Rating: 
Summary: An essentialbook for club players
Review: Beginning players often pound out their first moves of a chess game by rote, merely imitating moves they've seen in a book or magazine. When they run out of pre-learned moves, they are often at a complete loss as to how to proceed because they do not understand the reasoning behind those memorized moves. In this little book, the late Al Horowitz uses lots of clear prose to explain every move -- not reams of confusing variations that are gibberish to most of us amateur players. The book covers only certain variations of openings popular in the 1950's, so one will not see the King's Indian Defense or Benoni. But warhorses like the French, Ruy Lopez (Spanish), Giuoco Piano (Italian) and the Queen's Gambit are given good coverage. A good companion book is Chernev's Logical Chess Move by Move. HTWITCO is suitable for players class E through B. After a few run-throughs, keep it for reference! I still refer to mine from time to time.
Rating: 
Summary: The most helpful chess book I ever read
Review: If you are a beginner at chess, you need to read this book. After reading it, and using a reasonable amount of diligence on your part, you should have a workable knowledge of the very important principles of opening chess. Without "talking down" to the beginner, Horowitz uses an easy to understand language and very appropriate examples to explain his lessons. He makes learning the openings of chess what it should be- fun and helpful.
Rating:
Summary: A Book that helps make Millionaires.
Review: Over 3 decades ago the first edition of this book was made available to me as a Jr. High School student. During that time our school only had one (1) air conditioned classroom available during lunch periods for the "chess club". My motivation for walking into the class room to enjoy my lunch was not to play chess, but to enjoy the comfort of air conditioning. But I was "required" to sit down and play my first game. With six other students looking on, I lost my first game to a "fool's mate" in the classic Queen & Bishop 3 move play. Embarassed and angry I stormed out of the room. Later that evening I went to a book store and asked for any book to help me "win" at chess. I purchased and began a month long study of "How to Win in the Chess Openings" . . . and returned 30 days later to beat the daylights out of all my opponents. Later, I found my math scores had risen from D's and F's to A's . . . and also, in later years, my ability to see 25 move forced check mates . . . and 25 move forced financial and business solutions which have led to over a million dollars a year. The cost of this reissued book is well worth the price tag . . . provided you take the precious commodity of "time" to enjoy the journey. (P.S. I also suggest acquiring a House of Staunton chess set in the heavy weighted 4 1/2" size, with the board squares measured at 2 1/2", as the world class players use.)
Rating:
Summary: Every great chess player must master this book's concepts
Review: Simply put, this is a classic. It is great for beginners, but if you feel you are an advanced chess player, then it will be a good review! I had this book recommended to me by a couple of players with a rating close to master when I played in high school. If it was good enough for them, then it is certianly good enough for me. Now that I have long since graduated from college it is still one of my favorite chess books. The notation is old, but that will prevent only the weakest from learning the time tested concepts shared by a great grand master who understands the game!
Rating:
Summary: Every great chess player must master this book's concepts
Review: Simply put, this is a classic. It is great for beginners, but if you feel you are an advanced chess player, then it will be a good review! I had this book recommended to me by a couple of players with a rating close to master when I played in high school. If it was good enough for them, then it is certianly good enough for me. Now that I have long since graduated from college it is still one of my favorite chess books. The notation is old, but that will prevent only the weakest from learning the time tested concepts shared by a great grand master who understands the game!
Rating:
Summary: AN EYE-OPENER IN IT'S TRUEST SENSE !!!
Review: Thanks to my memory and gray matter I was able to grab 1500 ELO points in under first year of learning chess that too without reading any book on chess..but then my game stagnated due to lack of experience in different openings and I sought help to my professor who gave me this book..It really helped me understand the concepts and Lo behold I defeated a 2300 rated player twice before going down at 2-3 in a match within two weeks of reading this book !
Rating:
Summary: Not bad for the beginner.
Review: The first chess book I ever waded through, was all about tactics, mating patterns, etc. After reading it, I schooled all of my friends. But I had a rude awakening in my first tournament when I got had by fool's mate in the first game. So I commenced on learning openings in order to get into position to use my tactic skills. How To Win in the Chess Openings is a book I've studied in two phases. The first phase was just learning the different patterns and typical sequence of moves. I really didn't understand the theory and logic behind most of the opening moves. So at first, I was pretty disappointed in the book and left it alone. But now, 5 years later, I've been using the book to really get the logic behind the opening moves and it's finally making sense. As some of the other reviews have stated, it only goes over a few different openings and not to a depth of being able to learn every variation. However, the openings covered are very common and the knowledge provided is very good for someone trying to get into the middlegame.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad for the beginner.
Review: The first chess book I ever waded through, was all about tactics, mating patterns, etc. After reading it, I schooled all of my friends. But I had a rude awakening in my first tournament when I got had by fool's mate in the first game. So I commenced on learning openings in order to get into position to use my tactic skills. How To Win in the Chess Openings is a book I've studied in two phases. The first phase was just learning the different patterns and typical sequence of moves. I really didn't understand the theory and logic behind most of the opening moves. So at first, I was pretty disappointed in the book and left it alone. But now, 5 years later, I've been using the book to really get the logic behind the opening moves and it's finally making sense. As some of the other reviews have stated, it only goes over a few different openings and not to a depth of being able to learn every variation. However, the openings covered are very common and the knowledge provided is very good for someone trying to get into the middlegame.
Rating: 
Summary: Chess Notation: What was he thinking?
Review: The only chess book I ever threw away. The content might be good, might have been great, but I'll never know...I just couldn't get past the chess notation the author used. Yeah, it may be considered some type of standard notation to someone; however, it's not the same chess notation my other 25 or so chess books use. The notation alone made the book too difficult to follow through. If you are use to this syntax: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc5 This book is not for you...
Rating:
Summary: Chess Notation: What was he thinking?
Review: The only chess book I ever threw away. The content might be good, might have been great, but I'll never know...I just couldn't get past the chess notation the author used. Yeah, it may be considered some type of standard notation to someone; however, it's not the same chess notation my other 25 or so chess books use. The notation alone made the book too difficult to follow through. If you are use to this syntax: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc5 This book is not for you...
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