Bobby Fischer Teaches 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.

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.

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

The perfect first tactics book for any new player

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

Great book for gunners or people who want to develop their checking techniques. The book is printed in a “program” style. Bobby has you do puzzles on the right side of the page then go to the next right page for an explanation and the next puzzle. When you get to the end of the book you then flip it upside down and work through the rest of the puzzles, that was how the book was designed.

The item arrived on time and was as described.

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.

The book was received in good quality and pages are above average. Some complained in reviews that the pages are inverted BUT that's the way book has been purposefully made by Bobby Fisher and he calls it PROGRAM. So don't worry... You have to read till page 178 only on the right page and read the rest of the book inverted. Overall a good book for beginners.

Some of the previous reviewers seem to wish to downgrade this book. Apparently mainly because Bobby Fischer lent his name to it, though he did not actually write it, (so they say) However I, as a novice player, found the method of teaching used to be very helpful, - sort of like having the teacher stand over you, - in comparison to just reading from the book. The teaching method used is what the writers term: "Programmed Instruction" and for me it works perfectly. Rather than go into long explanatory terminology that may engender boredom through its 'wordiness' the writers give diagrams of the chess board layouts with a single, or multiple choice, chess solution to pick from. This is after you have been taught how the pieces move, (should you need that initial instruction.) For instance you will be shown a diagram of a particular possible checkmate scenario and you will be given multiple answers such as: "Can the rook mate in one move" or, "Can the bishop intercede and prevent mate?" and so on. Being asked to fathom these moves on one page before having the answers revealed on the next, appears to be a good way of learning the best moves, while actually working them out. Needless to say, the problems start off in an easy form, and then progressively get more difficult. This, in my opinion is a definitely "must have" in one's book collection, if you want to get into the art of playing good Chess in an easy and informed manner.

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.