Pirc

I am being mentoered by two higher level players. They both suggested I study the Pirc, any advice on books, websites,etc. Any Help, info is greatly appreciated.

"Chess Opening Essentials: The Complete e4" has an 8-page explanation of the Pirc. Many booksellers like Barnes & Noble and Borders have a copy so you could even read it in the store to save a few dollars. The idea of learning an opening at the 1000 chess.com level should be to play the same first few moves every game and get familiar with the positions and ideas--not to memorize variations. After that, play some Live Chess to explore what happens in real games. A new opening takes some getting used to. Good luck!  :)

KillaBeez> Pirc Alert looks pretty good.  I have yet to read it though.

Good point, you made it to 1788 on chess.com without reading it.

 I have also seen good reviews for Pirc Alert.

I dont play the Pirc myself but if i was going to take it up i would buy Pirc Alert.

 KillaBeez is alot stronger than 1788, FACT!

Graw81> KillaBeez is alot stronger than 1788, FACT!

The point I was trying to make was, the original poster was working to increase his rating from 1050. Choosing an opening and learning the first few moves is probably on that path, but reading a full book about it is a bit of a detour. If he simply enjoys reading about opening theory--or for that matter, the history of the Grandmaster title--that's fine, but he should know it's a detour. I was meaning to say that KillaBeez managed to get quite far without reading Pirc Alert--perhaps I was not too clear. ;)

 chessdadx2,

I don't agree with your mentors.

At your level (rating around 1100) I would not advice to study the Pirc. Concentrate on learing chess tactics and strategy basics before complicating things by studying opening theory.

I've played the pirc for more than 10 years now and can say that it's not an easy defence.

But if you really insist... yes Pirc Alert is a good book. One of the best on the Pirc.

Don't recommend counterintuitive defenses like the Pirc to a beginner.  Start with 1. e4 e5, or 1.d4 d5 defenses.  Imbalances are good to learn once a person learns how the pieces move and the basics of opening and development and is comfortable with getting into the middlegame.

if u like to study Pirc and u thank that u will be distinct

you should study it

Listen to your heart

pirc alert is okay i have used it, i found james viguses "the pirc in black and white" to be more approachable though. 

the pirc can be tough to play though, you can get overwhelmed in the center easily and white can pretty easily tear the game open, in which case you ll have to be strong tactically.  but it s still a relatively simple defense to get the hang of, thematically, so i still suggest it. 

Chess Opening Essentials 1.e4, Dijuric, is probably the best one volume book to cover all the King's pawn openings.  Well organized.  Good description of the openings and reasons for the moves. It covers a couple main lines of the Pirc; Australian Attack and Classical.

Winning Chess Opening, Seirawan, covers Kings pawn and Queen's pawn openings, with extra emphasis on the moderns: Pirc, King's Indian Defense, and King's indian attack.  The book is horribly organized in terms of finding the opening you want, but once you find it, the move by move descriptions are excellent, even better I think than Dijuric's book.  Seirawan covers all the other King Pawn and Queen Pawn openings and then toward the back of the book, makes a case for playing the moderns as a relative beginner; Pirc, KID, KIA.  His argument is that they are all similar setups and between them can be played against anything.  Much of what you learn in one will carry over in principle to the other.  (The counter argument is that those openings are rather positional requiring some extra knowledge of pawn structure and weak and strong bishops and knights to get the most out of them.  Also that it's better as a beginner to play open center games that result from the classical 1.e4 openings to get more practice on basic tactics.)

In Seirawan's book, the Pirc is listed as, "A Solution to the King Pawn Opening," if you can believe it.  The title never says Pirc.  "Pirc" is buried in the text.  Similarly for the KID and KIA.  But he covers these three in some extra detail.  Of course as a result you will get much less detail on the rest of the 1.e4 openings in the Seirawan book than in the Complete 1.e4 book.  

If you want to study the opening on your own, I think you'll want either one of the books above, based on what you want versus what the book contains.  You'll have a difficult time studying the Pirc Alert like a text book.  I think it's too advanced for your level.  It will just seem too dry to get very far.  On the other hand, as a reference book, it is the absolute best.  If you are playing someone rated say 2000 in a friendly game, who knows and may bring you down these lines, then the Pirc Alert is great. It will even leave you with a few good ideas for next moves at the end of these lines.  But playing people 1500 and below you'll be lucky if you ever get more than 10 moves down any of these lines, and might as well use the books I mentioned above.

If you decide you want to start with 1.e4, then the essentials book.  If you want 1.d4 too, and ok with less coverage on most of the openings but more on the Pirc, KID, KIA, then Seirawan's book.  If you want the Pirc bible, with actually very good description though assumes some experience for the reader to understand it, then Pirc Alert. 

Shoot, just buy all three and get it over with ;). 

I agree with what's been said above, that there are better openings for the beginner to devote a lot of time to than the Pirc. I have the everyman book, "starting out: the pirc/modern". I think it is a very good book. I am studying it in some friendly unrated games here at chess.com. But I've decided that the Modern Defence is more to my liking. The modern and pirc are similar. But it never hurts to become familiar with various openings. A few people here have mentioned "Chess Opening Essentials - Volume 1: The Complete 1.e4" by Djuric, Komarov and Pantaleoni. This is an outstanding book for beginners. It is laid out very well and is easy to reference. Wish it had been around when I started playing three years ago. I really hope volume 2 is in the works.

Good luck to you in your endevours! 

I have read Pirc Alert and it is a really good book,

And I had many interesting games with the Pirc,

but I eventually stopped, it's really difficult to get attacked all the time

I would think that the Austrian Attack is not something that a player such as the OP is going to want to go up against all the time. Actually, I'm not really sure why much anyone would, considering the options, unless whoever they have studied it much more than their opponents - making it a good surprise weapon or for if you play against a lot of people who've never heard of it before

Edit: Also, who higher is "higher level", and do they have a history of mentoring?

dude, take one or two openings then stop on them, study tactics and endgame!

that's what really matter on chess

see ya

Starting Out: The Pirc/Modern Joe Gallagher.