Chess Opening Names: The Fascinating & Entertaining History Behind the First Few Moves

I love this book. It is a cornucopia of fascinating chess history and trivia. I learned who is the real father of the "Hypermodern" idea of controlling the center with the pieces rather than the pawns. It's not Nimzowitsch. It's not Reti. Exactly why are the Indian Defenses called Indian? What's so French about the French Defense? Just who was Captain Evans? These questions -- and scads more! -- are answered in a sometimes gut-busting and always an engaging style. Highly recommended to all chess lovers.

Not another book on how to play chess openings - this book is different. It goes into the history of some of the unusual names used for famous chess openings and the people and places behind them. Fascinating for all levels of chess player.Includes diagrams of each opening plus photos of the grandmasters who they are named after. Plus why the opening was important and the effects it had on the game in the time it was introduced.Clearly, Nathan has a great love of the game and its history.I received a pre-release copy of this book for review purposes and bought it on Kindle when it came out because it is so good.

The value of this book lies in its uniqueness. Chess opening names are fascinating and the book certainly covers the subject. However, the writing is on a rather low level, more like someone (not an expert) chatting with you about an interesting subject. The information is paltry; a high school student could have done a better job. Nevertheless, the book is entertaining.

Being a relative novice on the chess scene, I was apprehensive as to whether I would enjoy this book. However, after barely finishing the preface there was no way I was going to put this book down. The author provides a well researched history of the intriguing and often quirky back-stories behind many chess opening names. There is no other compilation like this and the content inevitably led me to further research of my own in the area. I love the latent humour dispersed throughout this book and also the fact that it is comfortably read in a single sitting. The book is completely different to existing chess literature and this author truely knows how to tell a story. Looking forward to the next book!!

Really enjoy reading this book. It's fun, also enforce your geography knowledge and history.Looking forward to read the second edition. Also was fun to know the author, nice guy that takes the time to answering the email.Also is easy to read this book using a Kindle device.

Chess is as much a model of mental architecture as it is a record of human historical development. Chess Opening Names provides a fascinating backwards look into the many cultural influences that have come to shape the game, keeping track of where and how it has been played in bygone eras. A great read for the chess enthusiast.

Nathan seem to be a writer of everything. This book works out great for me because I can take it to the doctors office and read a few openings at a time. This is more a history book than a book about openings but if you don't know much about the names of famous players or openings this is a great place to start.

A chess book unlike other chess books. This book is intended to provide background info on why the openings are called by their intriguing names. Chess is a game of rich history and tradition and you’ll know more of after reading this enjoyable book.

As a novice player inspired to revisit chess following Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, I found this book fascinating to learn the variety of openings’ names and the colourful history of how those names came to be associated with them - with the warm byproduct of learning some of the overs and shakers, and classic tales, of chess history. Easy, fun and quick to read, I found this an enjoyable book (one of 7 I purchased) to dig in to Chess. Now to prepare some fried liver...

average at best, poor and barely readable diagrams of chessboard and their markings, silly pictures of ie location of Netherlands on the map of Europe, stupid and unnecessary advertisement of cryptocurency and crowd funding books by the same author...

The headline says it all. It’s a book I leave on the coffee table. Ideal for browsing through.

A very comprehensive of many of the important openings

An enjoyable series of explanations about why chess openings have the names that they do.