Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess

Great book for newcomers to chess, reinforces core chess concepts, key fundamentals, and a great way to practice without a board with its unique style of instruction.

I loved this book. I had never played chess before, and I knew nothing. This book taught me EVERYTHING I needed to know to start playing, and has little exercises all the way through it. I think this is a fantastic book to learn chess.

Having previously attempted to optimize various aspects of my existence – from the psychological to the biochemical – I decided it was high time to upgrade my strategic processing capabilities. My previous attempts at chess involved a lot of hopeful piece-shoving and bewildered staring, a highly inefficient algorithm for achieving victory. Recognizing the need for a more direct data injection, I acquired Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. I didn't see it as a book, but rather as a firmware update for my brain's chess module, delivered via a 1982 analog interface. From a purely functional standpoint, this 352-page volume is a masterclass in efficient knowledge transfer. It bypasses the often-tedious theoretical lectures and gets straight to the core function: achieving checkmate. The programmed learning method feels less like reading and more like interacting with an early, highly effective training program. Each page presents a problem, a challenge to your pattern recognition subroutines, followed by the solution on the next page. The physical design, with left-hand pages printed upside down, is a stroke of genius in user interface design for self-discipline. It's the book's way of saying, "Prove you've processed the data before you get the answer, buddy." It's a physical barrier to premature gratification, a feature I honestly appreciate in a world of instant digital answers. The near-perfect 4.6-star rating from thousands of users is compelling empirical evidence of its efficacy in upgrading human chess-playing units. The inherent humor in this artifact lies in its earnest, almost relentless focus on checkmate. It's like buying a comprehensive guide to automotive repair and finding that 90% of it is just detailed instructions on how to install lug nuts. Essential? Absolutely. But the singular dedication to this one critical task is delightfully intense. One can almost hear Bobby's voice echoing from the pages, demanding, "Did you find the checkmate? No? Flip the page (and the book!) and try again." It's a no-nonsense approach that borders on the comically rigid, yet it undeniably works. Positively speaking, this book delivers precisely what it promises. It doesn't clutter your mental RAM with obscure opening variations. It focuses on the critical end-game sequence, the digital handshake of victory. Working through the problems felt like debugging a complex system, identifying the faulty moves and correcting them based on the provided optimal path. It built my confidence not by explaining why a move was good in abstract terms, but by showing me, repeatedly, how to achieve the desired outcome. It's like getting a cheat code for the final boss, but you still have to earn it by solving the puzzle yourself. In conclusion, if you're looking for a unique, highly effective, and humorously direct method to hardwire checkmate patterns into your strategic thinking, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is an exceptional tool. It provides the structured training environment and the built-in anti-cheat mechanism; the resulting ability to confidently deliver checkmate is the highly satisfying system upgrade. I highly recommend it for anyone ready to move beyond random piece-pushing and start finishing chess games with purpose.

I don’t like how the printing is upside down for the second half of book but it did do a good job of teaching basic principles of chess

Wonderful/ classic

This is not a review on the actual material since I just hit the book in the mail but rather to help those who think the upside down pages are a misprint - they are not :) See image attached

At the outset it should be understood that (despite the title) the book is not a comprehensive treatment of the subject of chess. Its purpose is to teach the absolute beginner the basics of one aspect of chess, and that is - tactics. It is simply a beginner's introduction to basic chess tactics, and nothing more. The value of the book is that this is precisely what the beginner needs to focus on when first learning the game. It is essential to have a firm grasp of fundamental chess tactics before moving on to other aspects of the game. In that sense, this is an excellent book to begin your chess education. The format of the book is that of a structured learning course, using a series of exercises or puzzles to solve (one per page) which reinforce the concept under consideration. The exercises increase in complexity in order to enhance the reader's comprehension and level of tactical sophistication. The book is easy to read (it does not use chess notation) in the sense that it should take on average less than 60 seconds to complete an exercise (i.e., a page). It took my eight year old daughter only 3 or 4 hours (over several days) to complete the book. Because she was able to quickly and successfully absorb the concepts, it also increased her enthusiasm for playing the game. I have recommended this book to many players new to the game, and to a person they all agree that this was the best book to begin learning tactics. Bottom Line - It is said that the three most important of elements of chess to learn first are - Tactics, Tactics, Tactics! If you are a chess beginner who doesn't know a pin from a fork from a skewer from a double attack, then you need this book. Upon completing it, you should not only be able to employ effective tactics against your opponents, but also be able to quickly recognize the potential for tactical threats against you.

