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Winning Chess Tactics
Readers will learn sure-fire tactics and combinations from one of the world's top chess players.
Attack? Defend? Swap pieces? Tactics are the watchdogs of strategy that take advantage of short-term opportunities to trap or ambush opponents and quite possibly change the course of a game in a single move. Why should players only hope that opponents will blunder when International Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan can show them how to put the tactics of the world's chess legends to work. Choose from the double attack, the pin, the skewer, deflection, the décor, x-rays, windmills, and many more time-tested tactics.
Using classic board situations arranged in chapters by tactical themes, Seirawan teaches readers how to:
>Plan the entire game from the very first move
>Think ahead, step-by-step, anticipating every obstacle opponents can throw their way
>Position themselves for the smashing combination and endgame they have always dreamed of
Board positions from actual games played by history's great chess tacticians are provided throughout. Review tests for each topic let them track their improvement. In no time they will be playing better, with more confidence than they ever thought possible.
Attack? Defend? Swap pieces? Tactics are the watchdogs of strategy that take advantage of short-term opportunities to trap or ambush opponents and quite possibly change the course of a game in a single move. Why should players only hope that opponents will blunder when International Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan can show them how to put the tactics of the world's chess legends to work. Choose from the double attack, the pin, the skewer, deflection, the décor, x-rays, windmills, and many more time-tested tactics.
Using classic board situations arranged in chapters by tactical themes, Seirawan teaches readers how to:
>Plan the entire game from the very first move
>Think ahead, step-by-step, anticipating every obstacle opponents can throw their way
>Position themselves for the smashing combination and endgame they have always dreamed of
Board positions from actual games played by history's great chess tacticians are provided throughout. Review tests for each topic let them track their improvement. In no time they will be playing better, with more confidence than they ever thought possible.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
278 people are currently reading
1110 people want to read
About the author
Yasser Seirawan
43 books58 followersYasser Seirawan is an American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He is a published chess author and commentator. His peak FIDE rating was 2658, which he reached in November, 2011.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
April 14, 2009
Read this with a board in front of you, and when you finish a chapter, take the test positions seriously. Set up positions and try to solve them WITHOUT TOUCHING PIECES. Do this through the *entire book* and enjoy how much sharper a chess player you've become.
October 17, 2018
As someone who from time to time reads and reviews books on chess [1], I must say that this book was a particularly challenging volume to read, and likely would be for a variety of readers. A large part of this is by design, as the author is not writing for chess novices but rather for people who are committed to some level of advancement through developing tactical skill into highly competitive levels. The author even advises those who fail the tactical test at the end of the book to read the book again because they obviously didn't get the lessons that the author was trying to teach from both his own experience as well as his awareness of chess history and particularly his interest in the great tactical masters of chess. The author appears to have a particular interest in those whose greatness in chess was due to their tactical flair as opposed to their understanding of positional principles, and one might be correspondingly inclined to think that the author would be critical of the contemporary tendency to seek ultra-engine moves rather than seek opportunities to show tactical brilliance of a Tal or Morphy.
The material in this slightly more than 200 page book is divided into three parts and twenty-five chapters. The first part of the book, which takes up more than half of the book's length and thirteen of its chapters, examines various tactics and combinations, some of them going several moves in advance. The authors open with definitions (1) and then move on to the double attack (2), pin (3), skewer (4), king tactics and combinations (5), deflection (6), and battery on an open file or diagonal (7). They also opine on the power of pawns (8), and discuss the decoy (9), clearance sacrifices (10), x-rays and windmills (11), intermediate zwishenzug moves (12), and other kinds of draws (13). The second part of the book examines great tacticians and some of their important games, dealing in a chronological order with such greats as Adolf Anderssen (14), Paul Morphy (15), Rudolf Spielmann (16), Frank Marshall (17), Alexander Alekhine (18), Mikhail Tal (19), and Garry Kasparov (20). The author then concludes in the third part with more tests and solutions, with chapters on basic tactics (21), advanced combinations (22), professional combinations (23) and then chapters on the tests from parts one and two (24) as well as part three (25), which amounts to a test on the reader's mastery of the material in the book as a whole.
