete coverage of all English lines. By the same token, nor is it a repertoire book. The reader will not find a complete, coherent set of recommended lines for White against each possible black defence. Many such books have been published before, and I see little sense in trying to rival them.

Instead, what this book seeks to do, via a series of deeply-annotated illustrative games, is to instruct the reader in the main English variations, and the different structures to which they lead. There is considerable emphasis here on the middlegame positions which result from the opening. As stated above, the English is an opening where understanding is more important than concrete theoretical knowledge, and the would-be English player, particularly at club and congress level, will win far more points by understanding the positional and strategic ideas of the opening, than he will by rote-learning of specific sequences. ...