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Books by Y Seirawan

Books by Y Seirawan

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HAve any of you used the "Winning Series" books by Y Seirawan. If so I'd like some feed back.How good are they?Are they useful?I was thinking of buying some books for the openings, endings,tactics. Any other recommendations will also be welcome. Thanx

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I think they're quite good, particularly the tactics book. I've not read the endings book. The openings was pretty general.

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I haven't read the endgames or openings books, but the tactics and strategy books are both excellent primers. Good followups to these would be any good puzzle book for tactics, and Reassess or Amateur's Mind by Silman for strategy.

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What about openings and end games . Any suggestions?

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Openings: The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings by Fine -or-
Gabor Kallai's Basic Chess Openings and More Basic Chess Openings should steer you straight without getting too deep in analysis.

Endgames: Pandolfini's Endgame Course is a good basic book, but some of the material is completely useless. If you just learn the sections on Kings + Pawns and Kings + Rooks + Pawns you will have a good foundation. Beyond that, I just got a copy of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, which is rather advanced (well beyond me, which isn't really saying much), but is organized nicely and has highlights that are accessible for even fish like us.

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Originally posted by arterioes
HAve any of you used the "Winning Series" books by Y Seirawan. If so I'd like some feed back.How good are they?Are they useful?I was thinking of buying some books for the openings, endings,tactics. Any other recommendations will also be welcome. Thanx
I think he is an excellent chess writer!

I am half way through the endings book - very useful for a patser like me. I have the openings book which looks well written from a cursory glance, but I have not started to turn the pages yet.

I think his books are very good for beginners or moderately experienced players that are looking to improve their game by getting the basics nailed down (that's me). I would think they are less likely to appeal to the higher rated players though - they probably know it all already. 😉

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i was disappointed with his openings book, he only covers a few lines for each opening and doesn't even bother with the scotch, vienna or bishops openings. But i like his tactics and strategy books in this series.

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I have Play Winning chess by Seirawan. I didn't like it. If you want it, you can have it.

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I found "Winning Chess Tactics" to be an excellently intructive book.

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Originally posted by BLReid
Openings: The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings by Fine -or-
Gabor Kallai's Basic Chess Openings and More Basic Chess Openings should steer you straight without getting too deep in analysis.

Endgames: Pandolfini's Endgame Course is a go ...[text shortened]... cely and has highlights that are accessible for even fish like us.
Good choice for opening book!

Pandolfini's Endgame Course has several errors. There is a chess club website with a corrections list. Here's another site:

http://www.glennwilson.com/chess/books/pec_errata.html

Winning Chess Tactics is a good book. I also found Winning Chess Brilliancies to be pretty good at covering some interesting games.

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Originally posted by ChessMachine2004
I found "Winning Chess Tactics" to be an excellently intructive book.
i beg to differ, i have a 12.425 reading level and it was quite useless as far as chess goes. basically its a paper wieght. i reccomend "Chess for n00bs" the life story by Timothy A Clark

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Originally posted by superubernoober
i beg to differ, i have a 12.425 reading level and it was quite useless as far as chess goes. basically its a paper wieght. i reccomend "Chess for n00bs" the life story by Timothy A Clark
I just had a look at your profile. You are 0-7 so far...maybe you should blow the dust off of that paperweight and give it another look.
😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

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Originally posted by arterioes
HAve any of you used the "Winning Series" books by Y Seirawan. If so I'd like some feed back.How good are they?Are they useful?I was thinking of buying some books for the openings, endings,tactics. Any other recommendations will also be welcome. Thanx
I have read the first three books in the series. "Play Winning Chess" is a good introductory book, but nothing to particulaly recomend above the Idiot's Guide or Dummies books other than Seirawan's personal anectdotes. "Winning Chess Strategies" is also good as any player will eventually need some introduction to positional play. This may be a good primer for Silman's "The Amatuer's Mind". "Winning Chess Tactics" is the gem of the collection however. Tactics are widely recomended as the primary focus of Chess study up to Class A or Expert level. You need to start with a book like this that explains the tactical motifs. I've re-read my copy so many times the pages are starting to fall out. I find it especially useful to re-read when returning after not playing much for awhile. This should be the second or third Chess book every begginer reads and should be followed with puzzle books. Polgar's "5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games" is a good one, but it only has checkmates. I just got Emms' "The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book" which seems excellent and has both checmates and material winning tactics. Following the suggestion of Dan Heisman and others you should go through these repeatedly until you can solve almost all of them in a few seconds. The idea isn't to test your tactical ability it is to burn patterns into your brain. I say if you want to test your ability, play chess.