Chess Fundamentals (Algebraic) [Paperback]

Jose Raul Capablanca (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Everyman Chess; New edition edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857440730
• ISBN-13: 978-1857440737
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Intuitive Player's First Move, June 23, 2000

By 

AmericanPlayer (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chess Fundamentals (Algebraic) (Paperback)

This book is the best way to jumpstart a beginning to chess mastery. Capablanca gives a mild technical backdrop before presenting some of his own games. Capablanca synthesized positional ideas when the rest of the world was trying to figure out how to out calculate their opponent. This book gives an introduction to the system of thought that gave legends like Fischer, Karpov, and Kramnik their start. Warning:Opening theory has evolved to make the games most of the games in this book obsolete from the standpoint of theory. But if you want to know how an intuitive chessplayer thinks, read this book.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, February 25, 2006

By 

Claudio Rivera (San Juan, PR Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chess Fundamentals (Algebraic) (Paperback)

Only few words we know about Capablanca himself of his conception of the game. This book is an absolute classic. Like the books of Lasker and others of their time, they are best to get their view of the game than to learn how to play.

I have been investigating the thinking methods of the old champions and this little book introduce the concept of the calculation by visualizing future positions. Capa doesn't expose details about it, but his writing help us to get the concept: visualize the goal position in mind and then try to construct it at the board. That method was repeated in Lasker's Manual writing about positional and combinatory players. In our days this conception is regained by Silman and Beim as new concepts and without proper credits to the old guys.

As any classic, get this book!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book: But don't confuse it with a reference, December 3, 2004

By 

Daniel Moerner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chess Fundamentals (Algebraic) (Paperback)

Chess Fundamentals is a book anyone can find space on their shelf for. However, before going further, I'd like to remind people this is a self-teaching book, not a reference. Many have complained that this book is sparse on explanations and that Capablanca left the student to find most variations. They seem to have lost the point that this book is meant to teach through hands-on experience, the best method, rather than by just telling everything.

Treatise aside, this book is superb. It has a great focus on endgames and explains the opening well. The only fault I could find was that the middlegame section focused too much on combinations and not enough on positional play--however, positional play could take 100 books to fully explain, so it doesn't really matter. After reading this book, my rating on playchess.com rose by over 300 points! I highly recomend it.