{"id":4234,"date":"2025-08-11T15:19:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/?p=4234"},"modified":"2025-08-11T15:19:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:19:52","slug":"book-review-winning-chess-brilliancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/book-review-winning-chess-brilliancies\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Winning Chess Brilliancies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Book Review: Winning Chess Brilliancies<\/strong> by GM Yasser Seirawan, Published by Everyman Chess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJeremy told me, \u201cYaz, more than anything else, students want a chess book that explains the reasons for each and every move of a top grandmaster game. You should write that book.\u201d I did.\u201d \u2013<\/em> The author, commenting on the late IM Jeremy Silman\u2019s advice to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As far as I\u2019m aware, Irving Chernev\u2019s book Logical Chess: Move by Move<\/em> was the first book that discussed a series of games where every move is annotated. This book was first published in 1958, and it is still in print and selling well over sixty years later. Hence, the idea was very successful, and not surprisingly, other books in the same style have appeared since then. Some have followed Chernev\u2019s format and annotated every move, while others have annotated nearly all the moves. After all, it\u2019s difficult to say something new about 1.e4 and 1.d4 in multiple games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Winning Chess Brilliancies<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Author:<\/strong> Yasser Seirawan
Publisher:<\/strong> Everyman Chess<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Book Sample<\/a> | BUY NOW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Winning Chess Brilliancies<\/em> by GM Yasser Seirawan follows Chernev\u2019s original recipe and annotates every move in 12 deeply annotated games. The book was originally published in 1995, and it includes games covering the period 1972 to 1991. All the games were famous at the time, and they still stand up well thirty years later. The first game is game six from the historic Fischer \u2013 Spassky Championship match in 1972 and the last game is the dramatic tiebreaker rapid game from the Yusupov \u2013 Ivanchuk Candidates match in 1991. The represented players were all elite players at the time of the games. Seirawan was also an elite player at the time of the book\u2019s publication, although these days he is more noted as a chess commentator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yasser Seirawan, Wijk aan Zee, 1980.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The author manages to include two of his wins, against Karpov, the then world champion, and Timman, in the book. Justifying this choice, he writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst of all, nearly all the wins from my career sprang to mind. (How was I supposed to keep my ego at bay? I couldn\u2019t!) I humbly put forth only two of my games, so don\u2019t skip them!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each game includes a general introduction that includes the background to the game and the players. This helps to set the game in the context of the time it was played.  While the openings in the games obviously reflect the fashions of the times, the author also provides general comments on opening theory to help readers, such as for example, the conflict between the classical school and the hypermodern school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following extract from game 12 illustrates some of the typical comments on opening theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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