Starting Out: The Queen's Gambit

Rating:
Summary: Good overview, but more is necessary to play this opening
Review: I was looking forward to this book coming out as the other books in the series are great. However, this book covers too many openings and as a result lacks focus. Covered in this book is the Queens gambit declined and all resulting variations (orthodox, tartakower, cambridge springs, exchange, etc.), Tarasch defence, Queens Gambit Accepted, Slav and Semi-Slav. The end product provides little coverage of any lines in these families. This is unlike the other books in teh series (Caro-Kann and KID) which provide a great introduction to an opening system and provides a great starting point for an opening repetoire. The writing is good, but the book is not helpful. A better approach would have been a starting out book covering QGD or Slav individually.

Rating:
Summary: No focus
Review: I was looking forward to this book coming out as the other books in the series are great. However, this book covers too many openings and as a result lacks focus. Covered in this book is the Queens gambit declined and all resulting variations (orthodox, tartakower, cambridge springs, exchange, etc.), Tarasch defence, Queens Gambit Accepted, Slav and Semi-Slav. The end product provides little coverage of any lines in these families. This is unlike the other books in teh series (Caro-Kann and KID) which provide a great introduction to an opening system and provides a great starting point for an opening repetoire. The writing is good, but the book is not helpful. A better approach would have been a starting out book covering QGD or Slav individually.

Rating:
Summary: Good overview, but more is necessary to play this opening
Review: If you are interested in playing the queen's gambit, or in discovering how to play against it, then this general introduction book is right up your alley. It covers all the options for both white and black in a neutral way, meaning that good and bad moves for both sides are explored.

The only possible problem I can see with this book is, due to its scope, it can not pay too much attention to any one variation. So if you decide you like the Slav Defense, or the Cambridge Springs Variation, then you'll probably have to purchase another book to delve deeper into that particular variation. Why? Because you'll find at most 2-3 games covering each variation in the book, which is no where near enough to allow you to master the opening.

This isn't meant to be that much of a criticism of the book however. As the title suggests, this is a "starting out" book, designed to whet your appetite for a particular variation and allow you (with or without help from another book) to explore that variation.

So why only four stars when the book does all that it claims to do? Because the book probably should have been about 75-100 pages longer to really give a nice introduction to the openings covered. With all the openings covered, that would mean adding about 5-10 pages per section, which isn't too much to ask. The book feels rushed. However, it is still an excellent introduction to the queen's gambit and is usable by people playing from either side of the board.