Nery Strasman – Moves 3 to 10 : Understanding the Opening Phase for Improving Chess Players

Moves 3 to 10 – Understanding the Opening Phase for Improving Chess Players – Nery Strasman.

About 10 months ago, Nery approached me. We already knew each other; Nery had been my student in group online classes for about 2 years. Nery’s main goal and desire is to help chess lovers like himself. Let’s say we don’t know the theory beyond moves 8-10 and, in many cases, after 5-6 moves we find it difficult to make the right choice. We are also not interested in studying all these complex and long variations, it does not bring us pleasure, and we only want to understand the criteria that we can rely on in choosing a move or plan in opening positions that are critical for us. Nery came to this idea thanks to numerous positions from many of his games in which he found it difficult to make a quick and correct decision. The analysis of these positions after the game, and the conclusions made together with his coach or the computer, or even independently, brought invaluable experience for making further correct decisions in the opening.
Dear chess friends, he wants to share this experience with you.
I’m sure you will enjoy reading this book. Play chess and love chess!!!
GM Vitali Golod, May 2024.

Description
    •    In the old 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
    •    If something was not clear, there weren’t many people to consult for explanations.
    •    I was never a great player and quit when other things in life took precedence.
    •    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 – computer analysis, streamers, commentators everywhere.
    •    Opening theory had become 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.
    •    Repetition without understanding, despite numerous examples and providers available, causes brain damage and has nothing to do with ‘education’.
    •    Hence the reasoning behind this book.


Who will benefit from this book?
If you feel you need to improve your openings – this book is for you. Some of the positions may be very simple, others not so much – but these are all positions that have happened and represent a wide range of possibilities. My suggestion is to try and think which moves are best to play but also why others may be mistakes.  This introduction opened with a quote from Confucius. The second part of the quote is:
“…thinking without learning is dangerous”.

This book is not intended to replace learning theory.
Every player certainly must learn theory. But the book is helpful for understanding theory and for being able to tackle unexpected conditions – a situation that happens very often in games of chess.