Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #269213 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From the Back Cover
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 defense formations in the process. Winning Chess Openings shows you how to do both. In Yasser Seirawan's entertaining, easy-to-follow style, you're 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; utilize the elements: time, force, space and pawn structure; plan strategy based on time-tested opening principles; employ a defense for Black against any White opening; apply an opening for White used by World Champions.
Winning Chess Openings will help you develop a solid understanding of opening principles that you can apply to every game you play - without having to memorize a dizzying array of tedious and lengthy opening lines.

About the Author
Yasser Seirawan is the highest-rated American chess professional on the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) rating ladder and the first American to vie for the World Championship title since Bobby Fischer. He is a three-time U.S Champion, the 1989 Western Hemisphere Champion and an eight-time member of the U.S chess Olympiad team. Currently one of the worlds top-ranked chess players, he is one of only a handful of players to have defeated world champions Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov in tournament play.

Customer Reviews

Tries to fill too many approaches to what other opening books cover
It is not so clear exactly what this book is trying to do. It tries to set itself up as an "Modern Chess Openings" or "Nunn's Chess Openings" when listing variations but fails by being far to sparse to be of any use. It tries to provide some ideas of what is happening in the opening like "Understanding the chess Openings", "Winning Chess Traps for Juniors" or "Ideas Behind the Openings" but yet it is far to sparse with the ideas. The mix and match, trying to do cover all of these in one book is off base. Not enough ideas for the beginner or intermediate level player, Not enough lines/variations to be of any use to an intermediate or advanced player. I think three stars is rather generous, as perhaps the just beyond beginner or just under intermediate range of player might find some small benefit to this book. Some of the "Winning Chess" series books are very well done. This is one of the few books in the series that is at the bottom end.

A perfectly dysfunctional mix of "too much" and "too little"
What's the point of an opening book? There are two possibilities: 1)Build a reperotoire; or 2)Teach you how to play a specific opening. Seirawan's book tries to fill both categories, but spreads itself too thin and ends up being frutstrating.

The structure of WCO is just like MCO, NCO, and all the other "CO"s: it systematically presents opening after opening, giving various explanations and lines. Seirawan's book is geared to much lower rating levels than more complicated books like Modern Chess Openings, but it doesn't cover enough CONCRETE ground to be of any practical use to any rating.

The best example I can find is in the section on Alekhine's Defence. Yasser (or "Yaz" as he's known here in Seattle) gives only a single line for the opening: 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.ed cd 6.Be3 Nc6 7.Nc3 g6 8.c5! and white apparently has a sizeable advantage. This isn't well supported by theory, and there are many other lines black can opt for (5...ed, 6...g6, 6...N6d7 etc.) that have better results. It's almost as if the author is unwilling to engage in a discussion of the more critical lines.

It may be argued that there is a lot of textual explanation for the openings. Yes, there is, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't know what moves to play. There is little concrete basis for how to play in the openings, so you will inevitably find yourself struggling as soon as you get to the 6th move in an opening Yaz discusses.

I'll spare it the harsh "sub 3-star" rating because Seirawan's style is very engaging and fun to read. Even given the "chessic" inadequacies of the book, it's still very fun to read, and Yasser is self-depricating and funny when he writes (his style is similar to David Norwood's).

In 272 pages, Seirawan manages only a vague definition of each opening. The book doesn't, as many reviews claim, give you a reperotoire for white or black, because there simply aren't enough variations to look at. If you want to pick out an opening for white or black, thumb through WCO. Otherwise, pick up something more specific. You could get the same value from a much smaller, cheaper text.

Not Recommended
If you seriously know nothing about the opening then this book will probably help you some. However, if you already have gathered all the basic concepts (which seem to be mentioned in pretty much every chess book ever made) then this book is a waste of money. Even for the complete beginner, I reccomend the recent books Openings for White/Black Explained by Lev Alburt, Roman D., etc., which can serve as both an introduction and a full course.

I thought this book would give me a repertoir, so I would know some actual openings. However, the coverage of any one opening is so minimal you definitely dont know enough to actually play it in anysort of competetive way. To repeat: this book will not teach you to play openings competetively, it is only an introduction. Seirawan briefly covers classical openings and then covers in slightly more depth his "opening solution" which is the Kings Indian Defense versus d4, the Pirc versus e4, and the Kings Indian Attack as White. First off, I found I do not enjoy playing any of those openings at all. What is the advantage of being able to play the same 5+ moves at the start of every game? Then what after that? Well these openings are not devoid of theory and once you reach the end of the first 5 moves you have just as much work to do as with any other opening; you have just delayed the inevidable conflict for the center--which means a slower, longer, duller game. Secondly, if you do like these openings you will still have to buy more books that actually cover them!

I would reccommend, even if you are a beginner, to buy the Openings Explained for White / Black by Lev Alburt, Roman D. Besides full coverage of the openings in the repertoir book, it also briefly covers some other traditional openings (just like winning chess openings). If you want an introduction you have one in the first chapter; if you want to really LEARN an opening then you have that too. Or if you already have an idea what openings your want to play then DEFINITELY don't get this book, instead get some thorough books on that/those openings.