Customer Reviews

Chess for Dummies

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This book looks like a nice thick book when you first see it. It has a lot of pages. What is so disapointing is that it does a terrible job of providing a logical progression of well thought out lessons to help the beginner build a solid knowledge of chess. It is confusing as it skips around, often covering things totally unrelated to what a beginner needs to know. I agree with the other reviewers that the "Idiot's Guide to Chess" is superior (and "Chess For Juniors" for kids is just great).

The way this book is set up it does not teach in a good order. It has a lot of things that make no sense when you are given information suddenly that has noting to do with what was covered in the last segment and it is not instructional. Look at getting "Learn Chess" by Alexander as a much better book.

James Eade is a very solid chess player and a great teacher. I have played him three times in the US Open, and I have kibitzed with him a few times. Eade has a great knowledge of the game of chess, and that was why I was suprised that his beginners book on chess was far less than great.

This book, although acceptable for beginners, is inferior to the Complete Idiot's series on the game. Eade only touches extremely basic principles, and neglects important subjects such as tactics.

Do not buy this book if you have the option of buying Wolff's book- and definentely do not waste your money buying both of them.

There is no way I can even begin to give this book a higher rating than a tWO (maybe a one, but I am generous here). I own numerous other of the "Dummy Book Series" and have been rather satisfied. However, this book, though not terrible, seems to lose the reader by often not have a logical progression of material, not making things clear and containing a lot of "junk" material that has little to do with actually learning the basics of chess. [...]

My father has a nice collection of chess books with 3 books for the beginner. I rate this one at the very bottom. It spends too much time with badly broken up chapters that make no since to the order they are placed in. It also seems to promote things other than teaching chess to a beginner. It may look thick but only about half the book is really teaching you good things about basic things. YOU WOULD BE A DUMMY TO BUY IT.
The two other books are much better. THE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO CHESS, is not perfect but much better. You will get twice as much material that teaches you in it. CHESS FOR JUNIORS is my favorite because it is just packed with pure lessons with what you need to know the most and is part of a series that allows you to buy more books that continue to take you way far beyond just the basics.
The Dummy Series is overall not bad, but this book stinks!

I had not picked up a chess piece for more than ten (10) years so I was looking forward to reading this book as a "refresher course" in chess. I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED.

While a very well written book (a rarity in chess literature) the information is confusingly presented and not nearly has helpful as "The Idiot's Complete Guide To Chess."

My wife is a complete novice and she began reading this work so we could play chess together. She became so confused that she gave up reading this text in frustration. Therefore, I warn chess beginners that this book may not be the expected panacea.

This work does have an excellant discussion of chess terms and a history of the top chess players with a list of these players best games.

My apologies to you people who loved this book, but unfortunately I was very underwhelmed by this work.

There is a good deal of useful chess information in this book, but the presentation of the material is unsystematic. A good editor should have organized the material better. The book has a slapdash style that will probably confuse the absolute beginner ("the dummy") more than is necessary. A better book for a beginner, in my opinion, is Yasser Seirawan's _Play Winning Chess_ which introduces most of that material covered here, but in a systematic way that builds a more solid foundation for further development in chess.

I have seen this and several other books that are beginner's books.
This book spends a lot of time time covering things that don't teach you anything, like addresses and where to go elswhere. I suggest that. Look at either IDIOT'S GUIDE TO CHESS (excellent for adults) or CHESS FOR JUNIORS (excellent for adults or even more so for kids).

There are better and there are worse chess books out there that introduce you to chess. The good points are that this book does cover a lot of things and is a good sized book. The bad point is that it could be more clear for a kid in the way it is orginized and worded sometimes. I liked the "Idiots Gude to Chess" and "Chess For Juniors" books alot better.

You will find that this book will be very confusing for someone just starting out in chess. It is one of the worst of the Dummy Series ever written. This series can have some good stuff for the beginner in other fields, but this book is not suitable for anyone of any age to learn from. Chapters jump around and there was no lesson plan devised.
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