From the outside, chess seems like a complicated and esoteric game that only a few people with special abilities can play. This is not true. In fact, chess is accessible and can be played by anyone with a brain, a pair of eyes, and imagination.
The ultimate guide for beginners
If you've never played the game of chess or are still discovering it, this book is for you. It is a basic and comprehensive guide that will introduce you to the game and teach you everything you need to know, from the setup of a chess board to the delivery of checkmate. It is filled with advice for beginners, basic tactics, strategies, and diagrams to help you visualize every step of your progress.
The start of a lifelong King's hunt
The objective of this book is not to make you a chess master. That is an accomplishment that takes decades of research, regular practice, and an insane amount of talent. The goal here is for you to become a decent chess player. After reading this book, you will be able to play games with anyone, practice regularly, and sharpen your chess muscles until you reach a decent level of play. The more you'll play, the better you'll get. But it all starts with the basics which you will acquire in this book.
So don't hesitate. If you've always wanted to learn to play chess, now is the time. Just scroll up and grab your copy now!
This is a pretty good primer and in my case refresher and I picked up some tips from the middle section. I have to admit I knocked a star or two off because some of the illustrations are very small on the Kindle and difficult to read; also the word "ultimate" in the title seemed to have a lot more to do with selling books than taking it a stage further as perhaps I'd hoped.
It's fine and if it had just called itself a guise I'd have rated it higher. But an 'ultimate' guide really needs to offer me a little more polish.
As an intermediate chess player who knows the basics I wished to know more about the finer details of said basics and theory behind some strategies. This book was simple to follow and explained well with relevant diagrams. Highly recommend to novices and intermediate players alike.
My brother was an avid chess player. He taught the rest of his siblings how to set the board up and how to move the various pieces. He wasn't much on teaching us strategy. I guess that's why he always won. I have scanned a book or two to make sure I was moving the pieces correctly. I have not played in years but one of my granddaughters recently asked if i would teach her to play. I showed her how to set up the board and how to move the pieces. After we started playing she started asking questions I could not answer. This is where Klein's book comes in. Klein's book is more like a personal guide. He takes you from the very fundamentals all the way to strategy. What I really like about this book is his illustrations. He has many chess board scenarios showing you the moves and how to use each piece to arrive at check mate. I used this book as a personal guide. I studied the boards and moves in the book and then played against the computer. I would read and study a little more and then practice that. The diagrams and explanations are very well done. This book has helped me to understand the game and I am learning some strategy as well. Klein also shows on the boards some of the winning moves of some famous chess masters to illustrate some if his points, which was amazing. This book is a simplified introduction but it is thorough and fun. I look forward to using his other to guides to learn more and improve my game. This book is a worthy read, it's worthy every penny.
And a welcome refresher to the casual players who play the odd game, with the increase of interest in picking the board up and having a go following on from the queen's gambit this is a welcome and easy to follow introduction.
Would have been 5 stars but there is a slight issue regarding the contrast of some of images whilst reading on an eink kindle, (you can make the images out but the contrast is not as clear as it could have been.)
Half the book covers the base rules of chess, and several mislabeled diagrams might throw since people off. However, it introduced me to some concepts like tempo and pawn structure. I'd readily recommend it to anyone completely unfamiliar to chess, and if bought cheap it's probably a nice stepping stone for anyone starting to git gud.
This book was a quick read but provided quite a few aha moments. I came into the book knowing how the pieces moved but not much beyond that. The examples were great and it made me excited to try out many of the new things I have learned.
I can’t imagine anyone with access to thus book that wouldn’t benefit more from watching a YouTube video instead. I can appreciate the effort, but it’s basically a moot text.
Very clear Captivated my interest I knew how to move chess pieces but never really read about the game This book helped me to learn some rules i did not know and taught me basic chess useful strategies
Covers all basics, gives clear examples of combinations, all advices can be applied immediately in the game. Spelling mistakes spoiled it a little for me, though.
The way book is lay out. Learned few things I never thought of before. What I did not like was chessboard small and notes under board very small words so harder to read. I was using my phone kindle
Basic. It’s ok for kids or people who don’t know much about chess. Better to get something more comprehensive that progresses with more in depth knowledge and offers challenges and opening theories.
Only for absolute beginners. Already knew most of the stuff in the book but I still consider myself a beginner at chess. Was expecting a lot more content. Don’t expect too much if you can already play.
I thought this a perfect book for anyone new to the game or like me who just purchased a new board and wanted a quick refresher. The examples were very clear.
Extremely inciteful introduction into the brilliant game of chess. Very easy to follow, with diagrams of examples to help with understanding. Really enjoyable read.
My biggest issue is the low quality of examples provided. The examples used to show off concepts were often inaccuracies, and even blunders. This shows how low effort the book was when the author doesn't take the time to create good, and accurate, examples of their concepts.