The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess
Posted: July 29th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Chess Books | Tags: Chess, Complete, Guide, Idiot's | 5 Comments »
Product Description
Confused by esoteric chess terms like castling, forking, and making Luft? Can’t tell whether you’ve got your opponent in check or checkmate? This book will tell you everything you need to know to become a budding Kasparov, from the names of pieces and their movements to tactics and strategies, from advanced maneuvers to setting up chess tournaments and clubs where you can test your skills. Also covered: a history of chess, from its beginnings in ancient India to how it became the world’s most played game; all the basics of the board and the pieces; elementary rules and object of the game; famous openings and well-know tactics; sneak attacks and other tricky plays; exercises that explain strategies and chess-move annotations (often found in newspapers); and advice for using the Internet and computer programs to better your game and tips on starting a chess club or tournament.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess
This book is MUCH better than the Chess for Dummies book. This one gets into tactics, strategy, analysis and is STILL easy to read and understand. Where the Dummies book teaches how the pieces are moved, this one suggests ways to play effectively. There are many excercises at the end of each chapter that really contribute to your understanding of the subject. It doesn’t go too in depth on opening strategies, or endgames, or any specific part of the game, but it gives you adequate knowledge of everything. That sounds impossible, but then I read this book. Besides, they have whole other books on those subjects so they don’t have to cut corners. If you want a book to teach you the absolute basics, buy the Dummies book. If you want not so much detail on how the pieces move, but more on how to move them, this is the one. This one’s a keeper.
Rating: 5 / 5
If you are just starting out and just learned the moves a few days ago … or you have been playing tournament chess for a couple of years and you still are not where you want to be; THIS IS THE BOOK YOU HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR!
I am a Life-Master. I bought this book to teach out of. I was not supposed to enjoy it. God forbid, a beginner’s book should teach me anything! But this is exactly what happenned.
Not since Capablanca’s Primer and Chess Fundamentals has there been such a book. A book like this comes along once every 20 years. Believe me, I have sufferred through enough of the bad ones, I appreciate the good ones.
If you are trying to improve in chess and you can read, this book will help you. Hint: Set up a board and study every position in this book. You will get the maximum benefit from it.
GM and U.S. Champ Pat Wolff will make you a better player. Get it. Buy two. Give one to a friend.
Rating: 5 / 5
There are basically two types of chess players. Those who know how the pieces move and play maybe once a year or so. Then there are people who study the game and take it more seriously. Whenever someone wants to make the jump from the first to the second stage I always recommend this book as the first stepping stone.
There are lots of chess books out there, but this one provides a great gentle introduction to all of the important phases of chess as a hobby. After reading this book you will not feel intimidated talking to a chess geek, who will talk in a special language such as “he played the Sicilian against me”.
If you have to choose between this book and Chess for Dummies I would recommend this one more. I liked the content and humor better, and found it more useful in general. This book is not just about how the pieces move, and will get you started towards playing serious chess and enjoying in more ways than you originally might think.
Rating: 5 / 5
Legend has it that a former world chess champion, the late Mikhail Tal, used to skim through beginners’ books in search of ideas. If Tal were alive to read this one, I’m sure he’d be thoroughly impressed.
Patrick Wolff describes the game more completely than any single writer in any single text has done before. I especially like it for its separate sections on strategy and tactics, and Wolff’s distinguishing between the two. (Sometimes even I forget which is which.) And I truly appreciate his advice on how to study chess openings and endings. If this book has a weakness, it’s that it might be filled with too much information for the beginner to absorb at once. But, hey, better too much than not enough, right? In that case, I’d advise keeping this book on the side of the chessboard as a ready reference.
I admit that I had my doubts about this book after I noticed on the cover photo that White’s king and queen are not standing on their correct starting squares. I guess it pays to not judge a book by its cover; Wolff has provided a gem of a primer. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
FYI, my all-time favorite beginning chess book is “The Right Way to Play Chess” by David Brine Pritchard “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess” didn’t quite unseat Pritchard’s work as tops on my list. But it came mighty darned close.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book is wonderful for anyone, from the person who has never played chess to someone who knows how to play but wants to become serious. The authors spend a little time on the basic rules of the game and a description of how the pieces move. Most of their effort, however, is expended on the basic tactics and strategies involved in a more sophisticated game of chess. The book provides all the information necessary to become a good player. Most importantly, it accomplishes this goal with lots of illustrations showing how the board changes, move-by-move. As a result, the book is exceptionally easy to understand. You do not need to sit with a chess board or computer, plotting moves, to follow and understand the authors. If you are a relatively new player and want to by one book, this is it.
Rating: 5 / 5