Attacking with 1e4

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Everything Emms writes is at a very high level. He has the lines, the explanations, and the games. His stuff is great. For quite a long time, I was puzzled by the repertoire choices in this book. For instance, I thought, "why would someone play e4 at all, if they intend to play the Bishop's Opening and the Closed Sicilian?" But a funny thing has happened. As my opening repertoire has "evolved" over the years, I find myself coming back to this Emms' book more and more often. I do want to play e4, but I don't really want to face open sicilians. Many Anti-sicilians suffer, in my mind, by lacking a wealth of annotated games to study. But you can find plenty of Closed Sicilians to study in the games of the greats. And you can certainly find the Bishop's Opening, the Vienna (a close cousin), and others in here. This is a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Very good...
Review: I found that this book was very good, however it is not suitable for players +1700, as it just doesn't have enough variations to fully complement a stronger player's opening repertoire. I, myself used this book to get started, but now the only opening that I still use that is recommended by this book is the 150 Attack againest the Pirc and Modern (I needed a new book in order to play it though.)
The pros of Attacking with 1 e4 by John Emms are:
it gives a complete repertoire for white,
it cuts down on a lot of studying,
the given repertoire is set up very well, in that one variation can transpose into another,
by buying only one book for white you also save money...

Now to the cons:
the book is far from comprehensive,
it spends little time with the Nimzowitsch defence,
much of the variation end with "white is (slightly)better" which leaves you to wonder why,
as you become a stronger chess player you will probably want/need more complete opening books,

To conclude, this is a great book for the player with an unstable opening repertoire, and despite the great number of cons, this is a very good book.

Rating:
Summary: excellent book, better supplement
Review: i think this is a great book for anyone looking to take up e4, but for me some of the suggestions just aren't me, so i use this book as a supplement rather than a bible. its answers to the alekhine, the scandinavian, the pirc and others are all excellent for me but i would never ever ever ever play the closed sicilian against c5, i hate it, not to say it isn't effective, its just i can't stand the positions it creates. So with the help of nunn's beating the sicilian i am tackling the mainlines as they prove alot more fun. The KIA against the french is not boring however, i have just found it very hard to win with against strong opponents, so its the tarrasch for me. whereas the caro kann exchange just isn't my cup of tea either, i like the advance too much. The bishop's opening is a good choice as it side steps all the horrendous latvian and petroff learning but i'm a lopez man. All that is fine if like me you have an awful lot of time to spair, if you don't i'm sure this book will become a bible to you, for me its just really useful

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I'm very impressed with this book. The format took a little getting used to (complete games aren't presented, just ever-deepening lines), but after going through the lines, you get used to it.

The systems presented are pretty solid but still active. They are easy to learn and present attacking opportunities without huge risks. They are not ultra-aggressive lines, but they are not boring--they involve many different pawn structures from a KIA vs the French which blends nicely with the closed sicilian, to 2. c4 caro-kann and the bishop's opening.

Rating:
Summary: For White king-pawn players
Review: Not a bad book at all- no complete games, just lines. But good variety of openings for a specialized opening book. Without complete games you lose the chance for deeper study of the middlegame positions that arise from these lines.

Rating:
Summary: Just a great book
Review: OK, you have a good lines against the "normal" openings - Rui Lopez, Sicilian, French, so you maybe second guessing why purchase book that recommend 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4!? or 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 or 1. e4 e6 2.d3. Then consider this - how comfortable you are playing against the Scandinav (1.e4 d5) or Alekhine Defense (1.e4 Nf6) or Pirc and other non-common lines. For just a few bucks you get advise from well known GM. Moreover, he puts it together on the "Golden Plate" with the repertoire structure, which I have found by far more preferable than annotated sample games structure that other authors use.

Let's say your White repertuar is rock solid, what do you play against e4 as Black? Wouldn't you want to know what your future opponent (who is reading this book right this minute) will play against you?

My friends and foes know that I have reached my level, won many tournaments and have beaten several elite GMs without solid openings. So when few days ago my student, who is preparing to battle for $10,000 top prize at the World Open, was showing me his line against 1.e4, he was shocked when, instead of usual high level strategic questions, I pulled the Emms book and said what about this Emms recommendation. Well, you probably guessed -he got the book and now playes another line, where Emms comments were less clear.

