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Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners

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The truth about Chess

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!

121 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 7, 2017

652 people are currently reading
197 people want to read

About the author

Cory Klein

8 books2 followers

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5 stars
143 (44%)
4 stars
104 (32%)
3 stars
55 (17%)
2 stars
7 (2%)
1 star
12 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
Profile Image for Guy Clapperton.
92 reviews2 followers
January 30, 2022
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.
Profile Image for Rumsha.
6 reviews17 followers
December 4, 2020
Informative read

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.
Profile Image for Sara Espeja.
27 reviews4 followers
December 6, 2020
Recomendado para empezar a jugar al ajedrez si no tienes ni idea de la movida.
2 reviews1 follower
January 24, 2025
A Great Beginners Guide

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.
43 reviews
December 8, 2020
A good beginner's guide....

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.)
10 reviews4 followers
November 9, 2017
A decent intro to chess

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.
Profile Image for Craig.
3 reviews2 followers
February 6, 2018
Great intro to chess!

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.
4 reviews2 followers
May 27, 2018
This is an excellent chess book for those seeking to learn how to play the game

of chess and wanting to develop a reasonably good understanding of what the game entails and how to become competitive.
Profile Image for Daniel Daws.
1 review1 follower
March 2, 2020
So remedial

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.
12 reviews
December 8, 2020
Good book for mere beginners like me

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
1 review
December 11, 2020
Good choice for a novice

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.
2 reviews
December 27, 2020
Easy to understand

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
Profile Image for V Andries.
18 reviews
March 8, 2021
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.
38 reviews
November 23, 2021
Great for someone just trying to learn the game

If you have never played chess, this is a great book, if you have played before and are just trying to brush up and learn more, if is not so much
2 reviews
January 28, 2022
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.
1 review
November 4, 2018
Great refresher.

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.
Profile Image for Michael Koch.
2 reviews
January 26, 2019
For newbies

Very basic book about Chess . Thougt i would learn more from it. Good for newbies i guess. Good luck.
1 review
April 21, 2020
A detailed and precise introduction to chess

Really useful introduction, we learnt very quickly the potential of each piece, how to move and think about the purpose of each move.
Profile Image for Jwer.
2 reviews
October 18, 2020
defining basics in limited pages, simple, and much more valuable for those who want to learn chess not only from Youtube or a chess website
4 reviews
January 16, 2021
Excellent

Very helpful for a retired old man learning chess for the first time. Easy to understand and follow the logic
Profile Image for ania.
214 reviews6 followers
February 26, 2021
Typos galore and super basic, but still: interesting stuff.
1 review
May 8, 2021
Excellent

Easy to understand, succinct and very readable introduction to the the strategies involved with chess.... well worth the read with useful intro
2 reviews
June 30, 2021
Simple and easy to understand. You surely can start your chess game after reading this book.
Profile Image for Abi.
3 reviews
January 20, 2022
Extremely inciteful introduction into the brilliant game of chess. Very easy to follow, with diagrams of examples to help with understanding. Really enjoyable read.
Profile Image for Vishnu B.
9 reviews1 follower
April 11, 2022
Very basic and for those who just started playing.
Profile Image for Andrew.
46 reviews
January 11, 2023
The most basic of intros to chess.

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.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews

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