Winning Chess Strategies

Rating:
Summary: A move in the right direction
Review: After having previously worked my way through Seirawan's "Play Winning Chess" and "Winning Chess Tactics", I used this book as third in a probably endless row of books to (re)gain some skill in chess. While I have some comments on the book, I do think it is an excellent introduction to the deeper principles behind the moves and builds well upon the fundament of the previous two volumes in this series.

As in the previous two volumes the Seirawan/Silman team offers an ordered and well structured guide to fundamental principles. All concepts are explained clearly and illustrated with fragments of actual games. Moreover, the build up of the chapters is flawless and builds carefully upon the fundament of the previous two books.

I do have two minor points of comment. First, taking a subject like chess strategy apart is a much more difficult task than doing it for tactics. As such, the authors do get the ideas across, but do not quite give the level of support by game fragments that was present in the Tactics volume. In addition, the number of problems is rather limited and is often more geared towards tactic than strategic decisions.

Yet, in despite of these points of critique, I do think that this book offers a good basic introduction to chess strategy that can serve as a stepping stone to more advanced books like Silman's "Reassess Your Chess" and Vukovic' "Art of Attack".

Rating:
Summary: Great Book on Strategy and Positional Play!
Review: After studying openings, tactics, and checkmating techniques, I found this book to be what I needed to learn how to get from the opening to the endgame and how to set up for tactics. GM Seirawan's entertaining style is fun to read and study.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: All 5 books in the series are extremely good. Every beginning chess player should read these book before all others: Playing Winning Chess, Winning Chess Openings, Winning Chess Tactics, and Winning Chess Strategies.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book -- hella typos.
Review: ALL of Seirawan's books get five stars, this is no different. Buy this book, learn positional and long-term play.

However, my "Winning Chess Strategies" (published by Everyman Press, rather than the old Microsoft publication) is plauged by typographical errors! The books in this series I read, published by Microsoft, were pristine and free from mistakes. Similarly, my copy of "Winning Chess Tactics" published by Everyman Press had no typos.

But this book? Wow! Errors every few pages! Let's hope the upcoming Everyman publications of "Endings," "Openings," and "Brilliancies" are better proofread!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book -- hella typos.
Review: ALL of Seirawan's books get five stars, this is no different. Buy this book, learn positional and long-term play.

However, my "Winning Chess Strategies" (published by Everyman Press, rather than the old Microsoft publication) is plauged by typographical errors! The books in this series I read, published by Microsoft, were pristine and free from mistakes. Similarly, my copy of "Winning Chess Tactics" published by Everyman Press had no typos.

But this book? Wow! Errors every few pages! Let's hope the upcoming Everyman publications of "Endings," "Openings," and "Brilliancies" are better proofread!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book -- hella typos.
Review: ALL of Seirawan's books get five stars, this is no different. Buy this book, learn positional and long-term play.

However, my "Winning Chess Strategies" (published by Everyman Press, rather than the old Microsoft publication) is plauged by typographical errors! The books in this series I read, published by Microsoft, were pristine and free from mistakes. Similarly, my copy of "Winning Chess Tactics" published by Everyman Press had no typos.

But this book? Wow! Errors every few pages! Let's hope the upcoming Everyman publications of "Endings," "Openings," and "Brilliancies" are better proofread!

Rating:
Summary: real strategic insights for develoing players by a top GM
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: maybe the best book in this great series
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Decent Book on Middlegame Strategy
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Truly Excellent!
Review: GM Yasser Seirawan never fails to provide his readers and fellow chess lovers with not only interesting historical background information and abstract ideas, but also important practical principles and how the actually relate to the average everyday game. However, this book is not for the beginner who doesn't know how the pieces move. For that type of chess player, I'd recommend the earlier books in the series, especially the first, Play Winning Chess, which outlines the fundamentals of force, space, time, and position.

This book is for the reader who understands these concepts, but wants to learn how to apply them in a game. This book is excellent in that it not only shows the player how the concepts work, but how they factor into a real game. This includes such things as how to turn your greater force into a win, and where each piece should ultimately go, as a good or bad bishop can spell the difference between an impressive victory and a miserable defeat.

For the intermediate chess player who desires to learn to "see the big picture", this book is one of the greatest resources you could ever purchase. Strategy is what makes the difference between a master and an ordinary player. Well done, Seirawan, and good luck to all who read this book.