Rating: 
Summary: Everything You Want From An Opening Book
Review: I wish every opening book were like this one. I have played the Pirc successfully ever since purchasing this book a year and a half ago. Unlike other opening books, this one gives you solid, clear recommendations for every White continuation, along with a thorough explanation of the general themes of the Pirc. More than an opening book, I found this to be a chess education. Since buying this book a year and a half ago, the Pirc has been my most successful opening with Black OR white. I am USCF rated 2106, and, unless you are a titled player (IM or IGM), this book is sure to be a fine enhancement of your chess education. I wish they would make more books like this one, on other openings!
Rating: 
Summary: Repeat: Pirc, RIP
Review: I wrote a review before but it was removed; probably because people do not like to hear the truth about such a marketed book.
The essence of this book is that you (black player) can obtain a roughly equal position playing the pirc defense as prescribed by the authors. This is not true, moreover, the analysis they present is not original and is copied from previous pirc books.
Here are are a few examples of their analysis: After:
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Be3 0-0 6.h3 a6 7.a4 d5 8.e5 Ne4 the authors say:
"Although It's hard to evaluate the line Bd3 Nc3 bxc3 c5 Qd2 Nc6 0-0 c4 Be2 f6, The permanent Defect of the doubled pawns on c2 and c3 gives white little chance to succed"
It's rather sad that two GM's together could only muster this statement about a variation which is the main-line for black against white's classical variation. But whats even worse is that they are 100% wrong. After: 9.Bd3 Nc3 10.bxc3 c5 11.Qd2 Nc6 12.h4! (not 0-0, please) c4 13.Be2 Bg4 14.h5!! black is going to lose the game or lots of material within 5-10 moves. This is just one example, you can find more by searching the web.
Final note: If you like pretty pictures and diagrams, buy this book. If you like real researched analysis, look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Good if you are under master level
Review: Overall this is a good book, if you are trying to learn the pirc. IF, however, you are a theoretical opening analyst like myself, the book is not overly useful. The variations the authors give agianst the classical variation are technically not the most challenging for white to prove an advantage against. Moreover the lines they do reccomend are nothing new and are in books 10 years old. Buy the book, but go to a search engine and search for Pirc Defense and you will find my analysis all over the web which shows how shallow some of their research really is. Good luck. -Roman
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but hard work
Review: PIrc Alert is an excellent discussion of the Pirc Defense that contains enough information and analysis for a player to be able to play that opening well with little additional reading. The book is divided into two sections. The first details the essential ideas behind the Pirc, analyzing each concept individually while also comparing the Pirc to the Modern (or Robatsch) Defense. The discussion of the concepts behind the Pirc is comprehensive, but requires a lot of work from anyone studying it. Pirc Alert! demands a serious time commitment from anyone purchasing it -- this is not light reading! The second part of the book is more difficult than the first and is its only poor element. It deals with theoretical elements of the Pirc, and for a beginner is both incredibly overwhelming and may hurt readers rather than helping them. Multiple strategies are laid out against most of white's responses, and I felt myself wanting to spend more time memorizing the theory section than studying the ideas. This is potentially devastating for any student of the Pirc because, as Lev Alburt writes in the introduciton to Pirc Alert, the Pirc rewards ideas rather than memorization. Memorization should be avoided by anyone reading this book until they have read the section on concepts so many times they can recite it verbatim. The book is designed to be studied, and contains lots of diagrams -- so many, in fact, that it is virtually possible to study the book without a board at hand. Doing this is bad, as many of the points made by Alburt and Chernin about the Pirc are only evident when playing through the lines on a board. In the theory section especially, reading the book without a board is utterly self-destructive and dangerous. Overall, Pirc Alert is a good book. The detail in which the authors go is extensive enough for most levels of play, but can overwhelm some less experienced players. If you are looking for a comprehensive and detailed introduciton to the Pirc, Pirc Alert is a good choice. It should, however, be avoided by beginners and studied only very carefully with a board in hand.
Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Opening Book
Review: Pirc Alert! By GM Lev Alburt and GM Alex Chernin is a fantastic opening book. The book is markedly better than other opening books in its presentation of the material. This book gives a complete defensive repertoire against 1. e4 for everyone, but especially the club and tournament player.
