Winning Chess Tactics (Winning Chess - Everyman Chess)

When compared to Yasser Seirawan first book, "Play Winning Chess", I almost couldn't believe it was written by the same guy. I was critical of his first book, but it seems all my complaints about it being too advanced for the target audience were corrected in by this book. While there are tons of books on tactics out there, Seirawan does a great job of explaining these concepts in depth. While these were touched on on Wolffs "Complete Idiots Guide to Chess", Seirawan goes into better detail explaining these concepts and demonstrating how a player can set up these tactics and combinations. I found that the puzzels in this book were instructive and helped test my knowledge very well, and adequetly built up in difficulty.

The only real complaint I had about this book was the inclusion of Grand Master games towards the end of the book. They really seemed out of place, and the commentary on the games did not lend well to the topic of the book. But despite that, I really enjoyed this book to the point that I carried it with my everywhere and read it at every chance I got.

This is a good book. It has a decent intro to tactics. The first half teaches the tactics and has a couple quizzes. The second half has famous tacticians and their games and more quizzes. This is a decent book, but it has some typos. For example, it says Alexander Alekhine live from 1892 to 1846 on the Alexander Alekhine introduction page. I didn't know people could live to be negative 46 years old. However, the running head in that chapter does say 1892-1946. In conclusion, this book is worth buying, but be prepared for some typos. To give you an idea oh what level this book is good for, my rating is 1100 USCF. I believe it is good for 800-1500 rated USCF.

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RECOMMENDED BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

Winning Chess Strategies

Winning Chess Openings

Winning Chess Endings

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RECOMMEND FOLLOW UPS TO THIS BOOK

Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player by GM Lev Alburt & GM Sam Palatnik

Winning Chess Strategies by GM Yasser Seirawan

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I am a novice. This book sat on my shelf unread until I hit a tactical wall in problem solving and turned to it for a refresher. I had already completed 3 chess tactics drilling books and 1/3 of a fourth when I got stuck. (more on that later). I bought this book for its many fine reviews and now decided it was time to give it a read. Do not curse the darkness, light a candle! It is on a novice level. The right way to learn chess tactics is not random free on-line puzzle apps. The right way is a planned, programmed approach that works through tactics by themes; the Pin, the Skewer, Deflection, etc. From there you progress to combinations. Yasser's book does a superb job of teaching what all these things are, why they are important, how to approach combinations, and what all this looks like on an actual chess board. Just what a novice needs, especially in these COVID days when many clubs are closed to in-person play. So, no mentors. You are on your own for much of this. Yasser is here to help!

The reason I gave this 4 stars was this: For a chess player to build a proper tactical repertoire and work towards mastery of that requires HUGE amounts of practice drills and repetition to in-grain the themes and enhance your ability to see them in an actual game. Pattern Recognition. Most themed chapters in this book have only a few examples, 6 or 7 usually. There is more review at the back of the book. That is just not enough. Instead, the novice should pair this book with other drill books that will get all the insight Yasser is providing deeply into your brain where it is needed. In an actual game, consulting any book is strictly not allowed! So you need to have this down pat first. In my case, it was the need to re-drill what I already knew by repeating earlier books that gave me the needed boost. I DO endorse buying this book, but you need to follow it with other themed, drill books like those of Coakley, Susan Polgar, Masetti , with Ivashchenko and Blokh eventually. Chess tactics are not a destination, they are a journey. Yasser's book is a great place to start that journey.

The second installment of International Grand Master Yasser Seirawan and International Master Jeremy Silman's three part series for chess amateurs, "Winning Chess Tactics" was the easiest of the three to read. Having read "Play Winning Chess" and having a pretty solid grasp of chess fundamentals already, the learning curve for "Winning Chess Tactics" wasn't nearly as steep. All the old favorites are here: Forks, skewers, pins and discovered attacks; along with some more advanced tactics that amateurs don't usually see, like Zwischenzug. Each of them is presented, explained, dissected and incorporated into play in their own chapter with tests and puzzles liberally peppered throughout.

