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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best chess book I've ever read., April 11, 2008
This review is from: How To Play Winning Chess: History, Rules, Skills & Tactics: A Complete Illustrated Guide To The Game - Including History, The Greatest Games, The ... Success, With Over 700 Colour Illustrations (Hardcover)
This is an excellent and enjoyable chess primer that will both initiate the beginning player and even teach a lot to someone like myself who has been playing for a long time. The pictures are beautiful, the lessons are clear and instructive and the chapters on the game's history and culture are fascinating. I for one, after 27 years of playing, finally learned chess notation from this book. This book introduces the novice to the notation system in an intelligent way by incorporating_visual_representations of the chess pieces along with standard notation. For example, it will list the first few moves of a game with the notation symbols and then_show_a picture of where all the pieces would then be positioned on the board. I found that kind of mixed approach a compassionate method of immersing the beginner into the intimidating alphanumeric language of chess. I also never truly understood the various strategies of the game until I read this book. Of course, I'd heard the names "Sicilian Defense" or "Ruy Lopez", and have surely played those strategies without knowing what they were called, but this book gave me a solid education in the nomenclature of the strategic options and an overview of the logic behind them. Overall, this book should be in the library of every amateur chess player.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great all-around chess book., April 26, 2010
This review is from: How To Play Winning Chess: History, Rules, Skills & Tactics: A Complete Illustrated Guide To The Game - Including History, The Greatest Games, The ... Success, With Over 700 Colour Illustrations (Hardcover)
Wonderful chess book! Covers history, rules, skills, and tactics. The 700 photos & illustrations are almost worth the price alone. It's basically a chess encyclopedia. It has a little bit of everything, but not too much to overwhelm. I concentrate on chess problems mostly, but wanted a reliable chess reference. I found it nicely with this book. If possible, find it at a local library to page through before you buy it to make sure it has what you are looking for. In the end, this was the best general chess book I have ever read.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A very good, well balanced book, December 12, 2011
This review is from: How To Play Winning Chess: History, Rules, Skills & Tactics: A Complete Illustrated Guide To The Game - Including History, The Greatest Games, The ... Success, With Over 700 Colour Illustrations (Hardcover)
This review is based on the paperback version of the book, which Amazon has not cross-referenced to the hardback version. Since the books are the same (based on the same page length and publishers information) I am including the review here as well as for the paperback version. This is a lavishly illustrated book that covers all aspects of chess. The book opens with a 43 page section discussing the history of chess and topics such as chess in literature in art and in the movies, chess stars of the 20th century, women in chess, chess prodigies and the design of chess sets. I found all of this quite interesting and provided a nice background for the rest of the book, which discusses how to play winning chess. The book presupposes no knowledge of chess and begins with the orientation of the chessboard, and the positions and moves of the chess pieces. The book then focuses on chess play, first in an introductory sense, then focusing on more detailed discussions, such as classic opening moves, planning and then the details of some classic games. I liked this book and highly recommend it, but there are a few things the reader should be aware of. Firstly, at only 256 pages this book can provide only an introduction and overview chess. Secondly, while a lot of material is presented, I would have liked a more systematic and more detailed approach to teaching the game. Lastly, make sure that you have a chess set available when you read this book. While many chess piece location drawings are provided, they are not provide for every move. It is therefore necessary to follow the progress of the games using the notational information that is provided. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it forces the reader to learn chess notation and to think in terms of this notation. I recommend this book to novice recreational players like myself. You will learn a lot and the book should inspire you to learn more from the brief bibliography that is provided.
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