Pirc Alert! Is written by two world class GM's. Alburt is a three time US champion, and Chernin remains a world-class player and openings expert. Today, Alburt is a very successful chess trainer and writer and Chernin is the leading expert in the Pirc. The combination of these two and Executive Editor Al Lawrence has resulted in a fabulously produced opening manual that should set the standard that others will be compared with.
Alburt and Chernin emphasize that the Pirc relies heavily on understanding and less heavy on theory. To this end, they spend a great deal of time and effort on developing the Pirc players understanding of the ideas and strategies of the opening.
The book is separated into three parts:
Part I: About This Book, where Alburt explains the genesis of the book, presents his and Chernin's bonafides, and most importantly, explains how to use the book, and how to study an opening.Part I is 26 pages.
Part II: General Themes and Ideas is written by Chernin. He presents all the basic ideas, pawn structures, strategies for both sides and tactical opportunites. Alburt uses a whopping 181 pages in presenting this material. Everything is explained thoroughly and in a way that allows players of all levels above novice to understand easily.
Part III: Theoretical Variations is a joint effort to provide a repertoire by both authors and is built around central ideas. For players of higher levels, Chernin the Pirc expert, adds a special gift, his own theoretical novelties, clearly identified. This is almost unheard of, for a GM to give away his own secrets to the public, which includes his opponents. This part encompasses 230 pages.
As a player of fianchetto based openings, the KID, KIA, and Sicilian Accelerated Dragon, I found the instructional material transferable to other parts of my own repertoire.
I have read several reviews of this book before purchasing it, and found them to be mixed. Pirc pseudo-expert, having played the Pirc for over 25 years, Randy Bauer gives the book a good solid rating, but is critical of the way Alburt and Chernin present the ideas before the variations. I disagree. Alburt the very successful trainer, and Chernin a GM who has been very successful at teaching beginners and experts alike the opening feel that the student needs to know what to look for as they begin the study of an opening's theory. Additionally, they do not ignore the theoretical foundation. It's not like they ignore the theory in this part of the book, rather they point out ideas to look for in the various variations the reader will meet. Besides, if you are hung up on learning the theoretical foundation first, you can start with part three and then proceed to part two. Bauer also expresses concern over the choices of the repertoire as being drawish. He is joined in his concern by the highly regarded player and writer John Watson, who writes very serious chess books for higher-level players. I believe Chernin and Alburt have identified their main target audience as people such as myself, club level players who are seeking a good repertoire that is easy to learn and will give us good chances against our competition which usually consists of players rated below 2200 USCF, and mostly below 2000 USCF. With this in mind, I think GM Carsten Hansen is correct in his review in chesscafe.com. when he calls the book "Without a doubt this is the best general opening book I have seen for a very long time." Hansen also correctly points out that the book is not "aimed at the strongest players." I believe this is where Watson and Bauer miss the target in their reviews. Additionally, since Chernin is the world's leading expert on the Pirc and is much higher rated than Bauer and Watson, I believe his choices are best for the target audience. In fairness to Watson and Bauer do point out the value of the book for lower rated players. Watson in particular points out that mid level players and beginners to the Pirc, will gain a lot from the "extraordinary instructiveness of Pirc Alert! The superb 'Themes and Ideas' section" is "easily the best example I've seen of this idea-based approach."
Although the book is pricey, to me it is worth the price, as it is printed on high quality paper, and is beautifully presented. Add to that, you really do not need another book on a defense to 1. e4, and Chernin's assertion that because of the theoretical novelties, you really do not need to worry about something new invalidating one of the lines in the near future.
I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to learn the Pirc, find a repertoire for defending 1. e4 or plays fianchetto systems. I hope other authors copy this approach, and look forward to Alburt's upcoming companion volumes with repertoires for white, and defending against 1. d4 and other openings.
Rating:
Summary: A great book on the Pirc
Review: The design of this book is very helpful in mastering an opening. I never played the Pirc, but thought it looked interesting and decided to take it up. "Pirc Alert!" got me to understand the ideas first, allowing me to quickly memorize the sharp lines with a grasp of the tactics. The book is easy to read and look at, with plenty of key diagrams, the most important illustration of positions colored in blue, which helps to remember it. The book _is_ expensive, but if you plan on playing the Pirc for the rest of your life, this is the book to get. Even if lines change, the Pirc is flexible enough, with enough ideas, that you will easily be able to alter your repetoir (there's even sections on the sister-system, The Modern Defense). Watch out, John Nunn!
