Winning Chess Openings Book

This is the third book in Seirawan's Winning Chess series that I've finished. I had been curious about openings for a while - I felt like I was making moves at random to open games - and in general this book made me understand basic opening principles and gave me an excellent overview of the most commonly used openings and defenses. That said, I got a bit bogged down in the middle portion of the book, in which Seirawan led me through dozens of openings/defenses/variations and the common lines of play that go with them. It would have been nice if the introductory sections (interesting anecdotes about how his opening choices changed and improved as he was learning chess) and the ending section (in which he offered more concrete solutions to beginning players as to how to handle the opening phase) were expanded.

As a whole, though, Seirwan's book was, and will be, an invaluable resource in improving my chess game. I'm a huge fan, and I'll definitely be reading through the entire series.

I recommend Seirawan's books to anyone looking to learn chess, starting with the excellent primer Play Winning Chess, which starts from the most basic ideas and builds to more complex tactics and strategy.

Highly recommended!