Again, it should be noted that this book (and presumably the other books by these authors) are not aimed at the casual or occasional chess player, someone like myself, but rather for someone who actively intends on improving their chess game several levels to the point of aiming at mastery and tournament victory. Now, it may be in the future that I may become involved in that sort of competitive chess world in the future, but at present it has not been easy for me to find the sort of face-to-face chess playing that I enjoyed a great deal in my youth. That said, for those readers who do take their chess very seriously and who have ambitions of improving their FIDE ranking and perhaps even angling towards professionalizing their chess game, this book is definitely helpful and useful in that regard, and is part of a series that is aimed at that sort of progression as well, and so if you want to acquire norms like Fide Master or International Master or perhaps even Grandmaster, this book will definitely be of assistance in these goals and I highly recommend the author's historical approach as well as his difficult combinations and challenging tests.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
The material in this slightly more than 200 page book is divided into three parts and twenty-five chapters. The first part of the book, which takes up more than half of the book's length and thirteen of its chapters, examines various tactics and combinations, some of them going several moves in advance. The authors open with definitions (1) and then move on to the double attack (2), pin (3), skewer (4), king tactics and combinations (5), deflection (6), and battery on an open file or diagonal (7). They also opine on the power of pawns (8), and discuss the decoy (9), clearance sacrifices (10), x-rays and windmills (11), intermediate zwishenzug moves (12), and other kinds of draws (13). The second part of the book examines great tacticians and some of their important games, dealing in a chronological order with such greats as Adolf Anderssen (14), Paul Morphy (15), Rudolf Spielmann (16), Frank Marshall (17), Alexander Alekhine (18), Mikhail Tal (19), and Garry Kasparov (20). The author then concludes in the third part with more tests and solutions, with chapters on basic tactics (21), advanced combinations (22), professional combinations (23) and then chapters on the tests from parts one and two (24) as well as part three (25), which amounts to a test on the reader's mastery of the material in the book as a whole.
Again, it should be noted that this book (and presumably the other books by these authors) are not aimed at the casual or occasional chess player, someone like myself, but rather for someone who actively intends on improving their chess game several levels to the point of aiming at mastery and tournament victory. Now, it may be in the future that I may become involved in that sort of competitive chess world in the future, but at present it has not been easy for me to find the sort of face-to-face chess playing that I enjoyed a great deal in my youth. That said, for those readers who do take their chess very seriously and who have ambitions of improving their FIDE ranking and perhaps even angling towards professionalizing their chess game, this book is definitely helpful and useful in that regard, and is part of a series that is aimed at that sort of progression as well, and so if you want to acquire norms like Fide Master or International Master or perhaps even Grandmaster, this book will definitely be of assistance in these goals and I highly recommend the author's historical approach as well as his difficult combinations and challenging tests.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
September 1, 2014
Another nice book by Seirawan. Well written and very easy to digest, even for novice/amateur.
As a passionated by tactics, I appreciated all of it, specially the wide variety of exercises at the end of each chapters and the book.
It is well divided, beginning with commonly Attack Tactics ( skewer, pin, deflection, double attack, battery, etc) and ending with Draws, and more "defensive" tactics.
The second part of the book has some of the great tacticians of all time. Morphy, Tal, Kasparov amongst others are very well represented in 3-4 masterpieces each, in separated chapters.
The third party has more "advanced" tests, even though I don't think they should be called like that, as they mainly contain ideas from the previous chapters, and don't seem to aim to be difficult to solve.
In summary, I'd recommend reading this book as the first of the Seirawan's Winning Chess series, with probably Winning chess Endings being the next one.
As a passionated by tactics, I appreciated all of it, specially the wide variety of exercises at the end of each chapters and the book.
It is well divided, beginning with commonly Attack Tactics ( skewer, pin, deflection, double attack, battery, etc) and ending with Draws, and more "defensive" tactics.
The second part of the book has some of the great tacticians of all time. Morphy, Tal, Kasparov amongst others are very well represented in 3-4 masterpieces each, in separated chapters.
