Openings

I never really got good at chess until I started focusing first on a simple e4 e5 with the relative strength of second moves and then relative strength of third moves and looked at it as a tree with branches in every direction. It makes sense not to go on to d4 d5 until you have explored e4 e5 out at least 10 moves out in each popular direction. Yasser Seirawan uses a very logical arrangement of the classic games to take you down the branches of each possible move so that memorization is easy. Most importantly, he tells you WHY a certain move was made. He keeps returning you to the "main line" after he shows you the branches off to the side. I wish I had this book about 10 years ago when I was playing in competition. I have bought a lot of chess books but I think this was money well spent. I think I will buy others in the series.

This work is not meant as a treatise on opening play. The reader is guided by Yaz through the various openings so the player can understand how different openings vie for the center, and how key concepts such as time, & development(force) are applied in the different openings. This book enables the reader to grasp various ideas from the different openings as it relates to the above & important opening concepts. While I do not employ the openings Yaz suggests one need not fear of choosing his own. A nice work on how to understand various opening concepts!

Yasser Seirawan is a four-time U. S. Champion, a World Junior Champion, and twice a Candidate for the World Championship. And this is a very good book for beginners on chess openings. We start by looking at some games played by complete beginners. That includes starting with h4 so that you can play Rh3. It includes some silly Queen raids, such as 1 e4 e5 2 Qh5 g6 3 Qxe5+ Qe7 4 Qxh8. And it explains that such raids do not work if your opponent pays attention to your threats. And then there is a discussion of the Legal mate, after which we get to a brief discussion of the ideas behind most of the common openings. The section on the openings and the ideas behind them takes up 166 pages, well over half the book. I think it is just what a beginner can use. And the book finishes with a suggestion for a beginner's repertoire: the King's Indian attack, the King's Indian defence, and the Pirc defence. Now, some folks like these openings and some do not. But what impressed me was Seirawan's clear explanations to beginners about how to play them. I was surprised to see the discussion of beginner's games. But I think it is a good idea! Matter of fact, I would have included just one more chapter, showing just one step beyond the Queen raids, where White plays for a cheap but deadly attack. Here are two examples, but of course there are many others: 1 Nc3 e5 2 e4 (this is the Vienna Game) 2...Nf6 3 f4 exf4 (a famous beginner's error!) 4 e5 Qe7 5 Qe2 Ng8 6 Nf3 Nc6 7 d4 f6? 8 Nd5 Qd8 9 exf6+ Nge7 10 Ng5 (Black can't stop checkmate here). 1 Nc3 d5 2 d4 Nf6 3 e4 dxe4 4 f3 (this is the Blackmar Gambit) 4...exf3 5 Qxf3 Qxd4 6 Be3 Qb4 7 0-0 Bg5 (a very famous beginner's error) 8 Nb5 Qa5 9 Qxb7 (White is winning easily). I think a couple of examples such as these would drive home the point that one has to know the most famous two or three tricks that folks have in mind with some of these openings. Otherwise, one is bound to get in trouble the first couple of times one faces them. I think I might also give an example of how easy it is to get into trouble even against a silly opening. Something like this: 1 Nc3 c5 2 Rb1 (you can't get much sillier than this!) Nf6 3 g3 d5 4 Bg2 e5 5 e4 Be6 (just one careless move and it can all fall apart) 6 exd5 Nxd5 7 Qf3 Nxc3 8 bxc3 Nc6 9 Rxb7 (the total triumph of evil over good) Rc8 10 Qxc6 (Black can resign now). Anyway, I think this is a superb book, even without the sort of additional material I was hoping to see.

I'm a chess enthusiast who mostly plays Chessmater 9000. According to the program, after 12 rated games, I'm somewhere around 1000, and that's only because one of the computer opponents, "Argyle", keeps beating my butt. Otherwise I think I'd be around 1200 becasue I have a fairly easy go with all the other opponents rated around the 1000 mark.What I wanted from Sierawan's book was a good synopsis of modern King Pawn (e4) Defenses since that is what Chessmaster usually plays. I usually play white and I always open with e4. Why make it more complex than it has to be, eh? The real fun doesn't start until the middlegame, anyway, so let's just get there. The sooner the better.Sierawan's book delivers just what the doctor ordered. There's a full chapter dedicated to modern King Pawn Defenses and their variations told in simple terms that you don't have to be a grandmaster to understand. So, if you're a Chessmaster player, I'd sugest you download the nifty Chesspad utility (http://www1.tip.nl/~t799997/chesspad.htm), and use it to study these openings. You'll be glad you did. Chessmaster offers a fine reference to opennings itself in it's "library" feature, but I found Sierawan's book to be much more effective in giving me a grasp on what the openings are about.

This is a teriffic book for chess players (preferably for beginners). This book explains every chess opening and in detail. I have found a very interesting strategy using the Queen's Gambit. I don't want to spoil the the fun of reading it. 2 simple words for this book: "Truly Extrodinary"