Product Description

The Pirc rewards understanding its ideas over rote memorisation. Grandmaster Lev Alburt, a three-time US champion and one of the world's most sought-after chess teachers, and grandmaster Alex Chernin, a world-championship candidate and the leading expert on the Pirc, give you the most thorough explanation ever published of an opening's themes and ideas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #256474 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Customer Reviews

This book is almost excellent.
"Pirc Alert!" is well produced and well presented. It contains good material properly organised. The discussions are good. The demonstrations are even better.

I had but one problem. I found some unimportant parts b****y tedious. Hey fellahs, listen up! Don't put so much effort into selling the sizzle, or in offering additional products. I came to buy your sausages, but sausages only and they need not have been hand made by saints.

This book provides:-

adequate coverage of principal lines;

clear explanations, including proper identification and explanation of reasons;

recommendations based on authors' (good) choices;

some options and lines for experiment;

valuable summaries and pointers that reinforce memorisation;

structure that eases learning.

Perhaps you hope to use the Pirc, but know little of it. Perhaps you know something of it, but want to improve your results. My advice does not change. Get this book as quickly as you can. (Don't lend it to anyone. You won't see it again.)

Don't worry about scouting new ground. The authors hold your hand while you read the map.

Don't worry about treading old terrain. You will soon look differently at your surroundings. Expect to improve what you use. Expect also to add fresh ideas.

This book helps you clarify your thoughts and organise your knowledge. It helps also, to reduce your mistakes, by marking incompatable ideas.

A previous reviewer has remarked, effectively, that this book demonstrates standards that should apply to instructional chess books. I agree. So will you when you use it.

Use properly this book and you WILL learn. Only the invincibly ignorant, or ineffably idle, could fail to benefit.

Providing intending purchasers are not raw beginners, this book suits the needs of those:-

intending to use the Pirc;

currently using the Pirc;

seeking a new answer to 1: e4.

It is good and you'll find few better. Despite some marketing excesses, award full marks.

The future of openings study!
From now on, the drudgery of openings studying may be a thing of the past!

At last, here's an opening book you can really get your teeth into! Alburt and Chernin have dragged opening study screaming and kicking into the twenty-first century! Top-echelon Grandmaster turned teacher, Alburt, and World Championship Candidate, Chernin, have teamed up with former Executive Director of the US Chess Federation, Al Lawrence, to produce what is possibly the best opening book currently on the market.

"Pirc Alert!" is the opening book that all levels of player have been praying for. With it's innovative and attractive use of "call-outs" and colour-coded diagrams that emphasise important ideas, "Pirc Alert!" instructs and entertains the student of the game. Set out in a clear, user-friendly format, the emphasis throughout is on understanding the ideas behind the Pirc rather than mere banal memorisation of moves.

Even if you don't play the Pirc, there's a wealth of information here that applies to all aspects of the game. If you digest the carefully researched ideas and strategies in this volume, you can't help but make a leap in playing strength.

Grab hold of this gem with both hands and don't let go!

the rolls royce of opening manuals
This is an excellent work in every sense of the word. The authors are both top class grandmasters almost on par with the K's. I mean Karpov, Korchnoi, Kasparov and Kramnik. In addition to this they both have a talent for teaching which of course does not necessarily accompany high playing strength by any means. The book is designed to be a pleasure to read and it is.
The book is in 3 parts, part 1 is more or less introductory, part 2 is the ideas behind the opening, along the lines of Reuben Fine's, 'The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings' (1964), except concentrating on the Pirc defence rather than Fine's more diffuse focus on all openings. In the Pirc I think you do need even more than usual theoretical help to survive white's attacks possibly because there is no immediate black challenge to the centre, this is delayed. The authors certainly provide you with maximum help showing you how to challenge the centre according to the position. Part 2 discusses the strategies and patterns encountered often in comparison with the techniques used in other openings such as the Modern, King's Indian, Benoni, Philidor, Ruy Lopez and Dragon.
Part 3 discusses the actual variations in detail. The authors appear to have started with the incredibly ambitious goal of producing a book that would comfortably surpass in depth and quality all other opening books. I believe they succeeded.