Chess Fundamentals

Recommended

This is not the book you're looking for if you've never played a single game of chess in your life but are interested in becoming a player of the timeless game. There are other books for that, which will guide you through learning the fundamentals. This IS, however, the book you need once you've graduated beyond that introductory level, when you have an understanding of how the game works. This IS the book you need to help unlock the mystery of what chess is, how to analyze the game, and how to grow as a player while you gain experience and a deeper understanding of what's happening on the board in front of you. This book superbly walks you through the game, in both overall and subtle ways. This book presents you with various setups, problems, solutions, and teaches you strategies that will help strengthen your abilities. Each chapter of the book covers different topics, from the strengths and weaknesses of each piece, to how your pieces can and should work together as one coherent team, to building and maintaining a solid defense while running an effective offense, to how your strategies ought to change as the midgame graduates to the endgame. Not only is each individual topic illustrated by example and a step-by-step explanation of what's happening in each move, but an entire section of the book is dedicated to descriptions of actual games to highlight the concepts introduced in this book, so you can see for yourself how the lessons taught here translate into real-life application. I very highly recommend this book for anyone who's looking to improve their chess abilities. This is a book worth reading, worth studying, and worth returning to time and time again to help you internalize strategies that will prove invaluable as you gain practice and experience.

If you really want to learn about Casablanca there are tons of free resources online, documentaries on YouTube. This book is like… it’s like for a toddler.

Useful skills for first time learner.

I got three books, Modern Chess Openings 15th ed., My Great Predecessors by Garry Kasparov, and this. I HIGHLY recommend all of them, this one especially! Its a thin book, much thinner than most other chess books Ive ever seen, and its wonderful. You can take it anywhere, and its a PERFECT bedside companion. Its size has one drawback though, it doesnt cover any specific openings. It DOES cover everything else to know about chess theory, and because of the internet there are a LOT of resources for learning about openings in a MUCH deeper way than any book could hope to replicate(chess.com, lichess.org to name two examples). As far as important tactical knowledge goes, this book has everything you need.

The book arrived on time and was new. Bought it because it has been updated to the Algebraic notation so it is easier to follow.

Capablanca's advice is fundamental, and his writing leads the reader kindly without bluster. This is a fine chess book for beginner and advanced.

This classic chess book by the late World Chess Champion Jose Capablanca will be a great aid to the chess player who wants to improve his/her game. Principles and theory are explained by the author in a clear manner and illustrated with diagrams and notation. The good news is that it is now in the algebraic notation that is used in contemporary chess. Careful study of this book and working through the exercises on a chess board will lead to an improvement in one's game. It has certainly helped me. So, if the book is such a great aid to improvement in chess, why did I only give it four stars? The reason is that the title of the book is a bit misleading. "Chess Fundamentals" may lead one to believe that this is a book for beginners, but it is not. You cannot learn to play chess from this book. This book is for post-beginners to intermediate players. If you are looking for a book to learn how to play chess, I would recommend "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess".