the B Formula (General)

by Naughty Knight, Sunday, May 01, 2005, 17:37 (7293 days ago) @ Southpaw

Hi Southpaw,

Thanks for your reply, and I agree with much of what you say. The sales pitch is somewhat over the top... still, the lines are a good 'second string' opening repertoire and I will use them as such. Great if you don't fancy a 'theoretical battle'. The English defence is an interesting line, whereas ...b6 against 1.e4 is considerably less sound, I used to play it against 1.e4 and found some of the positions a little tricky. Still, in terms of the ammount of theory required to play the line, you are on a winner.

NK

? A few thoughts -
?
? I too had a few problems with the download - and my thanks to the team for
? their help there. I think the "how not to play the opening" is meant to be
? the parts of the 'quiz' where you're required to find a strong reply for
? the opposing side. Likewise the How Good Is Your Chess bit seems to be
? incorporated in the quiz too. I also looked around to see if I was missing
? something in the download. The sales blurb does seem to be a touch
? misleading on that score. But I too cannot find the "100 game database",
? so that would indeed appear to be genuinely missing. There are well over
? 100 games on both openings in the Fritz database, but that's hardly the
? point.
?
? I'm just not too sure about the viabilities of the openings given. They
? just seem to be a bit too eccentric for my tastes - particularly the
? Sokolsky - and a touch limited. I'd have preferred a repertoire more along
? the lines of the repertoire books on such as the Colle, Modern Defence etc.
? "Why not just buy those books then?" you might say - well I have, but it
? was the idea of learning openings interactively that appealed. I realise
? though that space considerations may have rendered such an endeavour
? unrealistic.
?
? But the material given is well presented and the format is good. If you
? don't mind playing such slightly eccentric openings consistently ,
? it may well be what you're looking for.
?
? ? A couple of things about the B-formula, I bought it a couple of weeks
? ago
? ? and it does do what it says on the tin - its quick easy and efficent to
? ? learn, so top marks there. I wonder if anything has been added to a
? 'new
? ? version', as there are a few things on the 'sales pitch' which didn't
? ? appear on my download, such as:
? ?
? ? ---------------------------------------------------------
? ?
? ? Warning
? ? I will also show how not to play the opening in question. Forewarned is
? ? forearmed!
? ?
? ? Training
? ? Finally I will present a series of training games in How Good is Your
? ? Chess format, where you will be invited to guess the next move at
? ? virtually every stage, thus learning more about the nuts and bolts of
? each
? ? opening in question.
? ?
? ? ----------------------------------------------------------
? ?
? ? There was also talk on the E-book of a 100 game database on each
? opening
? ? with games for private study.
? ?
? ?
? ? I am wondering if these features are going to appear at a later
? edition?
? ?
? ? Cheers!
? ?
? ? NK
? ?
? ? p.s. Although I agree with one of the post who says tactics and
? planning
? ? are more important than opening prep, nevertheless, most players agree
? ? they need some sort of opening repertoire (whatever their standard),
? and
? ? the B-formula more than fills that gap.