Winning Chess Strategies, revised (Winning Chess - Everyman Chess)

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Customer Reviews:

Mid-Level Strategy book focusing on a varitey of concepts this author feels is important to learn [Posted on 2006-12-16]
This is book at a mid-level skilled player who wants to add on their their basic knowledge of chess. Ideas are taken from actual play and are made into broken down examples. This is instead of using complete games (another excellent way to improve - here one of the mid-level comment on every moves book like "Logical Chess" or "Unbeatable Chess" would fit in well) the author focuses on a variety of concepts that he fees are important. This is certainly a good, but not a great book.

Great Continuation [Posted on 2007-03-24]
I purchased this the same time as Seirawan's "Tactics" book. I enjoy the author's writing style and he knows his stuff. He uses a good sense of humor to keep the reading lively and his background on the annotated masters games is informative, interesting, and engaging.

The only reason I give "Tactics" 5 stars over this one's 4 is that Tactics is just easier to read and work through. Due to the topics of this book the examples are long, some even full games, so while the explanation of the principals of the chapters is simple and straightforward it takes some serious set-aside study time to work through the examples with your own chessboard. (Tactics on the other hand with its short term calculations can be done in your head). The format of having test questions at the end doesn't gel with the subject matter as well as Tactics, but is consistent with the format of the other books of the series.

The examples take longer to work through than to get the point of the chapter--with several chapters I could correctly answer the end of chapter tests without working through the examples. You can quickly review the points of the chapters just by looking for the italicized print, and that is often enough information to answer the end of chapter questions correctly. I'm sure working through all the examples would increase the value and understanding of this book but I am someone who does not have hours a day to devote to studying chess.

Again it is an excellent book and I recommend it, I do believe it has improved my play. Just plan on scheduling serious study time when you want to read through some of it, it's not something you can read casually on your nightstand.

Another great introductory book by Seirawan [Posted on 2007-06-25]
This is the 3rd book in Yasser Seirawan's "Winning Chess" series. In this book Yasser discusses chess strategy and coming up with a plan. He discusses topics such as proper piece placement, and pawn structure. Once again Yasser does a good job providing clear explanations of the topics to the reader.

I would have to think that his series is about the best introductory chess series in the English language.

BRILLIANT , EXCELLENT STRATEGIC MASTERPIECE  [Posted on 2008-04-18]
Ok . There are 31 customer reviews already and I add a 5 star (if there was 6 I would give it) to this product . ABSOLUTELY the best book on strategy !! Explained in clear and brilliant style . It's as if Seirawan is physically there at the board talking to you like a coach . It's like having your own personal coach . Seirawan knows the ins and outs of an amateur's play and he precisely pin-points them . If you are bored of reading books with pages and pages of annotations , if you would like some strategic advice that can be applied TO ANY GAME --- this is the book for you !!! I know I have been searching long for books that don't just show me one master game after another but give me some ideas I can use in my own games . I need to know which ideas work in games and this is exactly what Seirawan does . The games he uses to illustrate are brief and terse . Once he has shown how opponent uses the concept to gain advantage , he moves on !! This is very important !! Annotating the game till the end not only makes it difficult to follow but the main idea gets left behind in the jargon . This is a MASTERPIECE . It will be with me forever ....

A Strategy Primer for Intermediate Amateurs [Posted on 2008-12-02]
The third and final part of a series by renowned International Grand Master Yasser Seirawan and International Master Jeremy Silman, Winning Chess Strategies is also the most difficult to devour. The book follows the same format Seirawan and Silman used in Winning Chess Tactics, taking one strategic element of chess at a time and spending an entire chapter on it. Each are explained, explored and exemplified individually to help the aspiring chess amateur develop these lines of strategic thought.

More knowledgeable chess enthusiasts will likely recognize a lot of this material. Strategic concepts like material advantage, stopping enemy counterplay, target creation and the dynamics of a successful king attack aren't exactly new concepts in chess. The amateur, however, will probably find a goldmine of interesting new ideas. The difference between a well placed bishop and a poorly placed bishop, for example, or the proper placement of powerful pieces like the queen and rooks. As usual, Seirawan's discussion of pawn use is superior.

Probably the most puzzling and arguably most helpful chapter to the amateur mind is the chapter on faulty strategies. This chapter discusses the typical mistakes and pitfalls made by amateurs trying to adopt a strategic style of play, such as attacking prematurely, complacency and "playing from the gut". This chapter was reminiscent of Silman's "The Amateur's Mind" and is probably more representative of his work rather than Seirawan's.

As with Play Winning Chess and Winning Chess Tactics, Seirawan and Silman spend a chapter discussing the strategies of the great masters. Specific games of Steinitz, Rubenstein, Capablanca, Nimzovich, Petrosian and Karpov are chosen to exemplify strategic and positional play rather than tactics, with apologies to Lasker, Alekhine, Tal and Kasparov.

Like the other two parts of the series, which I recommend reading before this one even if you're familiar with the material, I was bothered by the writing style rather than the information. Winning Chess Strategies seems to be written for children, and is sprinkled liberally with chess axioms and rules that the authors then give contradictory examples for. Every once in a while the text is interrupted by a quick positional quiz, to which the solutions only come at the end. Though the material is golden, the format and style detract significantly from the immersion. It stands in stark contrast to Silman's other work, which leads me to believe that Seirawan was the primary writer.

All in all, though, Winning Chess Strategies is a very useful piece of work that I think will greatly help the amateur chess enthusiast on the road to mastery.

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