I have seen this book recommended by so many different sources I figured for the price it is a must have. I am nearly finished reading it, and I guess it is helping me as a player, but I do not think it is as it is advertised. It goes from what the pieces do to how to deliver checkmate. It doesn’t go into how to develop pieces or openings. I was quite taken aback by the fact that every other page after page 15 is printed upside down. Why? I don’t know. It’s NOT to check your response to the previous “frame”, since the explanation is given on the following page. Halfway through the book you have to turn the book over and read it with the cover upside down, which has raised some eyebrows when I am reading it in front of people. A few of the examples are not as airtight as Mr. Fischer presents. I actually set up my little board and set the pieces up as the diagram shows (frame 199) and found an escape. I know I am an awful chess player. I’m not some Lichess chess bro who thinks he can beat Magnus Carlsen. I guess for the price it is handy, but it should be advertised as what it is: Endgame puzzles with Bobby.

Sayfaların ters-düz/karışık olması gerekiyormuş. Kitabı aldım ve sayfaların bir kısmı ters bir kısmı düz ve sayfalar karışık biçimdeydi. Yanlış basıldığını sanıp değişime gönderdim ve elime ulaşan diğer kitap da aynı şekilde basılmıştı. Ufak bir araştırmadan sonra bu basımın bilinçli olduğunu öğrendim. Kitabı normal düz bir şekilde bitirdikten sonra ters çevirip kaldığınız yerden (sağ taraftaki sayfalardan) devam ediyorsunuz. Kitapta bunun açıklaması mevcut.

There is a reason why Fischer is considered to be one of the best chess players of all times, so needless to say that the book would be high quality as expected. The book is more a strategy book for check mates than a complete chess tutorial. As you work through Fischer's puzzles, it kind of opens you up to the number of ways you can check mate the opponent. The book is quite lucid and exciting as well and focuses on a few strategies. However, if you are a beginner and want to learn about the game as a whole (opening, mid game, ending), then Logical Chess Move my Move is a good choice.

I haven't played chess for over 20 years, and even then only occasionally and to no great skill level. Now, approaching my 60's, for some reason I've become interested in it as a brain exercise. This paperback was cheap and seems to have a lot of favourable reviews so I gave it a go. I can see why it would be great for total beginners, but it's also fantastic for those of us who want to feel good about ourselves - i.e. that our brain still functions at a reasonbale level). I have had great pleasure in realising that by following each of the panels of questions posed in the book, I still grasp the essentials of the game and, more than that, I'm remembering what I used to like about it. It's structure is excellent, and I particularly like the upside down alternate pages...it might seem quirky but it means that all answers to each question posed cannot be glanced at on the open pages...you have to turn over the page if you want to cheat! Maybe only a chess player of repute would come up with that...or it's very common in these kind of books and I'm just poorly read. Overall, for a book from someone considered by many to be the greatest ever chess player, it is entirely unpatronising to us chess neanderthals and it has raised my interest in the game to a new level. For those who are more advanced or even frequent players for fun, this book maybe a little too basic, but for total beginners or those who have been away from the game for years, it's a great way to become absorbed.

Livro de muito valor para iniciantes no Xadrez (suponho na faixa de rating 300-1500). Aborda conceitos fundamentais de maneira prática, de fácil entendimento através de posições extraídas de jogos do próprio Bob Fischer. Em Inglês mas fácilmente palatável até para os mais resistentes. Vale a pena!

Good book for beginners