Lit Review Wednesday: Winning Chess

Winning Chess: Tactics & Strategies, by Ted Nottingham, Al Lawrence, and Bob Wade, is the first chess book I should have read. It starts out right where I was a month ago--someone who knew the basic moves but knew nothing about the theory behind those moves. The book highlights all of the important tactics: the fork, the pin, and the skewer. It also goes into some detail on discovered check and double check.

I think this book was written for a younger audience, particularly high school students, but it was still very informative. It's definitely the best beginner book I've come across so far. It's not really the most complete book, but if you're just trying to learn the game, this is where you should start.

 

With that said, I would give this book a 4 out of 5. It has a lot of really good basic info, yet there are some glaring problems too. For example, it uses a weird form of algebraic notation for most of it, one that isn't what the professionals use. If they had used the more commonly used version, I think this book would be much more complete.