More Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps 2

by Bruce Pandolfini

Book Overview

From America's foremost chess coach and game strategist for Netflix's The Queen's Gambit comes a collection of 200 brand-new openings, drills, and skills for players of all levels.

The opening is one of the most important parts of the chess game. Weaken your pawns by mistake, and they're taken. Attack wildly and haphazardly, and your pieces are picked off. Misuse your queen, and it's trapped. Carelessly neglect development,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067179499X
• ISBN13: 9780671794996
• Release Date: December 1993
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Before you learn to play an opening, learn how NOT to!

This is for beginners, rated below 1300 USCF. Most of the traps are fairly obvious (though some have snagged Grandmasters) but the point is to be aware of them before they occur, so that they do not occur! In that sense, a book on traps is important before you prepare an opening repertoire. I would look at this book first, then the one by Chernev, and finally the one by Graham Burgess, the last of which is from high-level play. Only then does it make sense to spend any time thinking about the theoretically BEST moves. Chess is about tactics far more than it is about memorization. Just play SAFE moves, and study tactics.Personally, I use this book for drilling simple tactics into my head. I do not go over the opening lines. I just look for the best refutation of what is shown in each diagram. Already, I have improved dramatically in Internet blitz games, because I make fewer blunders and take advantage of my adversaries'.The coverage of this book is White-king-pawn two-step (1.e4) followed by something other than Black-king-pawn two-step (e5). Pandolfini's first Traps and Zaps book covers the dual king-pawn openings, and the zaps are a bit less obvious in that book. Unfortunately, neither covers queen-pawn openings. I recommend Chernev's Winning Chess Traps for broader coverage (and for deeper, less blunderous traps in general). (Addendum: There are d4, c4, and other openings in the undiagrammed "Related Zaps" at the bottom of each page, useful if you're willing to take the time to walk through the moves.)The more Pandolfini books I try, the more I like them!Oh. Only 4 stars because of errata. Annoying, but always easy to find and fix.

Clean Up Your Act

Not as good as it previous book but still with valuable tools. When I hear about all the others criticize this book the way they do, it appears that they do not see the author's point (and no my name isn't Bruce). This book is focused more on early traps as stated and not so much on opening repertoires. If you utilize this book move by move explicitly to 'sucker punch' your opponent, then, yes, obviously this book will not meet your expectations. But if it is used to clean up your own act in the openings and also to learn the different trap "ideas" as opposed to every single move by "the book" then perhaps there is something to learn. Maybe not the best for opening, but a legitimate book for traps.

Extremely helpful to anybody

I use this book as much as I do Traps & Zaps 1 by the same author--A LOT...and I have been playing for 14 years. True, some are outrageous and only a fool would fall for them but this book teaches you how to get the early lead when playing against almost any opening.