Playing 1. e4 as White

What are some good repertoire books (besides Chess Openings for White, Explained) for opening with 1. e4 as White?

Playing the game (Experience/conecpts >memorization)

No kidding. Memorization is only one part of openings. Understanding the reasons behind the moves is important. Everyone knows that.

Notwithstanding your comment, my question still stands.

godd repertoire books are:

Joy of sex

kama sutra

g-spot guidlines and

teach her to climax

There is a book called "How to play against e4" by GM Neil McDonald that I find very useful. It's from Everyman Chess from the year 2009.

Reported.

I want to note before giving my list that this is not to be taken as in any way suggesting that these repertoire books are either sufficient or necessary for chess improvement. I personally advise most novice and intermediate players to forget about opening repertoires entirely and focus most of all on their endgame repertoire.

I recommend these books to novices and intermediate players whose main interest in chess involves learning about specific openings rather than overall improvement.

David Levy and Raymond Keene had an old book, An Opening Repertoire for the Attacking Player, and it isn't that bad at all ... their coverage of certain less popular openings would have to be supplemented by research into modern play, but it's still not a bad repertoire even after so many years have passed.

I had great success with Chris Baker's A Startling Chess Opening Repertoire, but I never really followed the entire repertoire.

Eduard Gufeld wrote An Opening Repertoire for the Attacking Player, and of the lines I adopted from it I had some really pretty wins ... but also some terrible defeats, and the truth is I never did what one should do ... adopt the repertoire and stick to it faithfully for an extended period (~1 year) before making any changes.

A companion volume, An Opening Repertoire for the Positional Player, cowritten by Gufeld and Nikolai Kalinichenko, seems like it would have been a better choice for me overall, but you really need both books to follow this one, because the gaps in the lines offered are filled by the "attacking" volume.

John Emms's Attacking with 1.e4 is an option, I guess. I like the lines chosen individually, for the most part, but they just don't seem to fit together.

Kaufman's original repertoire book, The Chess Advantage in Black and White is outstanding, and offers a really solid repertoire for White built around 1.e4. Overall, I'd say that this is the repertoire I followed most closely for the longest period, and the "effort" showed in my results.

Sam Collins's An Attacking Repertoire for White is excellent. I'm not a fan of 2.c3 against the Sicilian, but it's obviously a good alternative if you want to avoid the Open Sicilian, and anyway, it's a frequent recommendation in these repertoires.

Last but not least, Neil McDonald's Starting Out 1.e4: A Reliable Repertoire for the Improving Player. This may be the best of all, but my opinion here is skewed because this is the only repertoire book I know of that attempts to tackle the Open Sicilian.

Oh that's right xjian, I got confused with the names.

Playing 1.e4 as white. But playing 1.e4 as black would be even more impressive. 

Parimarjan Negi is writing a series of books to present a 1 e4 repertoire. The first is called, 1 e4 vs The French, Caro-Kann & Philidor. The second is about confronting the Najdorf. I don't know how many more books are contemplated. For perhaps a year or more, Quality Chess has been saying that a two-volume set by John Shaw is "coming soon".

jlconn wrote:

"... Kaufman's original repertoire book, The Chess Advantage in Black and White is outstanding, and offers a really solid repertoire for White built around 1.e4. Overall, I'd say that this is the repertoire I followed most closely for the longest period, and the 'effort' showed in my results. ..."

"In Chess Advantage (CA) I based the White repertoire on the opening move 1. e4, but this time I start with 1. d4, ... In order to demonstrate any advantage as White after 1. e4, you must play very sharply in many openings, especially the Sicilian Defense. ... In CA I tried to prove a white advantage against the Sicilian with lines not based on the sharp 3. d4, but a major novelty by grandmaster Ivanchuk right after my deadline showed easy equality against the Moscow Variation (3. Bb5+). I also had to conclude eventually that the Spanish Exchange (recommended in CA) fails to give any advantage in the main line recommended in the Black portion of this book. So unless I wanted to give the main lines of the Najdorf and Spanish for White, which would entail a huge book and very little advantage against best play, I had to make the switch to 1. d4." - GM Larry Kaufman, writing for his 2011 book, 8 years after CA

I have an awesome book, Attacking with 1.e4 by GM John Emms, designed for club player with minimum theory.  I don't follow all his recommendations though preferring to play exchange caro kann rather than his suggestion.

Thanks. Some great suggestions. I am familiar with and/or own  some of the books mentioned. I wanted to see what else was recommended.

I believe the new Kaufman book is simply trying to get a draw with Black with 1...e5 in response to 1. e4 (the book is targeted at a very advanced reader). The book is very helpful, as long as you supplement it with more basic books that teach the reasonings behind the theory. Kaufman recommends the Rossolimi (sp?) in his older repertoire book when playing the White side of the Sicilian, as I recall.

I  play 1. d4 more than 50 % of the time, but am playing 1.e4 as well in order to get more exposure to open games and tactics...as well as different struture. I have yet to learn how to play the Sicilian as White, or how to play the Petroff.

I'm not sure if you play or dable with the King's gambit, but for sure John Shaw's book "The Kings Gambit" is a must for any library.

Is that from White's perpective, or Black's?

From white's, I think.

none. it is a mostly objective view. I would venture to say it is from whites simply because Shaw IIRC states that he might start playing it again in the book. 

Thanks!

playing/paying w/ me?

The way theory has evolved today, I wouldn't recommend a single book trying to cover an entire e4 repertoire for White.

Explore and figure out your variations of interest, and purchase accordingly.

Just to give you an idea, just the Fantasy Variation against the Caro-Kann has recently lead to a book well over 200 pages, and that's less popular than the Main Line (3.Nc3), Exchange, Panov, and Advance!

Even the "repertoire" books on 1.e4 by Quality Chess is already 3 volumes in size, and thus far, all they've covered are the French, Caro-Kann, Philidor, and Sicilian.  Still have the Pirc, Modern, 1...e5, Alekhine, Nimzovich, Scandinavian, Owen's, etc.  Minimum 2 more volumes, probably 3.