Customer Reviews

Learn Chess: A Complete Course

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Learn Chess" is a great place to start if you are either someone who doesn't know the difference between a Horse and a Knight or what the "en passant rule" is. It is also good if you know a little about chess but what formal instruction. This is not a small kiddie book! It is written as if it was like a book to be used in a high school chess class (about the right level).

"Learn Chess" is very clear and goes way beyond the starting rules by covering strategy that will take you to an intermedate player! You get a lot of material that is well organized. If you are looking for a book for an elementary school kid you might consider a lower reading level and more simple presentatiion with "chess, a complete guide for the beginner" that is written for the young reader. Once you finish "Learn Chess" you will be ready for books on tactics, traps, openings, endgames and complete game collections!

A classic: the best A-to-Z course in chess I've ever seen; ideal for teaching smart kids to play. It's very, very efficient, which means that it can cover everything from the basics to more complicated material in just 170 pages. The elegance of the presentation makes its points easy to hold in your head when you're playing.

The real glory of this book is the middle sections: the chapters on double attack, forks, pins and skewers, and the like are great. It's easy to explain the basics of chess and some of the advanced student subjects like openings; but the middle game subjects can be hard to explain logically (rather than through endless examples). This book does a great job of that.

The same text used to come in two very attractively bound slim volumes.

This is a very good book on the basics of chess. I would recommend it for anyone who wants to learn to play chess, or who already knows but would like to improve.

This book was originally published in 2 volumes. Now they have been combined into one. Volume explains the rules, and the most basic info about the opening, ending, and how one wins a chess game.

Volume 2 covers the most useful ways to win material (pins, skewers, forks). There follows a chapter on mating attacks. Then there is more info about openings and endings. The last couple of chapters give some general advice and points the reader to other sources of chess information.

Each chapter has exercises. Some of them are simple, others challenging. Don't be discouraged if you can't work them all. My advice is to do every exercise. Write down your answers before looking at the solution. If possible, work the exercises without using a set and board in order to develop the ability to look ahead. I enjoyed working the exercises. They illustrate the lessons, and some of them challenge you to think a little deeper.

The Alburt and Pelts books are also very good. Learn Chess could be used before, after, or along with the A&P books to get a couple of views of the same information.

When I was in Elementary School studying chess from grades 3-6) I learned from "Chess For Juniors" as my text book (probably the best and most easy book to learn from for a 9 to 13 year old). However, for a higher reading level I found this book to be an equal if not a better book for an 8th or 9th grader (not to put "Chess for Juniors" down (it is certainly better for your average elementeary, and early middle school reader and has everything needed for the non-high school player), but "Learn Chess" is like what I like, A college text book, like my older brothers in college use. Simple suggesting, NO BETTER BOOK FOR AGE 16+ reading level is this one, LEARN CHESS, under that "Chess for Juniors". Get Started in Chess these books are the best!!!!

Many years ago when I was a child I bought some random book on how to play chess and I learned two things from it: 1) how the pieces move, and 2) that it's often good to open with e4. I was too young at the time to really want to study it, but ever since then I've always felt the desire to learn how to really play and not just move the pieces around the board.

Finally, I decided to put some effort into it and I chose Learn Chess: A Complete Course as my "first" book to learn from. (That old book is somewhere in my bedroom at home, but I consider this book my first real attempt to learn strategy and tactics.) So I'm evaluating this book from a beginner's point of view -- someone who basically knew how the pieces moved and that's all.

Having said that, I would highly recommend this book for a beginner. It begins with how the pieces move, of course, and how to read and write chess notation, but these chapters are short and to the point and very quickly you'll be learning how to play.

The book is divided into two volumes (which were originally two separate books): the first volume explains the basics, such as what your goals should be during the opening, how to attack, and how to win at the endgame. I think the most enlightening part of this volume for me was the explanation of the value of the pieces. This was something I had always wondered about and this book tells you (even in mathematical terms) what the value of each piece is relative to the pawn (and to one another); the second volume delves much deeper into strategy and tactics. You'll learn about forks, pins, skewers, and more. You'll also learn some opening lines and variations, and how to play some endgame scenarios.

For all these reasons, it's an excellent book that really seems to cover everything (and more) that a beginner needs to know. But I must explain the second half of my review's title. This book is often very tedious to get through because it's not a book you can just sit and read. Granted, maybe most chess books aren't because they need to use examples to show you certain ideas, but this book is *loaded* with examples such that the body of the text for pages at a time is chess notation. There are, of course, diagrams as well, but following along with all of these (especially if you are a beginner) gets very tiring. So as thin as the book is, it requires a great deal of study and care when going through it. Also somewhat frustrating are the examples that say something like "Now imagine the rook on a8 is instead on b8." Well, unless you set up all these positions over and over on a chess board, you'll have to do a lot of imagining and keep a lot in your head. I'm good at doing that, but still, it just felt like a burden at times. I suppose what I wanted was a book I could read straight through so I would at least have all the basics down, and *then* I could go through examples to reinforce these basics. But this book is slow-going, and as I mentioned above, you won't even get to some pretty important ideas (pins, skewers, etc.) until the second volume.

So all in all, if you are prepared to sit down and study with this book, I highly recommend it.

I've wanted to learn chess for years. I've actually owned a chess set since 1974 (and have still got all the pieces!) but have never really learned how to play. Sure I know where pieces go and who does what...but "A COMPLETE COURSE" a wonderful learning tool. It spends time on the values of all the pieces. Which this dummy (Duuggh!) was not even aware of. Great.
The author spends time on all the fundamentals that even some experienced players have over-looked.
Highly recommended, from someone who is a bit cynical about a lot of authors motivations for writing and publishing their opinions. It is written well, and also well explained (there is a difference); as one would expect from an English author. One can always count on the Poms for syntax, grammar and punctuation.
If you have struggled in the mire with chess over the years; this will assist well, in getting through that bog, so to speak.
Highly commendable work.

I am very happy that I purchased this book. I have already practiced FEN and algebraic notation. I'm just learning both methods. I recently purchased a chess set, so I can use it to practice the plethora of problems in this book. I learned a long time ago that you have to practice often in order to master a subject, hobby, etc. You will get LOTS of practice with this book! The answers to the problems are provided. You will really improve your game with this book. I look forward to having my cup of coffee, my chess set, and this book by my side. I am going to complete every problem in the two volumes that are included in this book. Then I'll really play chess! You will be happy with your purchase.

Es un grandioso libro que explica muy bien, y de forma muy sencilla, los principales topicos del juego de ajedrez. Es un libro excelente para principiantes.

I am just starting to get into the book. It appears to be straightfoward, just need to practice.

I bought this book for a friend who wanted to start learning chess. I don't think it was the best book I could have got her.