Sam Sloan

Arthur M. Stevens

This is THE book that first introduced a concept that has revolutionized tournament chess for most players. The concept is simply to create a database of chess games, sorted by openings, and then see which opening moves produce the best results. This book concludes that the overall winning percentage for White is 59%. It shows that the moves 1. d4 and 1.c4 win 60% of the time whereas 1.e4 scores only 59%. Regarding the second move, this book shows that against 1. e4, both 1. . . . c5 and 1. . . . e5 score equally well with 42% for Black, whereas the French Defense 1. . . . e6 and the Caro-Kann Defense, 1. . . . c6, do much worse, scoring only 38% for the Black side. This book is based on 56,972 games, all compiled and sorted, showing the winning and drawing position for each best move in the chess openings. For example, after the moves of the French Defense, 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5, it surprisingly shows that the move 3. e5, the Advance Variation, produces the highest winning percentage, as opposed to 3. Nc3 or 3. Nd2.

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