After all the tactics are out of the way, Seirawan and Silman present selected games from some of the greatest chess tacticians of the last 150 years. Each game is presented with annotations and commentary from Seirawan and Silman to help the reader understand the tactical mind of chess masters and grand masters. The games are very illustrative of the sort of tactical ideas the top chess players use.

Lastly the book finishes off with more tests and puzzles that can be used to increase the reader's understanding of the concepts detailed previously.

While I thoroughly enjoyed "Winning Chess Tactics", and it was probably my favorite of the series, I was a little unhappy with the layout and writing style. I'm convinced that Seirawan is writing for children, and that can be a little off putting. Having read some of Silman's other work, I don't think that his writing style is represented in "Winning Chess Tactics" nearly as much as in the other two books in the series.

Putting the solutions to the puzzles of part 1 in part 3 also threw me off a litte, because part 3 has its own series of puzzles also. I had to go back and forth between three different sections to find the solutions and see if I was right. It didn't detract from the overall book that much, it just made enjoying the book a little more difficult.

Overall, though, I think "Winning Chess Tactics" is an excellent addition to the serious chess amateur and enthusiast. Players from 1000 Elo to about 1400 Elo will probably get the most out of this book. Too far below that and you probably won't understand the concepts being presented. Too far above that and you probably won't need the information this book has.

Yasser Seirawan is probably the best big-time chess educator that I have yet come across -- you can see some of his lectures on Youtube if you want to see him for yourself. Pretty much all of the Grandmasters can write a coherent record of their best games or their favorite chess concepts, but when it comes to teaching most of them leave a lot to be desired. What sets Seirawan apart from the rest is that he understands what novice players need: a plain-language introduction to the mechanics of the game of chess. His writing is clear, efficient, warm, and effective.

As a novice player, I have read several chess books, but this is by far the best, and has helped me immensely; about halfway through reading the book my game suddenly transformed, and I began to internalize the book's concepts. The book has a great balance of exposition, puzzles, and examinations. After reading this you can train your tactics further with online tactics trainers or chess puzzle books, but the knowledge in this book makes all that other material so much more accessible.

Chess writers will definitely take your money, but I think you only need a handful of books to attain basic proficiency. A couple of Seirawan's books and a way to train with puzzles is probably all the novice needs to see big improvements.

Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics, part of the Winning Chess series, is essential for anyone who has never had a great introduction to basic tactics. I highly recommend the book to any average club player or relative beginner. Tactics are first defined and specifically what characteristics of the position to look for when determining whether a tactic exists should be carefully noted. Tactics in the book are broken down into sections based on a defining feature, such as double attack, pin, skewer, deflection, and there are plenty of tests along the way with solutions in the back of the book. In total there are over a hundred tests with clearly explained solutions in addition to all the explanation and examples throughout the book.

At the end are 45 final tests in ascending difficulty, which should prove challenging for anyone reading the book, and will be of great benefit to anyone who follows the author's advice of sitting down with paper and pen and writing down your solution to the tactic and any relevant variants. In terms of accuracy, the book's analysis is extremely good, but not perfect. Only on some of the more difficult tests at the end of the book did I find any discrepancy between the published analysis and computer analysis, which in fact was relevant to my solutions of the tests.

Possible spoiler alerts:
On test 102, there is an equally good solution that isn't mentioned (which was my solution, and in my opinion is more obvious).
On test 115, Black has a clearly winning position, but the analysis claims it is a solid mate in 4, where in fact the position is clearly winning but complicated, with Houdini claiming only a mate in 9. The problem is that the opponent's best response on his first move is overlooked. The solution I saw as winning reverses the order of the first two key moves in the published analysis, and Houdini agrees that it is a win with a mate in 10, so I gave myself full credit for that response as well.
On test 123, the published analysis says mate in 3, when in fact the key first move allows a mate in 4. The main problem is though, is that the published second move ignores the best response, which if played would not allow for any mate in the immediate future (though a clearly winning position). My own solution to the problem has a completely different first key move, and is a confirmed mate in 6.
On test 126, my own solution to the problem included a FAR superior second move (confirmed by Houdini, though both positions are winning). It is at first frustrating but then rewarding to think that you got the problem incorrect and then realize a great success! The main reason this is the case is that again the best response to the second move in sequence is overlooked (and subsequently the best response to the third move in sequence as well).

