Judging by the email I receive, the author has hit upon a topic near and dear to the hearts of most regular tournament players. This book provides a lot of simple, straightforward advice; however, players who are expecting more of a hands-on, nuts and bolts discussion of how to fit together lines may find that "some assembly is required."

Early on, the author engages the reader to "walk a chess repertoire mile" in his shoes.  Many (if not most) players will empathize with Giddins' admission that he never really developed an opening repertoire and rarely stayed with any one opening variation long enough to truly know it. His description of a general willingness to blame the opening for most bad positions and losses is typical of many class players, and he does a great service by exposing and working to refute this common notion.

Fortunately for the author, in 1992 he found himself in Moscow, where, for the first time, he had the opportunity to work with an experienced chess trainer. Giddins freely admits his opening repertoire sins, writing that "I still recall my embarrassment when he asked me to write out my whole opening repertoire, including which lines I played against each main black defense, etc., and I was forced to confess that in all but one or two cases, I simply could not say! After rolling his eyes in disbelief for a minute or two, he gave me a severe does of the 'every Russian schoolboy knows better than that' routine, and then we started some serious opening work for the first time in my life."

This book is best when it sticks to some basic "developing your opening" truths that the author presents with clear and convincing examples and discussion. Among these, the author makes a strong case for picking a core set of openings and sticking with them, in effect growing in chess knowledge through a deep understanding of the typical ideas for both players in these openings. I've written on this topic and fully agree with this approach. 

Another area where the author does a good job with opening "universal truths" is the discussion of their individual relative values. The author asserts (with the backing of Kasparov) that all normal openings are 100% sound. This is an incredibly important point - there are way too many players who are spending countless hours worrying that their white repertoire doesn't always lead to a slight advantage for white and their black repertoire doesn't always lead to equality for black. Alternatively, playable defenses (or white variations) are rejected because they are not the "hot theory" among the world's elite.

Most players will also find a useful discussion of move order tricks. This is a subject that doesn't get nearly enough coverage in most opening books. Perhaps the best discussion elsewhere is by GM Andrew Soltis in his book "Confessions of a Chess Grandmaster."  Soltis, who was never really a chess professional in the modern sense of the word, used many opening tricks and schemes to limit the amount of theory with which he had to stay current. For many players, his repertoire could serve as a model worth emulating. This book provides a lot of the same sort of guidance.

Soltis' offbeat but still venomous opening repertoire might be an example of one of my areas of disagreement with Giddins. Perhaps influenced by his Soviet chess trainer training, the author argues that players are generally better off sticking to tried and true main lines in developing their repertoire. While there is no doubt that these lines are stable and unlikely to be refuted, they also require a lot of study and preparation. For the average player, their limited opening time may be better spent on less traveled (but still sound) variations.

I think the author sets up a straw man by evoking the problems encountered by Grandmasters Gallagher and Federov in playing the King's Gambit against world-class players. From this, he concludes that most players would be better off by, early on, learning and sticking to the Ruy Lopez (or maybe the Scotch). I don't think that this analogy really works for the average player. The bottom line is that, with limited time to study, most players would gladly accept the Gallagher/Federov problem (what to do when I get to grandmaster and can't play the King's Gambit against Shirov) as a risk worth taking. Granted, if you are an up-and-coming junior who hopes to make it to the Gallagher-Federov level, the advice might be worth considering. For the average player, however, it doesn't seem all that relevant.

There are some other useful general discussions, such as on how to judge the "extra tempo" in reversed openings. I would generally agree that the value is usually over-rated.  While the author suggests that players are usually better served by sticking with their openings through the rough stretches, he does provide some guidance on when it is appropriate to toss an opening overboard and start from scratch.

The book closes with an analysis of the repertoires of some prominent players (Fischer, Kasparov, Karpov, Kramnik, Adams, M. Gurevich, Sveshnikov, and Hebden). While this is interesting, it is questionable whether readers will find this helpful in actually building their own chess opening repertoire (which is, after all, the title to the book). Considering that this chapter takes up nearly 20% of the book's content pages, it is probably space that could be put to better use.

In the end, at just 136 pages of content, the book seems more an appetizer than a full course on the subject. Some variations and opening schemes get a fair amount of coverage, while others are barely mentioned. While the author makes a good general case for a thorough, basic and continuous plan for study of a core set of openings, he does not provide nearly as much elaboration on just how a player takes this guiding principle and implements it. 

In conclusion, this is perhaps the first book to entirely focus on a subject that has great appeal to the average player. The general advice the author provides is sound (although a case can be made for less traditional approaches to the opening). However, the book is more about overarching principles than a "how to" manual on building a repertoire. It can provide useful guidance, but players wanting more of a hands-on guide may be disappointed.

Click to see reviews of this book by Donaldson and Silman