The Center Game
The Center Game is a wonderful opening for club players. White starts with a center push, develops quickly, looks for opposite castling, and launches an attack. The setup will feel very familiar to you in no time. And the chess engines show that this opening is both sound and correct, and at least as good as the over-analyzed Ruy Lopez and Italian Opening.
With this opening, you'll get a middlegame position that you know very well, but quite often will be new to Black. This will probably guarantee you an advantage on the clock, which will further increase your winning chances.
The author, Arne Moll, is an experienced club player, chess writer and chess book reviewer, so he knows exactly what the reader needs: the historical context, the basic strategic ideas of each line, the tactical patterns that will emerge, and some inspiring model games by great players such as Ian Nepomniatchi and Arjun Erigaisi —who uses the Center Game as a surprise weapon
Arne Moll is an experienced club and tournament player with a peak rating well above 2200. He was a chess writer for the legendary blog Chess Vibes and Chess.com and has reviewed dozens of chess books. He lives in Amsterdam and works as an IT and Data specialist in the Finance industry.
