If you want to score a lot of points when playing chess against good opponents you'll have to know how to play the opening well. Many books have been written to convey this concept and, with few exceptions, using them has often been unsatisfying and sheer drudgery often with old examples and writing lacking any great inspiration, direction, or usefulness. Welcome to Grandmaster Secrets: Openings by NY Grandmaster and well-known chess author, Andrew Soltis. The "safe" not only contains the pearls of chess rewards (money, trophies, and chess antiquities), but also the pearls of wisdom, subjects seldom or never touched upon in those venerable tomes of chess "education." Using a Socratic teacher-student approach in the characters of GM Noah Tall, and Pat Sayre, the topic of this aspect of chess centers around the subjects of materialism, give and take, myths, difficulties, picking and choosing, rules, decisions, de-booking, and many more -- dealt with from a veteran chess grandmaster's perspective. An illustrative way is used so that everyone can grasp the concepts quickly; to improve in a shorter amount of time. Charts, graphics, and modern games in algebraic notation will add to your enjoyment and a faster learning of the preliminary phase of chess. Book jacket.