Chess: Tactics and Strategies

by Graham Burgess

Book Overview

Comprehensive and easy to follow, this invaluable guide to this age-old game will enable even players with very little experience to progress. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0785815163
• ISBN13: 9780785815167
• Release Date: November 2009
• Publisher: Castle Books
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Good for someone who has learned the Moves and needs the next level.

This book is good for those who know chess moves and want to move to the next level in understanding Openings, common middlegame tactics and basic endgame themes. Note: This book is VERY similar to The Mammoth Book of Chess by the same author.

Excellent introduction and review

I was totally engaged by this book, probably because of the chess problems included within. The book gives short treatment to dozens of opening lines, leading to open and closed types of games. Easy to follow and a good way to get familiar with some of the deeper elements of chess. This book is a good way to get beyond guessing your next move, particularly in the opening. It will prime you for the more intermediate-level books out there. If you play chess regularly, this is a valuable resource for you to keep on your shelf.

This book is a fantastic and comprehensive reference, especially for a beginning chess player.

I am giving this book a rating of five stars with the beginning/intermediate chess player in mind. This text is a great way to move from being a true beginner to having a solid grasp of the fundamentals of chess. A person could learn quite a bit from simply reading the glossary. If you are looking for a book to teach you to play chess better than the average joe, and serve as a springboard for more advanced study (I recommend Nimzovich's My System, for example) this is the book to get. I promise you that you will be hard pressed to find this wealth of information at this price in any other text.

A Revised Opinion

After I wrote my initial review, in January 2003, I received a chess board with the algebraic notation on its borders. This removed the problem with trying to follow games on a board without notation, and I decided to give this book another chance. Now, I'd have to revise my opinion - this book's deeper analysis is well worth the slight additional effort I've spent studying it. I'd have to say it has replaced my Reinfeld book as my favorite, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Awesome Single Reference Book - Great Value

This book is a hardcopy word-for-word reprint of "The Mammoth Book of Chess".(TMBOC)Therefore, go check out the reviews on that book - they apply equally to this book.The reason I gave it 5 stars (besides the fact that it is great) is that this hardcopy edition is actually several dollars cheaper than the paper edition of TMBOC!This book has it all; history, rules, basic mates, lessons in tactics and combinations, positional concepts, endgame principles, overview of virtually every opening, traps, classic games, use of computers, internet resources, etc. etc. etc.I have a few pet peeves regarding the book, but at "such a good price" for such a spectacular book there is nothing else to say, but BUY IT!P.S. just so you know what one of my pet peeves is- the book is somewhat unbalanced in it's coverage of the openings. For example, in the section dealing with the King's Indian Defense (a very popular opening, to be sure) he gives a number of really great illustrative games. However, when discussing the Nimzo-Indian Defense (probably equally as popular), the illustrative games are rather sparse.