Tarrasch's The Game of Chess: A Systematic Textbook for Beginners and More Experienced Players

by Siegbert Tarrasch, G.E. Smith (Translator), T.G. Bone (Translator)

While there are many chess instruction books available, few have achieved the lofty statue of the present volume. Fewer still have been written by a legendary International Grandmaster whose pedagogical skills rivalled the chess prowess that enabled him to demolish opponents at the board. An immediate success upon its first publication, The Game of Chess has become one of the game's enduring classics, considered by some critics the finest book ever written on the game.

Part if its success stems from Dr. Tarrasch's unuorthodox approach to teaching chess: "I employ quite another method and one analogous to that a mother uses to teach her child to talk. I play with the beginner from the very start in that I put before him simple positions and from them explain the fundamentals of chess. It is the intuitive method of instruction. In this way the pupil learns chess quite easily, of that I am convinced."

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, German Literature

422 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1931

Reviews

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am quite fond of this book, and its author Siegbert Tarrasch. I was around 10 years old when I found this book among my uncle's books. That book was an English language edition published in the 1930s.

Tarrasch was a medical doctor and one of the top chess players in the world from the late 19th century and even going into the early 20th.

The book is clearly written, even poetic at times. Tarrasch felt it was best to start with the end-game, for it has the fewest number of pieces, then he went to the middle-game, and then the opening. After this are games annotated by Tarrasch.

The book shows the winning method for various endgames, for example, King, Bishop and Knight versus King. The middle game section of the book shows attacking patterns, such as the attack on h7. The section about the opening is Tarrasch's take on the the relative valuation of the pieces, the evaluation of a position in terms of Force, Space, and Time, and the generally played opening systems.

The section about the openings is the most dated, even dogmatic. Tarrasch advocated the classical view on the opening: control the center by occupying it, preferably with pawns. In the 1920s, some grandmasters, who were dubbed 'hyper-moderns', said: you can control the center indirectly with distant pieces. Decades of chess play shows that at least some of these hyper-modern openings are quite viable, such as the Nimzo-Indian Defense.

After I learned the rules of chess, I came across this book, and became a better player. The book is an excellent instruction manual, though of course not the final word. There have been advances in chess theory since Tarrasch.

[DW]

I love his spirit. The older style of notation was very challenging for me as a beginner player. I wished I had a more recent edition that used modern notation.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do not think this is the best book for a novice. Maybe it's because I read Chernev's "Logical Chess" first. There is a lot of good information in this book but the presentation was difficult for me to digest.

The topics covered are commendable: The Endgame, Middle-game, Openings and Illustrative Games. I recommend playing through the Illustrative games, which I did. When I loaded them via chess.com, there were many discrepancies between Tarrasch's evaluation and the engine's. With Tarrasch's annotations, it was often difficult to reconcile, leaving me confused at times. Though Chernev's analysis presented the same discrepancies with the engine, Chernev was consistent throughout the 33 games and presented better rationale for his decisions. Chernev's book helped my game and this book, not as much.

As stated, there are many nuggets in this book but they are buried and sometimes difficult to uncover and discern. I'd recommend it for the Illustrative Games first, and the Endgame analysis. However, as a first chess book, others offer a better start, for example Chernev's book and "Simple Chess" by Michael Stean.

[Khashayar Ghazianzad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tarrasch was a great chess educator and writer. He was a very strong player at his time; however, he was overshadowed by the legendary Lasker and did not rise to prominence because of the complete domination of chess scene by Lasker. This is a wonderful book that if you study it well and put in the effort, you will become a decent chess player who will be able to recognize patterns and make brilliant moves.

[David Espinosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for beginners!!!

I believe it’s a great book, because it has the principles you need to learn to develop your chess skills.
One thing I didn’t like was the descriptive notation, but I believe there’s a version with algebraic notations.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tarrasch provides hundreds of well-illustrated examples from game situations to elaborate on middlegame tactics. Various lines are considered without seeming to wander or lack focus. Instructive and illustrated examples are also provided regarding openings and the endgame, as well as typical mating patterns. In addition, this edition includes a dozen (sparsely illustrated) games which Tarrasch annotated. Of these games, Tarrasch played in five. Especially recommended for players of beginner to intermediate strength (USCF 1200 to 1500). The David McKay edition (422 pages) features descriptive notation (e.g., King's Bishop's file, King's Bishop's pawn, etc.) while the more recent Dover edition features algebraic notation (i.e., Ba4, Q x f7+, etc.).

[Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

The opening discussion is marred by dome pretty obsolete opinions, but this is still an awesome book.