Rating: 
Summary: A Great Book for Beginning in Chess!
Review: If you are serious about learning chess, this book is for you! It is laid out very well, each lesson building on the ones before it. This book primarily covers the rules of chess and piece movement. But even those who already know how to play may benefit from reading this book and completing the homework assignments. This is the first of a series of books that comprise the Comprehensive Chess Course, so even if you already understand the basics of chess, it would not be a bad idea to go through this one before moving on to the more advanced books. This way you will benfit from the very basic building blocks of the Russian system, and hopefully won't become lost or mired down in the later volumes because you never learned to think the way the Russians do.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book for Beginning in Chess!
Review: If you are serious about learning chess, this book is for you! It is laid out very well, each lesson building on the ones before it. This book primarily covers the rules of chess and piece movement. But even those who already know how to play may benefit from reading this book and completing the homework assignments. This is the first of a series of books that comprise the Comprehensive Chess Course, so even if you already understand the basics of chess, it would not be a bad idea to go through this one before moving on to the more advanced books. This way you will benfit from the very basic building blocks of the Russian system, and hopefully won't become lost or mired down in the later volumes because you never learned to think the way the Russians do.
Rating: 
Summary: Not For the Lazy Woodpusher
Review: It would be good to use this book in combination with another book of Alburt's, "Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters Vol. 1 - Fundamentals of the Game". The first two volumes of the Comprehensive Chess Course are workbook format and have a lot of fill-in-the-blank and analysis type questions. These two books will get a beginning chess player off to a good start.
Rating:
Summary: chess has nothing to do with communism
Review: It would be good to use this book in combination with another book of Alburt's, "Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters Vol. 1 - Fundamentals of the Game". The first two volumes of the Comprehensive Chess Course are workbook format and have a lot of fill-in-the-blank and analysis type questions. These two books will get a beginning chess player off to a good start.
Rating:
Summary: Not For the Lazy Woodpusher
Review: It would be good to use this book in combination with another book of Alburt's, "Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters Vol. 1 - Fundamentals of the Game". The first two volumes of the Comprehensive Chess Course are workbook format and have a lot of fill-in-the-blank and analysis type questions. These two books will get a beginning chess player off to a good start.
Rating:
Summary: chess has nothing to do with communism
Review: the title is for the guy who insulted russian chess teaching. this is a really good book. buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Well rounded beginner book
Review: This book is a good bridge between absolute beginner's and someone finding other chess books over their heads. It has hundreds of problems to solve and emphasizes practical endgames that any player will encounter regularly. It has helped me improve tactically and in my endgames. This improvement is slowly helping me understand how to plan in unclear positions. It has also helped in seeing opponents threats before it is too late.If you find that most chess books are interesting to read but have not made much of a difference in your playing strength then you might try this one and go back to the others later. The last section of the book is very inspiring on where to go to improve after you master the material in this book. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Buy This Book!
Review: This book is a must for any aspiring player wanting to become better - and FAST! Lev Alburt takes you through the most important concepts of chess play, and in the process adds other concepts which no other book does.
For example the emphasis on mastering the colour of the squares, although this may sound unimportant, but believe me it really is the key to chess visualisation and mastery. Each of the 12 lessons introduces a new theme, with each new lesson having a review on the previous and homework. Each lesson is also accompanied by a series of games, which familiarise the student with the theme, and how to apply it. This book, after practically reading it, will surely make you a stronger player, at least a B class ( 1600 + ) Move on to "Tactics for the Tournament Player" to recieve more advanced material.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow Methods Using Old Communist Way of Thinking
Review: This book looks very impressive when you see it in bookstore - it is big. But I learned my lesson as big doesn't mean it is great. When I got into the material I suddenly discovered that there was an extreme lack of organization. Daa, the book didn't explain what the objective of the game was at the very beginning. It seemed like a person from another country wrote this book with a lack of command of the English Language, then flip flopped around. Well, in looking at this book further and looking at some of the other reviews, I suddenly realized that this book was written as if it was for teachers who didn't know much about chess to introduce them to a classroom. Now this may not sound too bad. However, the problem with is is that it takes things so slowly and out of the order that an experienced chess teacher would use that you have the MOST POORLY WRITTEN BEGINNER'S BOOK ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. How do I know this? Well, I made an issue of going out and getting several other books that were popular (yes, you might argue 'not every other one' but at least I got what is considered best by popularity to compare). So I got 'Starting Chess', 'Chess For Juniors', 'Chess For Dummies' and 'Idiots Guide to Chess'. Here is what I found - CHESS FOR JUNIORS was the most simple and most easy book of them all to understand though it may not have had as many pages a child of say eight could read it and fully understand it. I ranked this as best. I personally recommend this book as best for even an adult. Now adults would probably benefit most by either getting 'Chess For Juniors' or 'Idiots Guide to Chess'. The Idiots Guide is well organized and though not as easy to understand as 'Chess For Juniors' it does a good job. The 'Chess for Dummy's' book is not very well organized or written, but better for an adult than the Comprehensive Chess Courese. As a second best book for Children, but not so easy for Children themselves to Learn from (a parent should help) I suggest 'Starting Chess'. I spent some good time looking over these books and hope this review will be helpful for someone looking for a beginning book.
Rating:
Summary: Not For the Lazy Woodpusher
Review: This is a very good chess book, though I recommend working through Vol. 1 of the Comprehensive Chess Course and Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters Vol. 1 (Fundamentals of the Game)first. Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters Vol. 2 (Beyond the Basics)is an excellent compliment to this volume. The first two volumes of Comprehensive Chess Course are presented in a workbook format. There are excercises and fill-in-the-blank questions all the way through the first two volumes. The additional volumes in CCC are more of a textbook format, as are the books in the two-volume Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters set. If the pages in your copies of CCC Vols. 1 & 2 stay pretty and white, you are not studying them hard enough; they are meant to be written in and reviewed.
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