Customer Reviews

Winning Chess Strategies: Proven Principles from One of the U.S.A.'s Top Chess Players

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

Anyone who is serious about learning to play chess well should begin with Seirawan's Winning Chess series. I had heard good things about it, so I bought this series for my wife. I figured that it would all be too simple for me, but decided to skim through the books quickly anyway. I learned quit a bit from both the Tactics and Strategies books. Seirawan's system is very similar to the system that co-author Silman teaches in his more advanced How To Reassess Your Chess (which would be the perfect book to read after finishing the Seirawan series). I learned things from Strategies that I hadn't learned from Reassess; and Tactics goes into greater, very helpful detail about setting up and executing tactics and combinations. This is a great series, I recommend it strongly to any player rated below 1600.

superb book. must read right after the tactics book by the
same author. However, you don't have to become really good
at tactics before reading book. see, the tactics book has
2 levels of porblems. Ones that are easy and ones that are
really tough. As long as you can get through the erasy ones
in each chapter, you are ready for this book.

This book is real genius (2 negative poinst are mentioned
below), here is why:

1. author used very simple language
2. he answered so many of my questions
3. it, i think, covers every situation I could think of
4. it is broken down by chapters, each one covering
either a a general principle (e.g. where
pieces should aspire to go, only it is NOT boring)
5. It teaches you how to think and evaluate any position
and then formulate a strategy.

2 negative points:

1. really there should have been more diagrams per example.
2. there should have a chapter (separate) on "how to evaluate
a position". The topic is covered in different chapters.

I am so impressed: I want o give examples:

lets say you are ahead a minor piece, what should
youn do?

lets say you are ahead in development, what should you do?
answer is attack.

Ok, so where should you attack? center, q-wing, k-wing?
let's say that you should attack on king-side, what
conditions must exist (or you should play to create)
before going for the actual attack?

How do you attack? pawns? prices?
what do you attack? king? a piece? a square?

great book really.
I would say best for ratings 1350-1800. mine is 1600+.

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.

This is my second purchace of the series (the first was his fourth book, Winning Chess Brilliancies) and it is terrific. While his philosophy is in many ways parallel to Nimzowitch (My System is a staple of chess-players), his writing is much clearer. My only complaint- he sometimes seems to tire of the analysis of a move, just stating that something was a bad idea, and not showing why (e.g. "This is a blunder because mate would result." Sometimes it takes me an hour to figure out how best to mate the opponent. He should show me how). These are rare occurances, though. I won't call this a must-have, but from what I've read, it is near the top of the list. Knowledge of chess notation is necessary.

This book provides you with the basics of strategies of chess. However the ideas are very basic and the author doesnt elaborate as much as he should. I would suggest getting the "amateur's mind" by Geremy Silman which has the same ideas and is a more robust book.

GM Yasser Seirawan is [was] one of the strongest American players since Bobby Fischer, so this book should definitely be taken seriously by anyone who wants to really learn the strategies of chess well. Everyone knows the basic principles- bishops in open positions, prophylactically limit your opponent's moves, trade pieces when on the defense, etc, but it takes a GM of Yasser's brilliance and poeticness to truly impart these lessons memorably. I regard this book as, in a sense, a modern "Chess Fundamentals." Seirawan's writing is clear and easy to understand. Like many authors, Seirawan uses games from other GMs to illustrate how to utilize an advantage in space, how to defend accurately, how to slow down your opponent's plans, and many other things. Unlike many authors however, Seirawan's writing style is informative yet not didactic, fluid and yet not frivolous. He manages to teach without becoming patronizing like Silman, or overly technical like Dvoretsky. This book is truly a classic.

Anyone who has ever read a chess book is probably familiar with the four key elements of position - force, time, space and pawn structure. This book contains the best treatment of the element of space that I have ever encountered.

Seirawan addresses the needs and treatment of each piece as well as strategic pawn play. His observations regarding the use of pawns to support N outposts are particularly insightful.

There is a very good treatment of B vs N and how to play this matchup from both sides. Creation and exploitation of weaknesses is explored in depth with an emphasis on focus that is rarely expressed in chess books.

Seirawan repeatedly stresses key themes such as utilizing all your pieces, or consolidating your position after winning material. These reminders are interwoven with the chapter material in a very natural and instructive manner. Example games or game fragments tend to illustrate several elements concurrently. The game commentary is very rich and instructive, and focused on the strategic principles, so there is little in the way of dense tactical variations.

This book is written in a very readable, engaging style. Seirawan is an excellent author as well as a top flight chess player. This book is probably best suited to club and tournament players advancing through USCF 1400 and higher.

This third work by Seirawan in his Winning CHess series is a truely great positional chess primer! I strongly advise that before diving into this work that the reader has an in depth understanding of tactics which was covered in Seirawan's Winning CHess Tactics, which is book #2 of this series.

The information in this work is a basic primer of the art of positional play for intermediate players looking to improve their play. One should make every effort to understand these basic concepts as it will provide you with a solid foundation as far as postional play and enable the reader at a later date to understand and digest more advanced works such as Nimzowitch's 'My System,' various pawn structure books, and the games collections of GM's such as Capablanca, Petrosian, Karpov, etc. This intro book into positional play by Seirawan is the best by far....

I absolutely love this book! Yasser write another great book to add to his Winning Chess Series. This book greatly improved my strategic understanding. It covers important topics like gaining territory, pawn structure, Bishop vs. Knight, and much more. In addition to covering great topics, the topics are explained well in Yasser's highly entertaining style. He has great writing skills and his enthusiasm for the game simply leaps off the book. There is simply no other book even comparable to this book.

Highly recommended for anyone who is rated below 1600.