"Easy guide to the Reti opening"

Do you know where can one find more details about this book written by A.Dunnington? I didn't find any reviews about this book (it is old enough, but there are not many books on the Reti).

There are far more recent books on the Reti than that relic.

Chess Stars published a book 5 to 10 years ago.

Thinkers Press published the Modernized Reti a couple of years ago.

There are others as well which can be found at sites with greater selection, like USCFSales.com, who ships world wide.

Also, do not forget that the Reti cannot be played as a standalone system.

The Reti is dependent on Black playing 1...d5 (or 1...Nf6 with an early d5 somewhere).  If 1...c5 (or 1...Nf6 and 2...c5), you are looking at an English, not a Reti, and if 1...Nf6 and 2...g6, usually White gets nothing without d4 played, leading to the Kings Indian Defense (Though the Grunfeld can be avoided with this move order).

So you need not only a system in the Reti, but also the Symmetrical English (you do avoid the 1...e5 lines this way) and then something against the Kings Indian.

I know there are other books but I read on Amazon (the amazon websites are the only places in which I could find informations about this book) that this "easy guide" was introductory and that there were many explanations.

I perfectly know the Reti can be met by 1...c5, by a KID-like system, and by many other moves (1...e6, 1...b6, 1...Nc6...), even if they aren't all recommended. I play 2.b3 or 2.c4 against the first one, and against the second one I play a kingside fianchetto, followed by Tb1 and b4 (I usually play d4 latter).

I even learnt a system played by Fischer to meet the Chigorin (after 1.Nf3 Nc6 2.d4 d5).

I don't necessarily avoid 1...e5 lines. For instance, after 1.Nf3 d6, I play 2.c4, because I simply like to play the white side of the reversed sicilian more than playing the white side of the KID (or of the Old Indian).

If you want a beginner book, The Reti: Move by Move is better than those "Easy Guide" books.  I had the one on the Najdorf and Aagaard's first ever book, cannot recall if it was Panov or the whole Caro spectrum.  I may have had the Reti one and sold it.  Red cover?

I don't like the "move by move" books. IMO there are more theoretical lines than explanations (for example in S.WIlliams' Killer Dutch there are many explanations, and that's good, but also a huge amount of theoretical lines that won't be useful to me (he even treats lines that he doesn't recommend!!). I read that A.Dunnington's book was full of explanations, and that's why I created this thread.

I do not own the Reti book, but you cannot lump the move by move books into one category like that.

Some are better than others at explaining (Caro-Kann), some are weak (1...d6), and some are full of theory (Ruy Lopez).

You should check it out before assuming.  Some of the books in that series are really good, and if you think they are full of too much theory, you have not seen theory.  Try reading an old book from the 90s by John Nunn!  Like maybe his 2 books (320 pages each) on the Classical Kings Indian!  Or how about his book Secrets of Rook Endings.  You will never think of the Move by Move series as theory-riddled again.

Also, there is a reason to study lines that are not recommended.  The purpose of an opening book is not to walk you down a narrow rabbit trail where you are memorizing a few lines and hoping your opponent plays the main lines.  You need to know what is good, what is bad, and Why!  Studying an opening is not some simple 100 page read.  To master the Reti, it is going to take multiple books, following updates (i.e. articles from New In Chess Yearbook, Chessbase Magazine, Informant, etc), understanding (not memorizing) multiple lines so that you understand why you play the ones you do and avoid the ones you don't.  Also, sometimes your opponent forces you into other lines, but usually inferior versions (for them).

Example, I am an avid French player.  Against the Tarrasch, I prefer 3...c5 or 3...dxe4 over 3...Nf6.  After 3...c5, I play both 4.exd5 exd5 5.Ngf3 Nc6 6.Bb5 Qe7+ and I play 4.exd5 exd5 5.Ngf6 Nf6 6.Bb5+ Bd7.

Well, White can play 4.Ngf3.  You can play 4...Nf6 or 4...Nc6 or 4...cxd4.  The first 2 can transpose with 5.exd5, or White can play independently.  If you go 4...Nf6, then instead of 5.exd5, white can play 5.e5, which forces me into the Closed Tarrasch (3...Nf6), but now he can only play the Korchnoi Gambit (transposing to 7.Ngf3) and not the main line (7.Ne2).  Black can go from the Korchnoi Gambit to the Universal System with 7...Be7 (which is what I do).  This is not available after 7.Ne2.

So while I do not prefer 3...Nf6, I still need to know something about 3...Nf6 in case White move-orders me, but at least his options are limited that way.

So the fact that William's covers lines that he does not normally recommend is not a bad thing.

So again, an old relic is not your answer.  You probably should get all 3 books I mentioned (the Chess Stars book probably the most theory heavy - read that one third).

I can also tell you those "Easy Guide" books are not easy.

By the way, Neil McDonald also wrote Starting Out The Reti maybe 5 or 6 years ago if you prefer the starting out series over the move by move series.