Chess: The Complete Self-Tutor (Algebraic Classics Series)

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book... and easy to understand!
Review: As a high school chess coach, this is the greatest book on chess that I have ever found. It unfolds like a "choose your own adventure" book, with the reader analyzing a scenario, and making a "move" by turning to a certain page. That page explains why the move was correct, or why it wasn't, in detail so that the reader can understand the strategy behind the reasoning. I picked this book up ...on sale... and immediately bought 5 more for my team! Buy this if you can find it!

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book... and easy to understand!
Review: As a high school chess coach, this is the greatest book on chess that I have ever found. It unfolds like a "choose your own adventure" book, with the reader analyzing a scenario, and making a "move" by turning to a certain page. That page explains why the move was correct, or why it wasn't, in detail so that the reader can understand the strategy behind the reasoning. I picked this book up ...on sale... and immediately bought 5 more for my team! Buy this if you can find it!

Rating:
Summary: Utterly brilliant gem of a book.
Review: I own 300+ chess books, and this one is my absolute favorite. To give you an idea of others in my top 10: The Amateur's Mind by Silman, Middlegame Planning by Romanvosky, My System, 300 Chess Games by Tarrasch, Grandmaster of Chess by Keres, Alekhine's Best Games. My version of "The Game of Chess," by Lasker (which has been re-named The Complete Chess Self-Tutor in this new edition) is from 1972 (I am not famililar with the edition that is currently in print but I understand it to be superb). This book is an utterly brilliant (and very demanding) chess course. It uses a unique method of instruction. The reader is given some textual introduction to a problem, and then is presented with three options for moves to pick. Depending on which option you pick, you are referred to a different section of the book. That new section will tell you if you picked the best move. If you picked the wrong move, it referes you back to try another choice. But even on the wrong choices, Lasker goes to great lengths explaining to exactly why it is not the best move. He presents variations of likely scenarios to make his point. He does this in a style that instructs, enlightens, and informs, always referring you to general principles to follow. Then, when you finally pick the right answer, you are presented with the next problem, which logically follows from the prior one. As a result, you gradually work your way through the book. There are large sections on the opening, the middlegame, and the end game. This is the greatest chess instruction book I have ever seen. Unlike so many chess masters, Lasker is a brilliant writer as well. His style is articulate, patient, and comprehensive. He does not "dumb-down" to you, but presents things more clearly than I have ever seen in the whole history of chess literature. He published this book when he was 84 years old! It has the feel that he wanted to sum up his life's work in chess in a manner that would leave a legacy to the aspiring player. Well, he did an amazing thing for chess players: he poured himself into this work with a sincerity and devotion that is unparallelled in chess history. His career was so long that he played against Em. Lasker, Capablanca, Nimzowitsch, and Alkehine, and here he is analyzing Bobby Fischer's famous 5. 0-0! in the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez. Lasker is the Bertrand Russell of chess: a man who lived for 95 years, who saw the richest epoch in the development of chess, and who knew how to assimilate it and summarize it in an instructional format that would be of maximum value to the student. This is that rare work that demands hard work of the student, but constantly inspires you to continue tackling it. You will emerge from its hallowed pages a far stronger player. This is a stupendous work, that for some reason is almost unknown. If I had one book to take to a desert island, it would be this one. I could go on and on, but you get the point. Get the book!