These discrepancies may at first seem significant, but they are not. I only mentioned them to put them on record for the curious. They are only minor inconsistencies that don't affect the nature of the positions in the tests, and definitely don't affect the utility of the book as a whole! This book still gets 5 stars from me.

There are many, many, MANY books, computer programs, and web sites on chess tactics, yet again and again I see this book touted as something to use to learn with as a beginner, and review with several times a year even as an advanced player. So I decided to spend time with it -- quite a bit of time -- and the recommendations are quite valid.

I'm a lowly class player, well above beginner but certainly lowly. I've read other tactics books and use both Personal Chess Trainer on the computer and Chess Tactics Server online. But this book offers what those media do not: down-home explanations with clear and understandable examples.

In the first part of the book, the material is nicely grouped by theme, and accompanied with frequent "tests" --- problems for you to solve, again in order of difficulty, usually in groups of eight or so. The first few are very easy even for a beginner but they do get harder, though a high-level player may find them all easy --- but still valuable for speed solving. My only gripe here is that the problem diagrams are very much smaller than the example diagrams and hard for us older people to read.

The second part of the book includes illustrative games, very valuable so that tactics can be seen in context--- you see how they come about and how they are used. This is much more valuable than merely solving problems. For one thing, studying the example games teaches you *avoidance* as well as *execution* because you see what happens "before the diagram"; in other words where one side went wrong to allow the winning side to carry out a tactic or combination.

All in all this is a very fine book and one that will stay on my study table indefinitely.

I'm drawn to chess for some weird reason but can't ever seem to get very good at it. Maybe playing more than once a month would help. Reading "Winning Chess Tactics" helped quite a bit. The text is very readable and the explanations are excellent. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part specific tactics are explained with numerous illustrations and examples. Just reading through this section will make you a more thoughtful chess player. The second section explores the moves of "Great Tacticians" and provides move by move commentary on their games. I've always found this to be pretty boring but obviously instructive.

Once you know the basic moves and have a feel for the game this would be an excellent next step.

This is the best entry level book on tactics ever written. This book is aimed at players in the ~800-1800 class range but I suspect even expert players could do well with a refresher. I first read this book when it was a first edition, back in the 1990's and my rating quickly rose over 1300. I am now rated 1670 USCF but I owe my foundation of tactics to this book.

Perhaps my bad review is motivated by the fact that I really really suck at tactics, especially if any beginner can solve a tactics problem in which the solution is 15-ply (8 moves) deep with several multi-move side variations to consider, like this "beginner" book has. I guess any beginner (except talentless me) can achieve that level after reading basic explanations in a "beginner" tactics book and solving 137 tactics problems in the course of a week or two.

If you are as bad at chess as I am and unable to solve such "beginner" problems, then I suggest the following resources:
1. Comprehensive Chess Course I by Alburt/Palatnik (rules of the game, board visualization);
2. Comprehensive Chess Course Volume II (review of volume I; tactics/endgames/annotated games more appropriate for the beginner, with lots of repetition and problems that gradually increase in difficulty as opposed to Winning Chess Tactics which jumps from rank beginner to 15-ply deep over a course of a few dozen problems) by Alburt/Palatknik;
3. Predator at the Chessboard I & II by Ward Farnsworth (verbal explanation of tactics like Winning Chess Tactics but with 1200 examples that gradually increase in difficulty; or check out his free website which has the same content);
4. Chess Tempo for lots of tactics problems and drilling that can be catered to any level;
5. Peshk/Convekta - lots of chess software, including tactics for beginners;
6. Chess Tutor step 1 & 2 (software).