English Opening A10-39: 676 Characteristic Chess Puzzles

The English Opening is named for its first proponent, the English unofficial world champion Howard Staunton. It's popularity grew slowly but it's regularly faced in World Championship matches now and all of the top 20 rated players in the world have chosen it to play as White at least a few times in the last five years. Perhaps its popularity is due to being a flank opening. If you know where White will castle, uncertainty is reduced and tactics begin to outweigh strategy.This volume is indexed by ECO classification so that the reader can focus on his or her area of expertise. Each of these sections contains their own pitfalls and traps. It is more fruitful to study the tactics of an opening you might encounter as White or Black than to study the knight fork, pin or skewer, one tactic at a time. When the type of tactic is provided with the puzzle, it is already half solved. Study the more common tactics found within an opening you face and you will come away with an understanding of the real dynamics of the opening and pick up tactics you can already use.