New in Chess (NiC) magazine is indisputably one of the finest chess periodicals in the world.  The eight yearly magazine issues are brimming with contributions from the crème de la crème of the chess world.  The same can be said about the quarterly NiC Yearbooks, which distill opening theory developments for a target audience consisting of stronger tournament players.  Finally, in recent years our Dutch chessfriends seem to have increased their efforts to publish more English-language books.  .

SOS – Secrets of Opening Surprises collects the writings of strong Dutch IM Jeroen Bosch, taken from his identically named columns in the NiC magazine.  Each installment of Bosch’s column presents an intriguing opening idea, which is designed to throw your opponent off balance early on. 

From the back cover:

"Look at your opponent sitting there in blissful ignorance.  Fully at ease, everything under control, not a worry in the world.  Or so he thinks.  He’s checked his repertoire, double-checked his main lines.  He wanted to come well-prepared and he did.  Or did he?  Because what he doesn’t know is that today is not his day.  For the simple reason that he’s playing you.  And you are going to spring a surprise on him.  No main variations today, nothing mainstream, he’s going to be initiated into a world of secrets: Secrets of Opening Surprises!"

No time to study chess opening theory? Secrets of Opening Surprises (SOS) consists of highly playable, unusual opening ideas. Because an SOS is such an early deviation from the regular lines in mainstream openings (usually before move six), the probability of you being able to bring the variation actually on the board is very high. If you are tired of main lines, if you are looking for simple but effective weapons to perplex your opponent, then you will feel very much at home in the world of SOS.

New In Chess does its usual fine job in presentation – double columned text, a couple of diagrams per page, good use of fonts, bold and white space, with no noticeable typos or dypos.

You might fuss over individual chapters or openings, some of which have lines that you may never want to use or which you’d love to face, but this latest edition of Secrets of Opening Surprises is another toolbox full of monkey wrenches to throw into the opening plans of your opponents.  Club players up to masters will be reminded again just how much fun chess can be.