Product Description

Don’t make a move without it.

Written by a U.S. Chess Champion, International Chess Grandmaster, and longtime instructor, this book includes information for both novice and expert, including over 400 illustrated chessboards and photos; over 20 pages of detailed answer key notes; a completely new chapter on new evidence about chess and its impact on brain power; a guide to the art of chess collectibles; and more.

• Foreword by Larry Evans, former International Grandmaster and author of 20 highly acclaimed chess books and a popular monthly advice column in Chess Life

• Strong sales for previous editions

• For the beginner or the champ, and for young and old

• Author has a high profile in the chess community

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12382 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-03
• Released on: 2005-05-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781592573165
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Patrick Wolff played in his first chess tournament at the age of nine. A two-time Junior Championship winner, he eventually became an international grandmaster in 1990. Winner of many grandmaster tournaments, including the U.S. Championship in 1992 and 1995, Patrick has written articles that have appeared in chess magazines throughout the world, and is the author of Kasparov versus Anand: The Inside Story of the 1995 World Chess Championship.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Chess books for Beginners
I have been playing Chess casually for many years. Only recently have I taken it upon myself to try to further my understanding of this game. Idiots Guide is an excellent start for the list of books I have compiled on the topic, based on other users recommendations. The book is broken up into 4 sections, with the first 3 being relevant to the rules of the game, strategy, tactic, and such. The 4th section is more of a tidbits and trivia section containing short biographies of the who's who in chess, which in itself can be pretty interesting. However, the meat of the book is in the first 3 sections. The author shows step by step the various games that demonstrate the principles. The overall writing style is simple and easy to understand. Personally, I felt that this book was too strong to be in the same category as the "Idiots Guides" or the "For Dummies" books. The end section gives a good list of follow up books also, which I also plan to read.

Too Broken Up - But Lots of Stuff
If you are looking for a book that has LOTS in it, but is VERY BROKEN UP then we have have it! Qunantity BIG time. This is a great book for anyone one is not starting from scratch. This is not such a great book for someone who is not an advanced reader or who knows nothing about chess at all to start out with. It jumps around from one chapter to another and does not build exactly on one chapter to the next. I prefered "Learn Chess, A complege course" by Alander and Beach, much, much more and when I started I also got a Juniors Chess Book that was good that had a building upon each earlier chapter approach.
This book is ok for somebody who knows well the rules and the very basic stuff. Otherwise, just so, so, but takes work!

A Mini Encyclopedia.
At a rather advanced age, I have decided to learn chess, but I need a lot of help so I bought The Complete Idiot's Guide. Here I uncovered an unbelievable amount of information. It answered just about every question that I had, although it did take a bit of effort. I agree with some of the other reviewers that it could have been organized better because I didn't want to wait 150+ pages to find out what was recommended for the opening. Call me a traditionalist, but I would have preferred to read about the opening at the start of the book. Wolff certainly did a good job of explaining the intricacies of chess though. The examples he includes (shown as pictures of games from famous matches) are very helpful and improved its educability. One could visualize exactly what it was he was talking about via the aide of example boards. For me the book was a good investment towards becoming an average player.