How to Play Chess Lessons From an International Master

by Jeremy Silman

From the basics of the game to advanced strategy and tactics, and everything in between, How to Play Chess: Lessons from an International Master is any chess enthusiast’s opportunity to enhance your understanding of the game. Taught by International Master and renowned chess teacher Jeremy Silman, these 24 engaging lessons walk you through every aspect of the game. After grounding you in the rules of chess, Mr. Silman offers strategic insight into openings and endgames, shows you typical pitfalls to avoid, and examines an array of famous gambits, positions, defenses, mates, and more.

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction

Audio CD

Published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Bon Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has incredible quality I don't think I've ever seen anywhere else, and I still can't believe I witnessed it. It starts with a premise you've never seen a chessboard, figures, and don't know first thing about chess. So it takes you through the ropes of basic rules, figure movements, some more advanced rules (like en passant if you want) and so on. BUT. If you think this book is not for you because you're intermediate or advanced player (like I like to believe), know this: if you're ready to concentrate and put in some work, it takes you from the level of complete ignorance to small wonder of proficiency in a matter of minutes, and to the level of advanced player in a matter of hours if you weren't complete rookie, days if you were. And it achieves this seamlessly, introducing more advanced and very advanced concepts that even some tournament players aren't aware of. Everything's there. Tactics, endgame, great opening repertoire that won't let you down and which you can use as a basis for further studies. It will even hint at your potential chess heroes as catalysts of your own greatness. Simply fantastic.

[Ahmed Ismail · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good introductory course in chess discussed the basics of almost every part of chess,
maybe my best parts of this course were endgames and chess history.
I also loved the way it discussed openings.

[Augusto Bernardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very insightful and full of detail about the game and the famous matches and players throughout history. I did enjoy this course but it really is important, especially as a beginner that you have the visuals as well. It is not strictly audio or else you are missing out on too much, which was my problem so I couldn't really grasp the later chapters once he started talking about really advanced concepts of the game. I appreciate that and deeply admire that but it's simply unfortunately far beyond my comprehension.
I would gladly revisit this course once I have a better grasp of chess and also have the full course. I would also gladly watch more lectures from Jeremy Silman. Great lecturer that gets across his passion for the game and makes you like it too. A couple of things I learnt from the bits I understood were the history of the pieces and how that changed throughout history for political reasons. The importance of patterns and positional study. Some moves that I hadn't understood before or heard of like en picant. Most importantly, it gave me a deep appreciation and eagerness to learn more about the greats in chess like Karpov, Kasparov, Capablanca, Morphy, Alekhine, Tal, Lasker, Botvinik and of course Bobby Fischer.

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for the course guidebook, not the audio course. The book does a pretty good job covering the basics of strategy; several examples come from actual games of chess grandmasters. However, the lessons also fail to cover the topics introduced in the intro paragraph; for example, the opening paragraph for lesson 3 said it would cover the proper etiquette for resigning, the touch-move rule, the chess clock, simultaneous exhibitions, and chess computers, yet none of these topics were covered.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I don't think L understood much of the materials but he finished the videos in 4 days...)

[Rob Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful.

[David Esarey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is intended to be a companion for the Great Courses course. It's really a great course from a wonderful chess instructor. Worth watching/reading more than once to fully absorb everything!