I didn't give the book maximum stars, because Emms doesn't provide sufficient recommendations. In many instances he simply says White is better or slightly better. You will have to figure out on your own, what the plan should be.

Overall, very cheap book for a volume of opening preparation you get. Remember to practice your lines against "Fritz", before playing expert Fritzman next Sunday.

Copyrighted by me!

Rating:
Summary: Average attacks with e4...
Review: Sorry nothing against the author, but my friend has this book... I will have to say they talk about using the KIA against the french... They cover the Bishop opening and not something like King's Gambit... You would think with name like attacking it would be more bold systems perhaps... Its clear this book is a bit over priced and has many gaps... Im really not sure if this book can help anyone attack better with e4... For the money you would spend on this book you could get much better... Perhaps something like The Complete Book of Chess Strategy by Silman... For your money that is a much better buy and will help your game... Also it is 384 pages and cheaper than this book... I do not like the systems he decides to put into this book... He talks about whats going on and ideas, so for that reason I have to give it at least 3 stars... He does not just dump lines and say nothing like some books... So perhaps that might help a player, this book isnt for me... Try to look in book and see whats in it a bit... Take a look at the chapters, maybe look at it in book store... I would never tell anyone to get this book to be honest... Yet I think it deserves to be thought of at least an average book... Just because I do not like the systems he covers... Does not mean that they might not help someone else... If you play KIA against french this is a good book for you to get... If Bishop opening is something that you use, then this book might help you... If you want a book from Emms that is of higher quality Id get the Ultimate Puzzle Book... I think you will gain more from that book than this one... Also you might wish to get The Scandanavian by him as well... Those are much better samples of the kinds of books that he writes... This is not one of his better works in all honesty... I think he is a good chess author, not every hit is a homerun... So be sure this book is something you want before investing in it...

Rating:
Summary: Just a great book
Review: The repertoire in this book is perfect for me, and may be for you too. At first, I only used a couple of the suggestions, but over time, I am using all of them. They all make sense for the club player who does not want to play 1. d4 ( I hate that Benoni/Benko stuff), but who does not want to go into the main lines of the Sicilian, etc., in which your opponent will always have his pet line ready, which he will know better than you. These lines are not the most aggressive, but they are not passive either. The Closed Sicilian and the King's Indian Attack (against the French) are examples of this. The book has one huge advantage over most Everyman opening books: there is one comprehensive index at the back, instead of the ridiculous practice of putting the indexes for each chapter at the end of that chapter. This is the variations format, and is very thorough, there are no complete games. You may wish to supplement openings with specialized books, but it is not absolutely necessary. In each of these lines, you will know the line better than your opponent. You decide which way the game will go. So much of opening play is like that: who is dictating the opening? By playing 1. e4 white dictates, but by playing 1... c5 black dictates Sicilian, but by playing 2. Nc3 white again dictates, whereas by 2. Nf3 black continues to dictate choice of opening. This is a book you can have handy for games on-line and is very useful. This one book can give you one-third of a repertoire (personally, the other 2/3 for me are queen's gambit accepted and Scandinavian, and Aagaard's "Meeting 1. d4" for my responses to other white openings (1. Nf3, etc.)). Great book by Emms!

Rating:
Summary: e4 in 2 months instead of 2 years
Review: Unlike the other reviewer, I like this book. The author's intent is to give the reader a solid opening attack against the major black defenses using 1.e4, with the caveat of using lines that are more move/theory based than memorization intensive. If you have many hours to memorize different lines or are quite familiar with e4 openings, then you'll probably find sharper lines elsewhere, as the other reviewer stated.

But if you are like me, you'll appreciate the organization of this book. Each defense is laided out by the major choices each side can make, discussing the implications and plans of each. The book is not variation free, as the author does note variations and outcomes from recent games.

The defenses covered are: Closed Sicilian; 1...e5; French; Caro-Kann; Pirc; Modern; Scandinavian; and the Alekhine Exchange Variation. At the end of the book there is a 2 page reference with the move sequences all summarized. Essentially, this book enables functional use of e4 openings in months rather than years.