Play Winning Chess

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Summary: This is by far the best beginner's chess book.
Review: "Play Winning Chess" explains everything a beginning chess player needs to know. Among the many excellent features of this book are the appropriate examples, quizes, and tests provided throughout the book and at the end of each chapter. Each one reinforces a concept that has been previously explained and challenges the reader to use the knowledge he/she has gained to answer the question appropriately. The answer section in the back does an excellent job of explaining why the answers are correct rather than just stating them. I was impressed that the authors bothered including short biographies on great players of the past. This biographies are incorporated well into the text and add to the enjoyment of reading this well organized and illustrated book

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Summary: Best beginner-intermediate I have read for a while.
Review: An excellent work. The descriptions and the teaching of the basic ideas of chess are fantastic. An excellent idea to add quizes and tests within the book. However, the book is intended more for the advanced beginner and intermediate player, rather than the beginner. I found that Chess for Dummies, by Eade was a better beginners book, and overall a better chess reference. However, I enjoyed the writing style of Seirawan much better and his jokes are hilarious in a tastefull way.

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Summary: Fabulous Introduction for the amateur
Review: Beautifuly written publication.Gives the beginner a correct logical intro to chess strategy and tactics. Well done Yasser and Jeremy. Don't you write any advanced grandmaster books like the ones Nunn writes? (proposed to Seirawan). Nunn still rules!

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Summary: A really good book for the beginner
Review: For the beginner who wants to understand the basics this is a really excellent book. It gives the beginning chess player an overview of chess and a good beginning introduction of the winning principles of chess: force, space, time, and pawn structure. It is easy to read, easy to follow, and has lots of excellent examples. Most chess books are hard to read and follow for they always use sophisticated chess lingo. This book does not. It uses easy to understand language that clearly communicates chess principles. For the beginning chess player who wants to learn about chess and the beginning basics for consistently winning, this is the book

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Summary: EXCELENT CHESS BOOK
Review: I am new in chess, and this excelent book helped me change my perspective about chess. It is very simple and easy to read, with very good examples, quiz and tests at the end of each chapter. This book is worth to read by both, new and experimented player. I recomend it as i learned and improved my game after reading it.....

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Summary: Good Chess Made Easy
Review: I found this to be the perfect book as a casual player who wanted to get more serious about the game without endlessly memorizing openings and defenses. Seirawan makes the principles of good Chess accessible and easy to implement. The writing style is conversational, mixing interesting trivia with solid strategies; this is actually a fun book to read. I don't think it will ever make someone capable of taking on Kasparov all on its own, but it made me a contender at the Chess tables of the local coffee shop.

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Summary: This was the first chess book I ever read
Review: I have never found an easier book to read about chess than this one. It is easy to understand and superbly written! It covers chess notation but it's not your ordinary book that lists countless moves without covering them in detail. The moves are usually illustrated on the same page with the notation making it easy to follow. It dramatically improved my game to the point where I could beat several people who were an even match for me prior to reading. Excellent read. Excellent instruction. The tactics book is awesome also.

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Summary: best beginner's chess book ever
Review: I have purchased several books on learning to play chess. This is the last one I bought. It was the first to explain the game comprehensively at a slow pace. It is the only chess book I've seen that is actually written for the beginner as opposed to chess enthusiasts. If you get your hands on this book first you'll have all you need.

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Summary: Perfect for the beginner and the dabbler
Review: I learned to play chess a long time ago, but never learned to play well. When I recently decided that I wanted to become better, I found this book to be the best starting point. It is very readable and Seirawan has a sense of humor. Problems and situations are explained in English, not cryptic comments, and quizzes and tests are included to reinforce the concepts. Finally, the book is the first of five covering the entire game of chess from beginner to studies of past grandmaster games, giving a unified tutorial of the game.

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Summary: Great book for a beginner, and also learn some chess history
Review: I learnt a lot about the basics of chess with this book. Seirawan has such a great feel on how to teach the beginner. I would recommend this book to everyone who is interested in learning chess in an easy maner. Another thing a liked was the fact that Seirawan tells you just enough history about chess to make in interesting, but not overwhelming so that it will bore you if you don't really care about the history of chess.