Complete Defense To Queen Pawn Openings (Cardoza Publishing's Essential Opening Repertoire Series)

Rating:
Summary: Great book on Tarrasch
Review: After reading this book I am pretty much at ease defending the Queen pawn opening. The strategy presented here will get you through the first 10 or so moves and keep you out of trouble. After that you are of course on your own but not without some ideas and places to look for white weakness. I liked the summary of the strategy that was given in the Overview and Strategic Goals chapters. The short study of alternatives in the last few chapters is also very helpful if the game does not open exactly as planned.

Rating:
Summary: Nice book!
Review: I like this book very much. I find Schiller's style to be engaging and practical. I have not noticed typos. This book is nicely made and has tons of information. Schiller has great conviction on the Tarrasch, so of you wish to play that opening, this is a great work to have. I also recommend his earlier work with Shamkovich, Play the Tarrasch, which is a more traditional opening treatise. John Watson has said, in reviewing another book about the Tarrasch (Meeting 1. d4 by Aagaard and Lund) that the Tarrasch is a good choice for the club player. My experience has shown that if you know the Tarrasch pretty well, you will know it better than those white players who automatically play the Rubinstein-Schlecter Attack against it, and that you will easily be able to hold your own. The Tarrasch is good for tactical practice as well. Good book, definitely worth the cheap price for which it can be had.

Rating:
Summary: Great book on Tarrasch
Review: Schiller is a Tarrasch fanatic, and it shows in this thick (288 pages) well-produced epic on the Tarrasch Defence. It brims with enthusiasm and with tactics, strategies, traps, theory, history--everything you need to play and love the Tarrasch. The overview and typical strategies sections at the beginning are beautiful. Schiller does not sugarcoat this Defence, but he does promise you exciting chess and that by studying this opening your overall game will improve. It is important to learn how to play with an isolated d-pawn. Another great benefit of the Tarrasch is you can play the pawn structure against nearly any opening (even against 1. e4 you can play a French and have the same structure. Even though Kasparov gave up the Tarrasch, obviously it is a worthy opening if several world champions have played it. Solve the problem of the Bc8 being trapped in the most forthright way! Play the Tarrasch, and get this book!

Rating:
Summary: Awful Book Cover and Content...
Review: When you first see this book you figure, well the content has to be better than the cover. As amazing as it might sound, the content is even worse. The amount of errors really baffled me and stressed me out. Trying to look up things and the entire layout is just awful. How awful books like this get published is beyond my knowledge. Perhaps someone lost a bet or Schiller owns their soul. Maybe if your a 900 player this would help you break 1000. If your getting this book thinking your gonna be able to defend d4. I guess your gonna have to find out the hard way how shoddy this book is. A bad chess player that writes awful books is a scary thing. I think Ken Smith and Schiller should start their own club. Donate your money to a good charity or buy yourself something worth having. The only use this book has is the hope of being burned when no logs are left.