I was anxiously awaiting my copy of the Sniper by Charlie Storey as I was looking for a good alternative to my usual repertoire of openings to use as Black.
The introduction is done well, with the author taking us through some common transpositions and ideas of what the best move order is when facing Whites opening pawns...he very much encourages you to use the "Pure Sniper" move order 1..g6 2..Bg7 and 3...c5! the majority of the time. The introduction also includes 2 games, with a win and a loss by black (although in the 2nd game the authors opponent is a World-Class Grandmaster) They are annotated fairly well, with key points getting decent analysis. I enjoyed the Intro very much...
NOW on to the book itself; it is fairly good size (175 pages with 7 chapters) that cover all transpositions and move orders that White and black can use to get into the "Sniper" position. Each chapter in the book get right into the opening and the game with out lots of fanfare, and the annotations, as far as the opening is concerned, I found to be very sparse and not very informative ( I felt lots of alternatives were not touched on or mentioned for whatever reason) I am the type pf player that likes to know WHY a certain move is or is not played at some time, especially through the opening, but in most of the games in the book the opening seems to be sparsely annotated! I understand the author is an expert with this opening, so perhaps he felt there was no need to go into the reasons of why the opening was played as it was in the illustrated games...but this would have made a huge difference and a better book for me.
The variations are done well, the author goes through almost any possible set-up that White can use and explains it, again briefly and not too deep, as to what is the best way to face each particular setups and the games are very plentiful throughout the book, so you have plenty of reference material!
Overall, I have the book 3 1/2 stars because of the lack of in depth detail and overall analysis as far as the opening to each game. I am an 1800-1900 player (perhaps mt rating isnt high enough to fully appreciate the book?!) and I still enjoy some "meat" to my books , especially when the openings are concerned and since this is an opening book it would have been nice to see more annotations! I felt that would have really put the bok up there with other great opening works such as a few of the "Everyman" series and "GM Repertoire" series as well.
Overall, I can tel the author is passionate for this opening, I just wish he would have put a little more passion into words and not let so much still be left "up in the air" If you are considering a tertiary opening , or just wanting to beef up your armory with the Black pieces as I am, I'd recommend the book; plenty of potential for original and unexplored play! I will definitely be using and testing this opening in the very, very neat future!