Customer Reviews

Alpha Teach Yourself Chess in 24 Hours

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Alpha Teach Yourself Chess in 24 Hours" Zsuzsa Polgar ...et al, [...] ISBN 0 02 864408-5

Rates much above the typical beginner book, because Polgar ILLUSTRATES the point she is making, instead of giving you dull and boring, wordy paragraphs to read. When you see the illustration, you QUICKLY get the point of the lesson.

The author is SUSAN POLGAR, and "Zsuzsa" is the Hungarian form of our "Susan". Susan Polgar gives days and weeks of her personal time through the year, to promote chess. She is one of the most self-sacrificing chess celebrities in the entire world, totally committed to enlarge human experience through chess. She has a heart of gold where chess is concerned.

For example, the weend of 13-14 May 2006, Susan Polgar attended the annual Bert Lerner National Championships for children grades Kindergarten through 6th Grade. Many of the children taking home trophies, had the honor of having Susan Polgar appear on stage with them for photographs. Besides that, Ms. Polgar gave a simultaneous exhibition on Friday the 12th of May.

This book has a nice set of questions at the end of each chapter, with answers in the back. I also like the way Polgar has sample games that have a new diagram for EACH and EVERY MOVE in the sample games, and there are explanations for each and every move.

Chapter Nine must be mentioned, because it covers ENDGAMES. It is so important that all chess players get skills for the Endgames, and Susan gives them here.

This book is THOROUGH, and COMPLETE. I can recommend it to any chess BEGINNER as a "first book" on chess. --Bruce R. Bain, President, Denver Chess Club

I wanted a nice and easy book to help me teach my students. I tried the dummies / idiots series. No good! This one is simply a class above everything else out there! This book is good for both adults and children! I love it!

This is a very affective book to train a person how to play chess. I actually was able to teach a group of kids in school using this book as a guide. It worked out great. The children were able to learn it even faster than what the title said. Anyway, I think it is absolutely the best book out there for a beginner. It is easy to follow and comprehend. I strongly recommend it.

This is a very well written book, the best chess book for a newbie. I would defitenitely recommend this book to all beginners.

I have read the book thoroughly and I actually was able to learn chess in less than 24 hours with this book. That is how simple it is. It is amazing how clearly everything was explained. I wish I had this book when I was much younger. I am using it now to teach my own kids how to play chess. It also gives you so much up to date information about the chess world which I found very helpful. I am now a fan of Polgar and Truong for life. Nice work!

I ordered this book to keep me company during Operations Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom. I knew how to play chess; I wanted to learn how to play better. This book was a welcome distraction from the long moments of sheer boredom but it was quickly apparent that it is for beginners only. It is well written & gives plenty of examples of topics under discussion. However, I would have liked to see more games with play-by-play commentary. For these reasons I give it 4 stars. If you're starting out this is a great book to get you going. I would defer to others to make suggestions as to what text(s) would be the next step.

I was a below average player at best and I went out searching for a guide that could do much more for me than just start me off but could lead me down the path to understand the complicated chess literature.

Being an avid reader and wanting to understand the game, I went through both "The Idiot's Guide" and "Chess for Dummies" to find some answers, before I picked up the Best beginners guide around, "Alpha Teach Yourself Chess (in 24 hours)". Polgar, Truong and Horvitz put together the best introductory book you can find for the game of chess.

If you've never played, or if you just started and want to start understanding the game to read the more complicated literature, this is the best book on the market.

The only questionable part of the book is the pro-Polgar twist it throws into some of the lessons, but the bright side to this is the ability to attract more female players to the game of chess.

The most attractive component to this book is the step-by-step diagrams that are easier to follow than what the other two guides offer. You see moves 10-18 in the book, you don't have to have a chess board available to move throught the book. Annotated books are quite intimidating the beginning player and a picture speaks a thousand words.

This is the "Beginner's bible to chess". To top this book and it's understanding of the mind of the beginner would be amazing.

Very good book for beginners. I especially like all the diagrams, make it easier to understand.

This is an exellent book. It's one of the best beginner's books in chess. I also recommend World Champion's Guide to Chess. Both are excellent, easy to follow and thorough.

When starting an elementary chess club, there were things I needed to learn and be able to teach. I have read alot of chess material, but this book by far had the best step by step outline of chess which was clear and extremely easy to follow. It also has a wonderful index in back which is terrific for easy reference for my club members. I recommend this book for beginners and intermediate players.