For many chess-players, opening study is sheer hard work. It is difficult to know what is important and what is not, and when specific knowledge is vital, or when a more general understanding is sufficient. Tragically often, once the opening is over, a player won’t know what plan to follow, or even understand why his pieces are on the squares on which they sit.

John Watson seeks to help chess-players achieve a more holistic and insightful view of the openings. Here, for the openings, he explains not only the ideas and strategies behind specific openings, but also the interconnections of chess openings taken as a whole. By presenting the common threads that underlie opening play, Watson provides a permanent basis for playing openings of any type.

This second volume focuses on queen’s pawn openings, exploring such openings as the Nimzo-Indian, King’s Indian and the entire Queen’s Gambit complex, and the characteristic structures to which they may lead.

International Master John Watson is one of the world’s most respected writers on chess. His groundbreaking four-volume work on the English firmly established his reputation in the 1980’s, and he has produced a string of top-quality works since. His former pupils include the 1997 World Junior Champion, Tal Shaked.