Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters: Fundamentals of the Game, Volume 1

Rating:
Summary: A great start for visual learners
Review: I am a very visual learner. Apparently, so are Russian children. This book is written in the manner that Russian children are taught: a chessboard is laid down, pieces placed, and a question posed, say, checkmate in two. Your job is to figure out how to get there. In the book, the first half is composed of pages of such diagrams, each geared towards either explaining visually how a piece moves, its value in trade, its best positions, etc. It is a great way to learn the game.
The book starts off slowly, explaining how the game works. You then work through various parts of the game: openings, middle moves, and closings. This game really helped me to develop a solid opening.
I have always had trouble with the middle game; this book gives the basics for that. The second volume gives a much more in-depth treatment of the game; openings, closings, and middle game strategy. But this is the book to get for a new player, or for one who always seems to get beaten. I started out losing to the computer on its easiest level, now I still lose, but at least I understand why, heh heh. Seriously, it is written in an understandable manner, and if you're a visual learner, the problem sets are really worthwhile.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent help
Review: Okay, before I read this I stunk at chess. I was getting beaten by a 12 year old and my cousin was champion of the family. The only thing I knew was piece movement, not the true intricate workings of the board and pieces, or how many points each piece was worth, or ways to checkmate a king. After reading this book, I beat my cousin in chess, whereas I hadn't before that time. What does that tell you?

Rating:
Summary: Excellent help
Review: Okay, before I read this I stunk at chess. I was getting beaten by a 12 year old and my cousin was champion of the family. The only thing I knew was piece movement, not the true intricate workings of the board and pieces, or how many points each piece was worth, or ways to checkmate a king. After reading this book, I beat my cousin in chess, whereas I hadn't before that time. What does that tell you?

Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners
Review: This book is very readable- it uses puzzles and a few complete games to canvas basic principles of opening, middle and endgame play. For players under 1200 ELO.

Rating:
Summary: long-chaptered but excellent
Review: This book uses a combination of lecture and problem-solving to train and ingrain the information. It covers the basics of openings, middlegame analysis, tactics and endgames. A delightful feature is the regular "chess movies" which introduce instructive games with useful commentary and multiple diagrams. The book also trains your skills with descriptive notation. My main criticism lies in the length of some of the chapters. It might have been better to break them into several smaller chapters with problems and drills in between to further consolidate learning. Worth getting if you're fairly new, or have been out of the game for long enough to feel you need to brush up.