Co-author Michael Basman has been reputed to be an original and independent chess player and thinker for the whole of his chess career. However, around 1978 he mobilised his creativity to develop new ways in chess strategy, based on a personal set of avant-garde opening systems such as the St.George (early b4.. of ..b5) and Grob (early g4.. or ..g5). Consistently employing his new ideas, a whole new system of chess playing gained recognition amongst his colleagues, and generated a cult following among chess amateurs. Around 1990 Mike took the next step by creating the Global opening and it's pincer movements from the flanks. This constituted the final stage in the ultra-hypermodern school of flank-strategy that he started 12 years earlier.
