How To Win At Chess: From First Moves to Checkmate

by Daniel King

Written by Grandmaster Daniel King, How To Win At Chess is the essential guide to the game for young players. It introduces each piece and its moves, explains key principles such as check and how to open a game, before exploring tricks such as forks, pins, and skewers.

With a fresh, contemporary new design, it’s packed with graded test positions and training exercises to help young players improve their game as they progress through the book. What’s more, readers can brush up on the fascinating history of chess, with features on legendary matches and the greatest players, including the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen.

Chess has been revolutionized in recent years―thanks to the success of Netflix’s world-beating The Queen’s Gambit , the rise of chess streaming on Twitch, the desire for self-improvement during lockdown, and the global appeal of Magnus Carlsen, the youngest player ever to top the world rankings―and its newfound popularity with young and old alike shows no sign of waning.

Genres: Nonfiction

64 pages, Hardcover

Published February 14, 2023

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping to use this to improve my kids' understanding of game strategy as the colorful pages looked promising, unfortunately there's not much here about how to win at chess. This book is a basic history of the game along with an introduction about how to play. It barely touches on the most basic concept of controlling the board and reviews exactly one opening.

I'd like to suggest a completely different title: A History of Chess and How to Play.

[William Lindau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Misleading title…I still lose

[Abbigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a how to play chess than a how to win chess/intro to chess book.

[Fisher Rogerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and learned something new