Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book. Not for beginners. Not for the timid.
Review: Certainly one of the best chess books of our time. With his imaginative style, shirov shows the reader how magic can be worked successfully on the chess board, in a way that even the world's top grandmasters can't always counter. Advanced players will enjoy this book as well as benefit from Shirov's detailed explanations. Aided by Shirov's apparent need to criticize even himself and write about the better ideas even he had missed. Beginners however, will not find much use for this book, as the basic positional ideas are taken for granted and not explained, in order to emphasize the greatness of Shirov's great ideas and tactical play.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but best for advanced players
Review: Certainly one of the very best chess books of recent years. Still, if you aren't a relatively advanced player (2000 or higher rating), I fear that the book will be tough sledding. It assumes a high level of currency with opening theory, and the ability to evaluate complex positions. Not easy reading, but worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Beginners and Intermediate players can enjoy this also
Review: Don't believe those reviews that describe this book as suitable for advanced players only. I could enjoy this book without a board and pieces. The prose is somewhat limited.All players deserve to be encouraged to look at his games.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Games
Review: Fantastic games and a good chess writer. I learned (and am learning) a lot about sacrifices and tactics from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Games
Review: Fantastic games and a good chess writer. I learned (and am learning) a lot about sacrifices and tactics from this book.
Rating:
Summary: The best chess book ever!
Review: If you like to attack when playing chess, you will find some awesome ideas. There are games with unbelievable sacrifices, and the calculation done by Shirov is well explained and easy to follow. A true masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: Not a book for boring players!
Review: Insightful book full of spectacular positions and frank confessions. Editors should probably have done more work on the verbal, but the chess content is absolutely head-spinning! If you are a boring positional player, you'll have trouble folowing Shirov's recommendations though--his highly tactical games are exceptionally hard to understand but easy to enjoy!!
Rating:
Summary: Beginners and Intermediate players can enjoy this also
Review: Please read the other reviews carefully. Like the man said, this book is NOT for beginners. Its NOT an instructional book. (Maybe an advanced manual for GM Tactics?) It is a book for the very discriminating connoisseur of the Royal Game. And you should be a fairly good chess-player with an above average grasp of chess tactics to "really get" whats in this book! I found a few errors in this book. I also found one instance of the same line being analyzed twice with a different conclusion in each case! (Transposition.) But for the most part this is an incredible chess book, crafted with great loving care by the authors. While it is probably over the head of the average chess player, the earnest student of the game will find much pure Gold here to mine!! Another warning: if you are the lazy type of chess player, you probably won't get much out of this book. Buy it ONLY if you are looking for a real challenge!!!(Understand: I am a Master, and many times the variations left me just scratching my head!!) This is the one chess book that, "Is looking for a few Good..." (To borrow a phrase.)
Rating:
Summary: Real Fire.
Review: Please read the other reviews carefully. Like the man said, this book is NOT for beginners. Its NOT an instructional book. (Maybe an advanced manual for GM Tactics?) It is a book for the very discriminating connoisseur of the Royal Game. And you should be a fairly good chess-player with an above average grasp of chess tactics to "really get" whats in this book! I found a few errors in this book. I also found one instance of the same line being analyzed twice with a different conclusion in each case! (Transposition.) But for the most part this is an incredible chess book, crafted with great loving care by the authors. While it is probably over the head of the average chess player, the earnest student of the game will find much pure Gold here to mine!! Another warning: if you are the lazy type of chess player, you probably won't get much out of this book. Buy it ONLY if you are looking for a real challenge!!!(Understand: I am a Master, and many times the variations left me just scratching my head!!) This is the one chess book that, "Is looking for a few Good..." (To borrow a phrase.)
Rating:
Summary: Diary of a Madman
Review: Shirov is one of the strongest grandmasters in the world today, and this is his magnum opus. It's right up there with the collections of Tal, Fischer, Keres, and Larsen. Don't even think about passing it up!
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