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| Learn Chess: A Complete Course | 
| Authors: O'd Alexander C. H., T. J. Beach
Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $2.61
You Save: $12.34 (83%)
New (21) from $5.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 126876
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3rd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.7
ISBN: 185744115X
Dewey Decimal Number: 794
EAN: 9781857441154
ASIN: 185744115X
Publication Date: October 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Ships Next Business Day!
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 9 | | NEXT » |
 An excellent but tedious book August 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Many years ago when I was a child I bought some random book on how to play chess and I learned two things from it: 1) how the pieces move, and 2) that it's often good to open with e5. I was too young at the time to really want to study it, but ever since then I've always felt the desire to learn how to really play and not just move the pieces around the board.
Finally, I decided to put some effort into it and I chose Learn Chess: A Complete Course as my "first" book to learn from. (That old book is somewhere in my bedroom at home, but I consider this book my first real attempt to learn strategy and tactics.) So I'm evaluating this book from a beginner's point of view -- someone who basically knew how the pieces moved and that's all.
Having said that, I would highly recommend this book for a beginner. It begins with how the pieces move, of course, and how to read and write chess notation, but these chapters are short and to the point and very quickly you'll be learning how to play.
The book is divided into two volumes (which were originally two separate books): the first volume explains the basics, such as what your goals should be during the opening, how to attack, and how to win at the endgame. I think the most enlightening part of this volume for me was the explanation of the value of the pieces. This was something I had always wondered about and this book tells you (even in mathematical terms) what the value of each piece is relative to the pawn (and to one another); the second volume delves much deeper into strategy and tactics. You'll learn about forks, pins, skewers, and more. You'll also learn some opening lines and variations, and how to play some endgame scenarios.
For all these reasons, it's an excellent book that really seems to cover everything (and more) that a beginner needs to know. But I must explain the second half of my review's title. This book is often very tedious to get through because it's not a book you can just sit and read. Granted, maybe most chess books aren't because they need to use examples to show you certain ideas, but this book is *loaded* with examples such that the body of the text for pages at a time is chess notation. There are, of course, diagrams as well, but following along with all of these (especially if you are a beginner) gets very tiring. So as thin as the book is, it requires a great deal of study and care when going through it. Also somewhat frustrating are the examples that say something like "Now imagine the rook on a8 is instead on b8." Well, unless you set up all these positions over and over on a chess board, you'll have to do a lot of imagining and keep a lot in your head. I'm good at doing that, but still, it just felt like a burden at times. I suppose what I wanted was a book I could read straight through so I would at least have all the basics down, and *then* I could go through examples to reinforce these basics. But this book is slow-going, and as I mentioned above, you won't even get to some pretty important ideas (pins, skewers, etc.) until the second volume.
So all in all, if you are prepared to sit down and study with this book, I highly recommend it.
 Just learning June 11, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am just starting to get into the book. It appears to be straightfoward, just need to practice.
Ok Book January 21, 2008
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
I bought this book for a friend who wanted to start learning chess. I don't think it was the best book I could have got her.
 Excellent place to begin December 24, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've wanted to learn chess for years. I've actually owned a chess set since 1974 (and have still got all the pieces!) but have never really learned how to play. Sure I know where pieces go and who does what...but "A COMPLETE COURSE" a wonderful learning tool. It spends time on the values of all the pieces. Which this dummy (Duuggh!) was not even aware of. Great.
The author spends time on all the fundamentals that even some experienced players have over-looked.
Highly recommended, from someone who is a bit cynical about a lot of authors motivations for writing and publishing their opinions. It is written well, and also well explained (there is a difference); as one would expect from an English author. One can always count on the Poms for syntax, grammar and punctuation.
If you have struggled in the mire with chess over the years; this will assist well, in getting through that bog, so to speak.
Highly commendable work.
Step by Step my high school prep! January 2, 2007
23 out of 25 found this review helpful
When I was in Elementary School studying chess from grades 3-6) I learned from "Chess For Juniors" as my text book (probably the best and most easy book to learn from for a 9 to 13 year old). However, for a higher reading level I found this book to be an equal if not a better book for an 8th or 9th grader (not to put "Chess for Juniors" down (it is certainly better for your average elementeary, and early middle school reader and has everything needed for the non-high school player), but "Learn Chess" is like what I like, A college text book, like my older brothers in college use. Simple suggesting, NO BETTER BOOK FOR AGE 16+ reading level is this one, LEARN CHESS, under that "Chess for Juniors". Get Started in Chess these books are the best!!!!
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