Moves 3 to 10

 "Understanding the Opening Phase for Improving Chess Players"

I used to play a lot of chess as a teenager many decades ago. Those days, there were hardly any computers that played the game and there was certainly no Internet. Learning new ideas in the game was possible only through books or magazines and if something was not clear, there weren’t too many people to consult for explanations. I was never a great player and quit when other things in life took precedence. Then, a few years ago, I decided to start playing again and be better than before. This time, there were a lot of resources at hand computers’ analysis, streamers, commentators everywhere. This meant that now, opening theory became monstrous in its size. Learning all of it is now a very difficult task. I realized that the key to any improvement, before memorizing endless variations, lay in understanding the opening phase better and practicing as much as possible hence the reasoning behind this book.

Nery Strasman, 2024

Excerpt