The third party has more "advanced" tests, even though I don't think they should be called like that, as they mainly contain ideas from the previous chapters, and don't seem to aim to be difficult to solve.
In summary, I'd recommend reading this book as the first of the Seirawan's Winning Chess series, with probably Winning chess Endings being the next one.
December 28, 2020
I’ve read this book a couple of times (the old Microsoft edition and the new Everyman edition). The first time I read it, I loved it. It’s a great introduction to tactics. It shows what types of tactics are available in a game of chess and how to set them up. It doesn’t have enough exercises to drill tactics so going over it won’t necessarily help you if you are looking for a book that you can exercise with. It’s more of a book you read before you attempt a 1001 tactics book. I also loved the section on the great tacticians! It was inspirational.
May 11, 2010
A good solid foundation of the tactics of Chess. I have finished reading it, but I still am going to go back and solve all of the problems, many of which I just skipped knowing that I would get back to it soon.
December 8, 2010
An excellent and thorough (it seemed to me) introduction to chess tactics. It has really started me thinking about chess in a far more constructive manner, and my rating is improving because of this.
Next - his book on strategy ... :)
Next - his book on strategy ... :)
July 25, 2023
A great book of tactical explanations and puzzles for the intermediate player. The puzzles range from very easy to very difficult. Seirawan is a master at writing engaging chess prose, and he has brought together an impressive collection of real game examples.
June 5, 2009
I love this series. Yasser is a good chess author and doesn't get too embroiled in explaining every varition.
Currently reading
January 27, 2010This book has some great tactical training. Well written book from Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman.
October 5, 2010
An excellent INTRODUCTION to tactics. Clear and easy to understand for those new to chess. I would not recommend the book to intermediate players.
Read
July 9, 2012The best volume in this introductory chess series. Beginners should practice their tactics and ignore the rest until later.
October 15, 2019
While Play Winning Chess provided a strong foundation that I was previously familiar with thanks to Chess for Dummies, Winning Chess Tactics, revised dives deeper into the individual tactics, such as forks, skewers, batteries, and stalemates. The most useful part of these books are the tests, which really help cement the concepts in your head via active practice versus passive absorption. I would recommend grabbing a chess board to work through the examples and tests, since reading a string of algebraic notation and mentally updating the board won't create as strong a mental picture and helps you recognize the patterns better in real life.
I really like the tone of the writing. It strikes the right balance between serious teacher and humor. I also noticed there's a co-author credit for Jeremy Silman, whose Great Courses course I started watching. I definitely recognize the dry humor of Silman in these Seirawan books. It helps to undercut the false perception that chess is stodgy and deflates the notion that all high level players are elitist. It's a bit like the chef in Ratatouille who proclaims everyone can cook.
I really like the tone of the writing. It strikes the right balance between serious teacher and humor. I also noticed there's a co-author credit for Jeremy Silman, whose Great Courses course I started watching. I definitely recognize the dry humor of Silman in these Seirawan books. It helps to undercut the false perception that chess is stodgy and deflates the notion that all high level players are elitist. It's a bit like the chef in Ratatouille who proclaims everyone can cook.
October 4, 2019
A must have for all chess enthusiasts looking to get better. This is primarily geared for people who have passed the beginner phase and looking to improve their game. I personally read it as I have been teaching teach my 9 year old since he was in kindergarten and he's a good player but trying to get him to think better. The book has been a tremendous help into strategies for winning. Other chess books I recommend for really improving your chess:
"My System" by Aron Nimzowitsch (The chess Bible for all chess players)
"My 60 Memorable Games" by Bobby Fischer (He's hailed as one of the top three players of all time)
"How to Reassess Your Chess: Chess Mastery Through Chess Imbalances" By Jeremy Silman
"My System" by Aron Nimzowitsch (The chess Bible for all chess players)
"My 60 Memorable Games" by Bobby Fischer (He's hailed as one of the top three players of all time)
"How to Reassess Your Chess: Chess Mastery Through Chess Imbalances" By Jeremy Silman
November 25, 2017
This was the first chess book I've read on tactics and I left feeling like I have a great foundation for eyeing tactics now.
