Back to Basics is divided into ten chapters, designed to be read in order. Beginners will probably get the most out of reading it this way, while players with a bit more experience might also be able to use the book as a basic opening reference. True, the book doesn't delve deeply into any particular opening, but there's enough here to get started playing just about any line a club player would like to take for a spin.
In the first chapter, Hansen details his own opening experiences. Like many players, he chose his early favorites based on those of the players he admired (in his case, Viktor Korchnoi and Bent Larsen). He uses these experiences to guide new players on a path to opening understanding: don't study material that's too far over your head without help, focus on understanding the main plans in a few openings of choice, and don't spend too much time or money on opening study.
Chapter Two talks about opening principles. I found this section interesting in that it goes into a little more depth than most sections in similar books. Rather than simply lay out a handful of basics and leave it at that, Hansen gives the reader a lot to think about, going beyond cliches such as "control the center." There's also a discussion about gambit play and the rewards and dangers of pawn grabbing in the opening.
After short chapters on how to choose openings and an introduction to the lingo involved in opening theory, we reach the meat of the book: the opening theory itself. This is divided into five logical chapters: the Open Games, Semi-Open Games, Closed Games, Semi-Closed Games, and Flank Openings. While I can't claim to be an expert on most of the openings presented, the book seems to give a fair overview of just about everything, with enough detail for players to give an opening a try and understand the ideas behind it without drowning in variations. I'm sure readers will find some places where the chosen lines are perhaps not the ones they would have chosen; for instance, I was surprised to see 6. 0-0 rather than 6. d4 given as the main line in the Evans Gambit, a personal favorite of mine (but then, the author admits that he has never been one for gambits!). But this book is in no way meant to be the final word on any particular opening -- the idea is to give players a place to start from, and the level of information provided is perfect for that purpose.
Finally, the book ends with a chapter appropriately titled "Where do I go from here?". This chapter, which I imagine will be very useful for players who are beginning to study openings for the first time, discusses how to decide which opening books or DVDs you should buy, database programs, chess engines and the different kinds of opening books available. Again, this is the kind of basic information that can save a new player time and money by letting them focus their efforts rather than purchasing products at random and hoping they learn something useful.
There's not much in here that would serve more advanced players (though even stronger club players might like the idea of picking up the idea of an opening quickly if they want to try making a change to their repertoire), but they're not the focus of the book. For beginners and most class players, Back to Basics: Openings delivers a focused, frank discussion of what they should (and shouldn't) be doing to begin studying openings, and provides the basic material for study in the same book. Beginners won't go wrong by starting with this book and following Hansen's advice on opening study.
