Customer Reviews

The Mammoth Book of Chess with Internet Games: New Edition Featuring Internet and Computer Games (Mammoth Books)

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

 

 

The 1st edition has been reprinted in hardcover and is now called "Chess" by Graham Burgess. As chess instruction books go, this is average at best, but it is a good value for the money. However, it is not so good for beginners.

The best thing about the book are the descriptions of plans for various openings, and typical traps. So this is a very good book for trying new openings.

The 2nd edition has more current info on computers, but that section is really unnecessary anyway.

The rest of the book has decent material, enough to last you quite awhile, but nothing that will give you any epiphanies.

By the way, the companion (still out-of-print as of October 2003) games collection, Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games, is a truly excellent book for intermediate players.

I bought this book three reasons
1) ***most important*** It covers most of the openings and almost if not all have actual strategic game annotated example for that opening. It also lists traps in most of the openings.
2) All the other topics are well written too.
2) The book is worth the money overall.

This one book covers it all

This is truly a chess book that all levels can enjoy. It teaches the basics. It has chess lore, some mate in two puzzles, some devilishly hard combination puzzles.

It also has information about chess on the Internet (updated since the last edition of this book), and information about chess openings, endings, and middlegames (the latter dispersed among several chapters).

It even has a chapter on chess puzzles, which is an art form by itself.

The information on how to use chess databases and how to use chess programs is surprisingly helpful; I have never seen it in print before.

I think everyone should own or buy a copy of this book for someone... Esp if they are starting out in the chess world or around 1200-1500 or low STR... This book is a great little bit of everything kinda book... Has coverage on attack and defense, some tactical and endgame puzzles... Also gives basic few moves of most openings that matter with some games for them... So you can least find a basic idea of what path you wanna go towards the opening etc... Some of the lines he says might not be the best, but they are not awful either... He has a style that is pretty easy to read to say least... You dont find yourself thinking how boring and awful he is etc... Its nice cuz he has about 40 mid level tactic puzzles from actual games... Then follows up with about 25 puzzles for more advanced players taken from actual games as well... He also explains in most cases pretty well why the game is over or what to do if this move... The book is huge, while the price is not... This was the first chess book I bought, I got a copy from library and rest is history... Ive bought this book for a friend also I got him Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess... Helped get him to play at least something that resembled Chess ;)... Maybe he could of had a few more endgame puzzles, but its not a real problem... He left out at least 1 good opening for white, but can only fit so much into 1 book... Also I dont mind that he left out Levitsky Attack personally :)... Still for the price and the content, I can not think of a book that is a better over all value... Do your self a favor, if you only ever get 1 chess book... Make it this one...

The mammoth book of chess is a very comprehensive and interesting book. The openings section has a short verbal explanations on most of the openings, and a lot of games to give strategic examples.
The middlegame section is also very good and it has a lot of puzzles in different levels, from easy mate in two to very hard combination puzzles. Best for beginners to intermediate players, but advanced players can enjoy the second part of the book too, which is about other chess related subjects like computers and internet chess.

With all the chess books out there which ones do you choose to start out with? I determined that what the National Scholastic Chess Foundation recommends is a powerful indicator on which ones to buy. This was on the list.
http://www.nscfchess.org/nscfbooks_i.html#winstrategy

Time will tell how much it helps me.

This is a fairly large book which goes over close to any given topic you can think of in chess. While many times, the "wide but not deep" concept just doesn't work well and leaves the reader wanting for more, this is certainly not the case in this book. While you DO want to know more about some subjects you will read about in the book, you will not feel like you are missing something after reading a section on the topic. If you are on a budget and want a book that you can learn loads from, this hands down is your book. Even if you aren't on a budget, this is your book.

The book has bredth and depth into the dynamics of chess play. It is well written and illustrated.

Unless, you have time to set up a board and mimic the countless moves, or you have an out standing memory, this book is hard to follw. The parts that I am able to read is pretty good good ideas, but mostly massive chess notation. It says 900 diagrams but with each one is 50 moves to get to the postion and 50 after the picture to get the logic of the position. I guess if you are a master it would make sense. Defininatly not for beginers or even intermediate players I would say.

I am mystified why anyone thinks this book is "comprehensive" let alone good. If you are a novice player-stay away, this book is awash is jargon and silly hyperbole that I assume is understood by advanced players. This book assumes you know the names of most of the games and gambits. Thus, you need to read other books on chess just to understand what Burgess is talking about.