- ISBN13: 9781857443493
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Start every game with confidence!
The two greatest challenges for beginning chess players are not only to survive the openings phase, but also to choose appropriate attack and defence formations in the process. Winning Chess Openings shows players how to do both. In Yasser Seirawan’s entertaining, easy-to-follow style, they are shown formations that can be used with other White or Black pieces.
Winning Chess Openings explains how to:
*Build a safe house for a king
*Estimate losses of ten moves or fewer
*Utilise the elements: time, force, space, and pawn structure
*Plan strategy based on time-tested opening principles of play
*Employ a defence for Black against any White opening
*Apply an opening for White used by World Champions
Winning Chess Openings will help readers develop a solid understanding of opening principles that can be applied to every game they play–without having to memorize a dizzying array of tedious and lengthy opening lines.
I tried the openings in this book in the schools chess tournament. They lost in every game I used, but when I tried other openings, like Ruy Lopez and NimzoIndian they won. This guy suggested some loser openings for you. I liked getting the book IDEAS BEHIND THE CHESS OPENINGS by the author Ruben Fine. This was much better, and he told my why to play the moves better.
Amazon User Rating: 1 / 5
This book really helped me in my opening. I learned many openings and how to defend them. I have won many more games after I used this book.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
I found myself laughing outloud at the anecdotes Yasser describes in the first few chapters. He has a great sense of humor but also delivers the goods when it comes to teaching chess. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is new to chess (may be too easy for advanced players).
I don’t know Yasser, or affiliated with MS Press, I genuinely think this is a great book.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
The fifth book of International Grand Master Yasser Seirawan’s “Winning Chess” series leaves much more to be desired than his other works, and that may be because this was not a labor of love. In the introduction, Seirawan clearly states that his intention was for book 5 to be about the endgame, which is the area he insists everyone must work on most (he’s right). His publishers, though, nearly insisted that a book on openings come first, and this persuasion might have caused this to be a forced labor on his part. This is all conjecture, though, and what matters is the contents of the book itself.
As usual, the information Seirawan provides is gold. His insistence that every opening is about controlling the center is right on the money. His description of opening “rules” (don’t develop the queen early, develop knights before bishops, et cetera) is likewise sound. You could expect nothing less from a GM of Seirawan’s caliber, really.
The problems appear when Seirawan begins to discuss actual openings themselves. While it is apparent that Seirawan doesn’t have much space to delve, many of the openings he discusses are restricted to the main lines only. Instead of going with other variations of these lines, he instead moves on to much more obscure variations that the novice is much less likely to encounter in real play.
The book is divided into Classical King Pawn Openings, Classical Queen Pawn Openings, Modern King Pawn Defenses and Modern Queen Pawn Defenses, followed by tests and solutions. Don’t expect to touch on Knight openings like the Reti Opening.
Seirawan’s hesitance to cover unconventional openings is well-founded, though, because spending too much time on opening study can be detrimental to the beginner. Ignoring the middle and engames only insures that each step takes the player further and further from his or her comfort zone and into unfamiliar territory. It is far better to learn opening principles and a few good openings than to spend hours and hours and hours grinding away at the million and one variations of the Sicilian Defense.
Particularly off-putting to me, though, was the tone. Seirawan writes as if he is writing to children, which made it very difficult for me to want to read the book. I’m sure the simplicity of the information and the exuberant writing style are beneficial to some, I found it detracted from the value of the information itself. Still, I would recommend the read, even to players of my level (1500) who are probably familiar with many opening variations presented because Seirawan’s understanding of what makes a good opening may come as a shock to the amateur.
Amazon User Rating: 3 / 5
I believe that Yasser Seiran is one of the best chess writers, at least for players of my level.
Really his books are a sort of fun above educational.
I have other titles for the same author with better ratings than the one in hand. This title has many pages that do not realy add to the value of the book. Also, the coverage of the subject is some how shallow.
I know that writing for this subject is not an easy task but the book in hand did not provide enough info to the average player.
Amazon User Rating: 3 / 5