Rating: 
Summary: Great for Older Beginners and Brushing Up
Review: This book is great for older (12+) beginners and for brushing up for more advanced players. This was one of my favorite learning books about 30 years ago (the first printing was 37 years ago, but this level of chess is timeless). Now that my 9 year old son is learning to play, under his own motivation, it was just a little too much to begin with (the reading level is about fifth-grade level).The book is laid out so that you can read it both directions. All the pages on the right are right-side-up. You read the right-hand page and then turn to the next one. At the end, you flip the book over and start going the other direction. This is usefull because most of the pages have some kind of instructional setup on one page and you have to solve or answer something, with the answer on the following page. Very easy to use and keeps you from "cheating" by accidentally seeing the answer (like books with the answer on the same page). It is very easy to pick up and learn things 30 seconds at a time -- making it great for reading during travel, while standing in line or while visiting the household "library". The concepts progress smoothly from simple to more complex. Someone said that you really don't understand something until you can explain it to a 6 year old. Fischer is a grandmaster and his true experience shows through in how he does present everything in a manner that is easy to understand and makes you want to say "of course!" after learning it. For any avid chess player, this should be in any chess library of 10 books or less (certainly in any library of hundreds of chess books like mine has been).
Rating: 
Summary: Clever and unique formatting - great beginners tactics book
Review: This was the 3rd or 4th chess book that I ever bought (after reading the dummies and idiots books), and I accidently made a very wise choice! This book will help a beginner (rated around 1000 USCF or less) really get his feet wet with the important idea of studying tactics. You cannot get better at chess without studying tactics! If you are over 1000 it is probably too simple, but reviewing the basics never hurts. There are some really clever things about this book, which I have not seen done in any other chess books out there. One is that there is no notation being used. It is all about arrows and lots of diagrams. This is sort of nice. Also the answers to the problems are given on the next page, so there is no flipping to the back all the time, or accidently seeing the answer to the problem as you try to solve it, as is the case when the answer is on the same page. The book also has pages that are upside down so you read it straight through, then flip it over, and go the other way! Very interesting idea! I read this book while working out at the gym on the exercise bike. I like books like this where you do not need a board to read it. The book has little to with Bobby Fischer, so don't buy it because you are a fan, or think that he is going to teach you something deep about chess. If you are a brand new chess beginner who wants to improve you need to read this book! You will rarely miss a back rank tactic afterwords. I would love to see some companion volumes to this with different sort of tactics. The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I think that the title is a little misleading, and it would be nice if the book was a little longer. But still a great book I highly recommend!!
Rating: 
Summary: What a crock!
Review: Look at this book on the shelf. What a joke! Did Fischer spend even ten minutes on this book? Of course not. It is nothing but a bunch of "how do you checkmate" positions. This is all about marketing. "Oh, gee, Bobby Fischer is so great, and if he's teaching chess, wow, I should buy this." This book is a joke in chess literature. It is not even part of chess literature. It is a a total marketing scam, in the grandest American tradition. There is almost no instruction. It is like you should be able to put a quarter in the gumball machine and get this book. This book makes Eric Schiller look like Shakespeare and Lev Alburt look like John Steinbeck. There is no substance here. People worship Fischer so much that they would buy a book he wrote about how to play chopsticks on piano. And that is about what this is. I think of all the ignorant dads and grandads who have bought this silly, stupid little book for their kids and grandkids, thinking it is a real chess book. What a joke! {oh, that review is so not helpful! How could he insult the great Bobby Fischer like that! No, not helpful!)
Rating:
Summary: it's good
Review: It would be a good book if you were really into chess but for people who aren't really into it to the point where you would actually study each page, it won't help all too much. The book has a lot of different positions and shows you the best ways to get out of them. Unless you can memorize every page, good luck. I was expecting some more general strategy when i ordered it, oh well. it's still a well done book for those who want to spend the time to study it.
Rating:
Summary: Insufficient for beginners, useless for masters....
Review: but indispensable for duffers. I, too, got the first edition (a hardback, from Xerox, of all places), while I was in high school, and I still have it. I had long learned all the important rules and rationales of the pre-hypermodern openings from Reinfield's paperback "Chess in a Nutshell," as well as relative strengths of the pieces, but setting up situations, or even bothering to learn the notation, seemed too much like work to interest me in studying mid- to end-game strategies. And my win-loss ratio showed it. But I still remember the promos for this book on television, I think on GE College Bowl, where some hacker read it, and thinks he can beat Fischer, who is, of course, the World Champ. Of course he gets creamed but "After all, Bobby Fischer wrote the book!" I ordered the book, and I was pleased at what I saw. Yeah, it covers the basic rules, with about as much depth as you find under the lid of a ... game at Wal-Mart. But it takes your game out of the garage, and onto the highway, and you find that you are on rails. NO NOTATION! That was important to me then, and would be more so now, since I don't like the new notation much better. (Yeah kids, there was another notation, "...back in the day.") And you DON'T have to sit down and STUDY it. You put a bookmark in it, and carry it around when you know you will have some free time. Open it up, study the board, make your move, and turn the page. You are told the move you should have made, AND WHY. Play a few more pages, then go on with "real" life. It's like learning to play with a master-mentor at your elbow. You find that you will start seeing vicious combinations two, three...up to five moves in advance. And its fun! [And it was even more fun when I whooped on some punks that had been bullying me around the board. 8^) ]
Rating:
Summary: Great stuff
Review: I'm a so-so chess player, and I found this book remarkably helpful in the sense that it gave me an understanding of how the pieces work together, and how to see lines of control. The programmed format is very effective: exercises slowly increase in complexity, allowing one to keep pace.
Rating: 
Summary: Better title: Basic Mates Puzzle Book
Review: I purchased this book after reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess by Wolff. The first chapter of Bobby Fisher Teaches Chess explains how the pieces move. These diagrams are not very helpful. (If you need an introduction to chess and are willing to put in some time, I highly recommend the Idiot's Guide.) The following chapters are a series of puzzles to be solved. The book starts with 1 move mates, and then progresses to 3-4 move mates. Much attention is given to back row mating patterns. Bobby Fisher wrote a one-page intro to each chapter. This must have been the requirement to get his picture on the cover. I did enjoy going through the puzzles, and the book is cheap. It will not hurt a novice to go through the exercises. Also, no notation is used, just arrows. This is a big plus for people who don't want to learn notation. For these reasons, I give it 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Great first book on chess!
Review: For the beginning player who's been beaten one too many times by what seems like something anyone but blind freddy could have seen this book is for you!!!. For the beginner who is wondering whether or not this book is really worth buying, stop wondering and buy it right now, if you have even the slightest feeling you might need it to improve some of your play then buy buy buy. This book is also great for the person who perhaps isn't a serious player but wants to understand the game a little more. It teaches alot of the basics that many player's (in particular scholastic player's) just don't know how to play properly. Stop losing and start winning.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and useful
Review: This book is just a joy. Potential purchasers should understand that it is roughly 350 pages of chess positions/problems to be solved. Its fun and very very useful. I live in New York City. My biggest problem with the book is that I get so engrossed by the book that I have been missing my subway stop!
Rating:
Summary: This Book Turned a Weak Beginner Into a Strong Beginner
Review: When I was a beginner, I was a very weak beginner. I bought this book shortly before the first Fischer-Spassky match, went through it six or seven times, and within the next few days my playing strength went from what somewhere around USCF 800 to perhaps 1100. Over the next two decades, I got my rating up close to 2200. This book gave me my first inkling that I might be able to get pretty good at the game.
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