Winning Chess Strategies: Proven Principles from One of the U.S.A.'s Top Chess Players

This third work by Seirawan in his Winning CHess series is a truely great positional chess primer! I strongly advise that before diving into this work that the reader has an in depth understanding of tactics which was covered in Seirawan's Winning CHess Tactics, which is book #2 of this series. The information in this work is a basic primer of the art of positional play for intermediate players looking to improve their play. One should make every effort to understand these basic concepts as it will provide you with a solid foundation as far as postional play and enable the reader at a later date to understand and digest more advanced works such as Nimzowitch's 'My System,' various pawn structure books, and the games collections of GM's such as Capablanca, Petrosian, Karpov, etc. This intro book into positional play by Seirawan is the best by far....

superb book. must read right after the tactics book by the same author. However, you don't have to become really good at tactics before reading book. see, the tactics book has 2 levels of porblems. Ones that are easy and ones that are really tough. As long as you can get through the erasy ones in each chapter, you are ready for this book. This book is real genius (2 negative poinst are mentioned below), here is why: 1. author used very simple language 2. he answered so many of my questions 3. it, i think, covers every situation I could think of 4. it is broken down by chapters, each one covering either a a general principle (e.g. where pieces should aspire to go, only it is NOT boring) 5. It teaches you how to think and evaluate any position and then formulate a strategy. 2 negative points: 1. really there should have been more diagrams per example. 2. there should have a chapter (separate) on "how to evaluate a position". The topic is covered in different chapters. I am so impressed: I want o give examples: lets say you are ahead a minor piece, what should youn do? lets say you are ahead in development, what should you do? answer is attack. Ok, so where should you attack? center, q-wing, k-wing? let's say that you should attack on king-side, what conditions must exist (or you should play to create) before going for the actual attack? How do you attack? pawns? prices? what do you attack? king? a piece? a square? great book really. I would say best for ratings 1350-1800. mine is 1600+.

Yes - very useful. As all the reviews agree, this is a fine book for exploring and improving the strategic elements of your game. The book is well structured, covering: - King safety - Pawn structure - Piece mobility - Speed - Force ...and, in finer detail: - Piece placement - Strategic exchanges - Great chess strategists I am relatively new to chess, and have been playing seriously for only a couple of months. However, my game has been permanently improved with the insights provided in this text. Highly recommended.

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.

When I first picked up this book, I thought it was another book on chess strategy. However, on closer examination I found it is indeed a great book. The author builds his system of strategy on the first principles of chess ie,time,space, material and pawn structure. He adds a fifth element which is king safety. Mastery of these principles goes a long way in making a chess master. He has a chapter on preventing enemy counter play, how to use pawns, and a very good chapter on how to attack the king, which is essential in strategy. The information in this book is priceless and in addition will not become outdated. An excellent book and an excellent buy.