The Author, Yasser Seirawan, does a great job of showing simple tactical moves like forks, pins and skewers. Then, he highlights the principle of these moves in more complex, real game positions where the player must evaluate how to make the tactic work for them.
I'd say that this shouldn't be a book to expand your tactical eye, but as a beginning or introductory book to tactics its a great book.
The Author, Yasser Seirawan, does a great job of showing simple tactical moves like forks, pins and skewers. Then, he highlights the principle of these moves in more complex, real game positions where the player must evaluate how to make the tactic work for them.
I'd say that this shouldn't be a book to expand your tactical eye, but as a beginning or introductory book to tactics its a great book.
February 21, 2022
After reading this book, I noticed how my tactical skills have definitively improved. There were some “aha” moments for me (what is really a forcing move, how to find them, checking the tactical opportunities of the opponent against mines…). Each chapter also includes some good positions to practice your tactical skills. I knew the theory behind the basic chess tactics before this reading, but I was not able to apply effectively any of them on most of my games. I feel this book changed that, at least a bit. Good stuff!
October 29, 2023
I've seen videos on YouTube of Yasser Seirawan and his energetic energy around teaching and lighting up the chess community. I have to say that he is just the same in the book. He made it fun to go through the theories, as even in how he writes captivates his enthusiasm and passion for chess. I'd say the book is also well written as he makes sure that any level player can progress by introducing a new tactic and developing the complexity as the book goes on, even my beginner friend was hooked! I look forward to pick his other books in the winning chess series. 5/5 stars.
August 20, 2025
3.5
Hard to review. I think the descriptions of tactics and illustrative examples were quite helpful, and probably would still be useful at the intermediate level. I also enjoyed the problems at the end of each chapter.
That said, I think it's a little outdated, some examples seem to rely on opponents playing suboptimal lines. Some even rely on opponent blunders. While it's good to know how to capitalize on these, it's generally a bad approach to play expecting your opponent to blunder.
Enjoyable, approachable, well-written, but maybe a little past its prime.
Hard to review. I think the descriptions of tactics and illustrative examples were quite helpful, and probably would still be useful at the intermediate level. I also enjoyed the problems at the end of each chapter.
That said, I think it's a little outdated, some examples seem to rely on opponents playing suboptimal lines. Some even rely on opponent blunders. While it's good to know how to capitalize on these, it's generally a bad approach to play expecting your opponent to blunder.
Enjoyable, approachable, well-written, but maybe a little past its prime.
June 9, 2022
Just another terrific chess book by my two favorite authors, Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman. They are both just great teachers and writers! Enjoyed the topic of chess tactics and loved the game collections of some of the best chess tacticians. Nice mix of quizzes to make sure you learned each topic discussed. I would highly recommend this book to improve your tactical vision. You won’t regret it! 😎♟
February 26, 2022
A great book of tactical explanations and puzzles for the intermediate player. The puzzles range from very easy to very difficult. Seirawan is a master at writing engaging chess prose, and he has brought together an impressive collection of real game examples.
April 27, 2018
في وجهة نظري سلسلة ياسر سروان هذه تعتبر الأفضل
January 7, 2021
Yasser Seirawan's "Winning Chess Tactics" , is a great book that greatly improved my understanding of tactics.
October 2, 2021
A helpful overview of all tactical ideas (one main idea for each chapter), with supporting examples and tests at the end of each chapter. Some of the puzzles are quite good
November 30, 2021
The first chess book I ever read, and probably the funnest. Definitely one of those books that will up your game overnight, if you're a beginner.
December 28, 2021
Excellent series
July 22, 2022
An amazing selection of puzzles, both difficulty and variety-wise!
Haven't gone through the game collection yet, but will do in due time 😊
Haven't gone through the game collection yet, but will do in due time 😊
February 19, 2023
Very, very helpful.
February 20, 2025
Another yasser classic
January 29, 2021
Pretty good for basic tactical ideas and examples.
February 12, 2017
Follows Yasser Seirawan's teaching a style in a similar way to its predecessor (Play Winning Chess).
It is a great starting point to know the different tactics, with examples.
It is a great starting point to know the different tactics, with examples.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews