Chess Basics

by David Levens

Learn how easy it is to play the world's most popular game with this straightforward, jargon-free guide. Expert advice, clear instructions, specimen games and more than 200 illustrations ensure that novice players can be more than a match for any opponent. With everything from the simple moves to defense strategies of grand masters, this is a complete course for the novice player.

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2013

Reviews

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Legend has it that the ancient Chinese developed chess to teach their military commanders strategy and tactics. Chess basics covers the principles of the game as well as traditional moves for the beginning, middle, and end games. The reader will also learn the notaions used to record chess moves. The work is highly technical but useable by middle schoolers on up.

[Peter Skeels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book!

[Joel Stenseth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed in this one. Had some good basic tactics, openings, and information. But typos and grammatical errors had me cringing. Also the diagrams were referred to by chess notation (ex: Qb7) but the diagrams didn’t have the rows and columns labeled so the new student of chess can easily see where and what is happening. Going to find a better chess book.

[Tera · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a beginner to chess, this book was a little confusing. Having chess notation without a lot of diagrams is a little confusing, especially when there are multi-part moves being described. One of the previous borrowers of this book (at the library) had drawn arrows on some of the diagrams to help with visualizing the movements. As someone who can be very visual, this is a little hard to use.

[Elliot Y · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were mistakes and with a computer, not the best analysis. First chess book though and was definitely interesting, and I definitely learned.