Books for beginning chess players

Chess for Dummies
by James Eade

Great book and loads of fun
Reviewer: Gillian from Canada

   Well, I started playing chess this summer when my parents came to visit us from England. Well, I got a bit fed up with always losing to my dad, but quickly fell in love with the game, so I went out and bought this book. There are other books on playing chess, but to me, this one is the best. It is very easy to follow, written in a way that anyone can understand, and lavishly illustrated with diagrams of various chess situations. It also has a lot of humour in it too, which makes it an enjoyable read as well as very interesting with it's various points of interest scattered throughout, like 'Chess Talk' and 'Rule of Thumb' and 'Warnings'. I highly recommend this book to anyone just starting out or wanting to improve their game.

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess
by Murray Chandler

This is a great book!
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer

    Its a great book for beginner and intermediate chess players of all ages. It helps you with recognizing patterns so you can see check mates several moves before you execute them. It says that most beginner players play chess using five percent of their time recognizing a pattern and 95% of the time analyzing the situation and their moves. A master player recognizes patterns 60% of the time he's playing and only analyzes the situation about 40% of the time. Now I play trying to look ahead to see if I have been in the position before. I also try to remember positions I'm in for later use when I've won. This book helps you beat anyone who continuously defeats you. Its easy to read. More visual players should put a chessboard in front of them with the positions shown in the book so they can move the peices according to what it says instead of imagining them in their mind. I recommend this book for kids and adults who want to improve their game.

The Kids' Book of Chess/Book and Kids' Chess Set
by Harvey Kidder, Kimberly Bulcken Root

This book makes chess fascinating and easy to learn.
Reviewer: A reader from Grand Forks, North Dakota

    Harvey Kidder's Kids' Book of Chess is a treat for grown ups and kids alike. Kidder describes in vivid detail the history of "the oldest and greatest skill game ever invented." He brings the pieces of the game to life with rich characterizations of the types of people and institutions they were meant to represent. Beautiful illustrations portray queens, kings, knights, and castles. Diagrams illustrate positioning of the pieces and how they move. In the "How to Play" section, Kidder gets the reader off to a running start by explaining the Blitzkrieg, then moves into greater detail in describing the basic strategy of the game from beginning to end. The book is easy to follow, and the sections make sense standing alone. It's fascinating and fun reading, even if you don't play chess and a wonderful introduction to a classic game.

Beginning Chess: Over 300 Elementary problems for players new to the game
by Bruce Pandolfini

Collection of VERY simple tactics
Reviewer: Timothy B. from Denver, CO USA

   The collection of tactical puzzles in this book are the easiest that I have ever seen. Most of the problems are 1 move tactics such moving a knight to fork two pieces. Some of the problems simply involve capturing a piece that is hanging. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but unless you have just learned the game it probably will be too simple for you. But if you have just learned how the pieces move, this will be a great start on the way to starting to solve tactical problems, which are a key to becoming a better player.

I am not familiar with many other tactics books that are this simple. A 1400 rated player could probably go through the whole book in an hour. It is probably even more simple than Bobby Fischer Teaches chess. But while that book focuses mostly on back rank checkmates, this covers different positions, with diagram after diagram for you to find the best move.

One nice thing is that in the end he doesn't just give the answer, he briefly explains why it is the answer. So instead of just saying "Nf6", he says "Nf6 forking the king and queen". Most tactics books, even for beginners just give the answer, and no explanation about why it is the answer, if you don't see it.
 

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess
by Stuart Margulies, Don Mosenfelder, Bobby Fischer

Excellent Book For the Beginner and Novice Player
Reviewer: David C. from Dallas, Tx

   This book by former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer is an excellent beginner book for either an adult or child. This was my first chess book, and it taught me many mating themes I remember to this date, some thirty years later.

The book is in an easy to read format using the psychology of programming learning. The student studies a chess diagram, reads the text and decides on an answer to the question posed. The answer and explanation are on the next page. No chessboard or table is required, just the book. Unlike many chess books which are dull and dry, this book makes learning chess exciting and fun.

I highly recommended this book to parents wanting to get their children interested in chess, for adults wishing to learn the game for the first time, or to re-learn the game they played when younger. The book is as timely today as it was in 1965.

The problems increase in difficulty as the book progresses, and by the end of the book some of the problems are slightly difficult, but by applying the information learned previously in the book, the problems can all be solved.

After reading the book you will want to keep it to read again, time after time.