Rating:
Summary: The Future of Opening Books
Review: The design of this book is very helpful in mastering an opening. I never played the Pirc, but thought it looked interesting and decided to take it up. "Pirc Alert!" got me to understand the ideas first, allowing me to quickly memorize the sharp lines with a grasp of the tactics. The book is easy to read and look at, with plenty of key diagrams, the most important illustration of positions colored in blue, which helps to remember it. The book _is_ expensive, but if you plan on playing the Pirc for the rest of your life, this is the book to get. Even if lines change, the Pirc is flexible enough, with enough ideas, that you will easily be able to alter your repetoir (there's even sections on the sister-system, The Modern Defense). Watch out, John Nunn!
Rating:
Summary: Great style outweighs errors
Review: The manner in which this book is written and presented make it one of the greatest ches sopening books ever made. What is troubling and surprising is some shoddy analysis. For instance, on page 367 the authors present the "theoretical novelty" of 12... Qe7 in one of the main lines of the popular 4. Be3 system. The annotation states that, "if now 13. c4, Black responds with 13... b4 and white doesn't have 14. c5 because of 14...Nxc5." I noticed going though the Yrjola "Explosive Chess Repertoire for Black" book that in fact he has 14. c5 as the white move in this situation. Nxc5 actually appears to lose the game because of the reply Qxb4! This is very simple to spot, and it is inconceivable that the authors could have so flippantly made the wrong conclusion on such an important line. The problem with this is much more serious than, say, a typo, because it throws the credibility of the entire work into question. Suffice it to say that this book was written without computer analysis. It's still a great book, but the hit has taken with me is serious because of that error and others I have found as well.
Rating:
Summary: Every single opening should have a book EXACTLY like this...
Review: This book is AMAZING!! Every single opening book should emulate this book to a tee. Essentially the book starts off with moves 1 thru 3 which are pretty much a given. Then is says "ok now there's 7 possible continuations of this and we'll take each one in turn and show you how to play them". And it does an absolutely beautiful job of it. It explains every variation in detail with pictures all over everywhere.
It's not like those other opening books where it just spits a bunch of intermingled variations at you with no diagrams and very little explanation. Love it. Love it. Love it. Funny thing was, in the back of the book is Lev Alburt's phone number because he gives lessons. So I called it hoping to find out whether or not he was going to do one on the Sicilian like this. I expected a secretary to pick up but Lev himself picked up (it was his home number!) and talked to me for 5-10 minutes. That was kind of cool.
Rating: 
Summary: useful but . . .
Review: This is a reasonable though flawed introduction to the Pirc. It provides a useful introduction to the main ideas involved in the most important lines and also includes a moderate amount of detailed analysis. The flaws are of three types: 1. Annoying omissions. For example, there is no mention of White alternatives other than 2.d4. This would be acceptable in a book on topical variations or a review for players of 2000+ strength. But some discussion should really be included in a guide for club players, since (for example), 2.d3 and 2.f4 easily lead to lines with independent significance. A brief chapter addressing unorthodox White second moves doesn't seem too much to ask. Some of the subsections similarly omit White choices as early as move four or five that the Pirc player will see frequently. 2. The authors are far too glib in claiming that this opening can be essayed successfully with only a modest amount of theoretical knowledge. If you are looking for a response to 1.e4 that is playable without much study the Petroff, Scandinavian or forcing lines of the Ruy Lopez (e.g., Schliemann variation) would be a better choice. The strategic ideas in the Pirc are, in general, much clearer for White than for Black (especially the thematic h-pawn assault and associated king-side attack); the latter player therefore needs more theoretical preparation. 3. Discussion of middle game ideas are sometimes deficient. There are a lot of comments at the end of analyses such as: "and black gets good play." But there is often no discussion of the middle game themes and the typical club player will not find obvious the source of that play. The judicious addition of complete games with analysis would have beeen a good idea. But even the addition of more complete games without analysis would have helped to flesh out salient middle game and end game ideas without producing an unwieldy tome. Despite its shortcomings, Pirc Alert is a useful introduction to the Pirc for the club player. But the tournament player will need supplemental sources to have hopes of real mastery.
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