Basic Chess Openings - Lyudmil Tsvetkov - Bog

This little book is for people, who want to learn the logic behind major opening setups, and how to best handle the opening as a whole, rather than rely on rote memorisation. Explanations are abundant, and each opening is illustrated with example games, after the theory is presented. Although a relatively small sample of openings is included, those are definitely the most important ones, and knowing how to play them, you will also know how to approach the rest of the possible kick-off setups. Controlling the center is the single most significant principle in the opening, and that's what this book teaches. The exposition is not very advanced, so beginning and casual players will derive the most out of it, quite probably. If you want to get to the gist of opening play, without investing much effort, this might be one of the go-to sources.