Winning Chess Openings (Winning Chess - Everyman Chess)

I bought this after reading some of GM Seirawan’s other winning chess books (play, tactics, combos, and endings) and this one helped my game the least. May just be an illustration of the idea that studying openings should be low on the priority list of a beginner (for context, my rating currently fluctuates around 1450). It’s hard to avoid opening curiosity though, and this isn’t to say this isn’t a good book. Definitely meets the standard that YS set in his previous titles, with his humorous, conversational writing style. I currently use it as an opening reference when I want to review my games, and for that purpose it’s nice. But his other books have helped me more, and if you haven’t checked them out yet, I’d easily recommend them over this title.

I am a relatively new player. The book has proved extremely helpful in my understanding of openings and chess in general. This is not a cook book style presentation, rather it provides easy to comprehend reasoning behind the various opening approaches. You come away with a more thorough knowledge of openings, their variations along and corresponding defenses - along with understanding how and why they were developed and used.

This was a fair read, but the author focused on e4 openings and did not cover d4 openings

Seirawan's book has a great deal to recommend it. He not only covers most of the openings and defenses you're likely to see, but gives you the reasons behind all the important moves. This is important because in any number of openings it looks like the logical move would be something completely different than what the book recommends, but in all those circumstances (or all the ones I've encountered) Seirawan shows why and how this "logical" move is in fact not so logical at all. Another great plus is that in looking at Seirawan's commentary on the openings and defenses you'll learn something about positional play rather than just memorize rote openings. Probably the biggest plus this book has for intermediate players is that, by showing us his own blunders, Seirawan keeps one from getting discouraged. Finally, he mentions quite a few books on the openings he discusses, so the book points the reader in the right directions if she's interested in a certain opening.So now to the glaring omission: As other reviewers have pointed out, he doesn't cover the English Opening (1.c4). What makes this more than a mere gripe, besides the fact the English is a rather common opening, is that at the beginning of the chapter 7 he groups the English with the Barcza Opening, KID, and Pirc Defense as an opening he recommends and implies that he will discuss it in detail. My theory is that at one time the manuscript did cover the English and editorial pressures forced Seirawan to shorten the book, which he did by cutting his long discussion of the English, and as he planned to discuss it at length there is naturally no short section on the opening and no one remembered to include one. It seems an odd coincidence that this book and the other title in the series I happen to own (Winning Chess Strategies) are exactly the same length. If this is the case they should definitely lengthen the book in future editions, and even if not coverage of the English would be nice. It is exactly the sort of quiet opening that deserves to be discussed with the Barcza. At any rate the recommendations I've gotten say to respond to the English with a Hedgehog Defense, which Seirawan does cover. All an all despite this wart it's still a good book to help one get a grip on openings.

I bought this book for Chapters 7-9 where Yasser gives his solution to the beginners problems with studying openings. His recommendations are very close to those given to me by my chess coach, and I wanted to see what he had to say about these openings. While I didn't gain much new knowledge, the book did confirm some things for me, and provided another view of how to handle the openings if you aren't interested, or don't have the time, to study, and memorize, an infinite number of obscure lines. For the club player this is an excellent approach to playing as both white and black.

This book is informative and easy to read, and Yasser Seirawan is a great author. It feels like he's sitting next to you and talking to you as a friend, ready to congratulate you on your wins (and chide you about your losses). In the introductory chapter, he relates his own experiences learning chess, and the evolution of his ideas about how to win games, and how to lose them. He then goes on to talk about the most popular openings, with many details and variations. Yasser Seirawan's writing style is fun to read and is perfect for a beginner or intermediate player hoping to improve their game.

My son loves the book, it is information and helps him with the game.

You learn a grandmaster repertoir!

I am enjoying the book but I think the presentation could be more clear. As he explains openings he will (naturally) fork off in the text to other options... often the next set of bold notation will pick up assuming you have chosen a previous move from the options he listed. It was often not clear he expected you to make one or the other move by the manner in which the notation is presented. This introduces a lot of unnecessary confusion when following along on a board. I also find the addition of ?!?! to the notation for emphasis annoying and confusing when you are first trying to follow... I do wish the openings were presented in an easier to follow manner to help you play through on the board. This could have been remedied with an editor or just some copyediting to make sure the steps he expects are flowing clearly.

This has everything you need to know but if you think you are just gonna take it to the toilet for some light reading then you are mistaken. I would advise having an engine loaded up as well as a physical board, as there are lots of lines given and you have to jump between them. Sometimes you have to force yourself to come back and read it but Yassers writing style is funny and the info is all thereI was 1450 on lichess rapid and a few weeks later I am now 1602. Worth the money.

First things first - I find Yasser Seirawan's books to be excellent. They are very readable and unpretentious - unlike a lot of chess literature.So why am I only giving 3 stars for this book? Because the print quality in my copy is dire. Text is not crisp, and the diagrams look like poor photocopies. For some reason the front matter and introduction look OK, but it goes downhill after that. Clearly something has gone wrong in the production of this print run, as my other books in the Winning Chess series look fine, with clear, crisp printing.Update: I returned this book for a replacement. The replacement does have better print quality, although still not quite as good as the other books in the series. Also, the chess diagrams use a different set of symbols to the other books I have, which are not as easy to read. I noticed this book was printed by a different company to the other books in the series, so presumably this is the reason for the difference in quality.

This is the second chess book I bought, having started out with the more general "The right way to play chess" by D.Brine Pritchard. While that was a good introduction, it left me with a lot of questions about how to confidently start out a game and what to expect from my opponent. Pritchard recommended getting a book on openings and the reviews of this one persuaded me it was the right choice and I was not disappointed.Yasser Seirawan has a very friendly and relaxed style which makes this book an interesting read in spite of the dry subject matter. He tells a lot of stories about his early games and how he learnt the hard way why some opening moves are better than others, so by the time you get to the step by step run through of each opening you understand the principles behind the moves.It is also satisfying that he has a definitive recommendation for the best way to start any game, which saves you having to learn the hundreds of different variations open to you, but is instead based on logic and sound principles.I've only given it four stars because there are a number of typographical errors which really should have been picked up by a proof reader. These are largely in the chess notation, where it looks like someone was reading the author's handwriting and didn't really understand what they were typing. This does however keep the reader on their toes and makes you think about the moves you're reading, rather than accepting them unquestioningly, so maybe it's a good thing!I've since gone on to buy "Winning Chess Tactics" by the same author, which I would also recommend.

This book is my first systematic approach to learning openings after many youtube videos which I watched and forgot.The book is not easy if you can't imagine chess board by reading notation.I read it on kidle reader on Android and split the screen with lichess board analyser. I found this way much easier.