Self-Taught Chess for Beginners and Intermediates

This book is perhaps unique in that it was written by a professional educator who also played chess, rather than by a professional chess player who also wrote.

Dr. Milton Finkelstein was Director of the New York City Department of Education who wrote several other books in the educational field. Before that, he had been a high school principal and a high school teacher.

A leading figure in American chess for more than thirty years, presents a simple and effective program for teaching yourself one of the oldest and most fascinating games in the world.

With clear and easy to follow descriptions, he shows you the most basic moves, openings, gambits and defenses, but also how to practice and master a few good strategies that are the key to successful play.

You learn from the masters from separate chapters expounding on over fifty games by such well known champions as Fischer, Spassky, Karpov and Petrosian, each game chosen to illustrate a particular aspect of play. Preceding each game are comments to guide the reader to the ideas behind the opening, White's plan in the game, Black's plan, and what the game as a whole teaches you about chess.

Periodic quiz sections drive your growing understanding. Designed to insure that you master one section before moving on to the next, they lead to a final quiz to test overall understanding on the game and to allow each individual to rate himself. Your rating may be quite flattering if attention has been paid to the “rules to remember” - through special pointers that focus on the abstract (and not so abstract) facts of playing a difficult but rewarding game.