Everyman
Chess, one of the most active chess publishers
in the world, has focused its aim on the large
market of amateur players who would like to improve.
Adding to its well-regarded “Starting Out”
line, Everyman has just republished the “Winning
Chess” series by Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy
Silman.
Can you name the only non-computer related books
that Microsoft ever published? Give yourself a
pat on the back if you recall it was the “Winning
Chess” series. The six books that appeared
during the 1990s were best sellers with over 50,000
copies of each volume sold. This is not quite
in the league with the one million plus copies
of BOBBY FISCHER TEACHES CHESS, but compares very
well with typical specialist chess literature
where a print run of 3,000 is considered good.
Part of the credit for the excellent sales goes
to the massive Microsoft marketing machine for
getting the series into bookstores throughout
America. More important were the first rate efforts
by the team of Seirawan and Silman. Each volume
was well organized, with carefully chosen examples
and clear explanatory prose. The layout of each
book was generous and the overall production values
quite good. It looked like the books would sell
steadily for decades. But what the chess world
considers good sales was not enough of a profit
maker for Microsoft and the book went out of print.
Copies on eBay have recently been selling for
well over the $20 Microsoft cover price, with
one die-hard student recently paying over $60
(!) for WINNING CHESS ENDINGS.
Fortunately Everyman picked up the titles and
the first three books in the series to be re-released
are PLAY WINNING CHESS, WINNING CHESS TACTICS,
and WINNING CHESS STRATEGIES. The books are intended
to be read in this order, with PLAY WINNING CHESS
aimed at beginner to 1400, WINNING CHESS TACTICS
roughly 1200-1600 and WINNING CHESS STRATEGIES
for 1400-2000. Parts of the latter may be interesting
even for players over 2000 as Seirawan has always
been noted for his outstanding strategical planning
and Silman as a gifted teacher for explaining
positional concepts.
While these books are verbatim reprints of the
originals, the production qualities have improved.
The covers are quite striking and the diagrams
and photos crisper than in the original.
Highly Recommended.
.
YOU
CAN FIND PLAY WINNING CHESS AT
YOU
CAN FIND WINNING CHESS TACTICS AT
YOU
CAN FIND WINNING CHESS STRATEGIES AT
|
