How to Win at Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond

I am 71 years old and first played chess aboard ship on a westpac in 1974. My Chess Library is over 200 books from all the top grand masters who wrote teaching books going back to the 1970s. My only video teaching is from DVDs and Workbooks narrated by Elliott Neff. I have the Chess Genius Pro Computer that I use often. I have a small 10 inch magnetic chess set that I take with me on the road and also join my old chess master friend for lunch once a week at our favorite restaurants and play while waiting for our lunch to be served.Now the constructive criticism based on just receiving the book and not reviewing it totally cover to cover, yet. The book starts off with a five star rating because of the spiral binding advantages over all paperback and hard cover books I own. The only negative is the dark squares are too dark making it difficult to differentiate the dark chess pieces when on the dark squares. The teaching in the introduction chapters is very well written and in total agreement with the teachings in the better chess teaching books I own. The trouble with paperback and hardback books is that as you move through them it is difficult to read the pages close to the binding. With this spiral book, the spiral is heavy duty and the cover is hard and the pages are also heavier. You can easily lay the book flat and also open the book 360 degrees easily. I love it. With the more complex books, I use my 10 inch chess set to lay out the board to agree with the book for a better learning experience. The authors do not always have the best moves, and we really need to think for ourselves and not just use textbook direction.This book should be used with and without a good chessboard with the file letters and rank numbers for quickly teaching beginners. Eventually as you become an intermediate to advanced player you should play on a board without the file letters and rank numbers for serious tournament playing.As the authors recommended playing better players as I do is the best experience to advance your play.About me. I am a retired Electrical and electronic engineer and engineering manager. Engineers are by nature your better problem solvers especially after they gained some practical experience. My much younger educational years was with shops in wood, metal, and machine shop. Since I been retired, I used my hand and machine tools to make my children and grandchildren Chess Boards and Chess Pieces out of quality hardwoods. I also purchased he same small 10 inch magnetic chess sets and chess books for kids for the grandchildren who are more into playing and learning.PS: I will update my review after I reviewed the entire book at least once. After going through over 200 other books, I will be able to provide an update on the quality between the covers. The author said this is a book for beginners up to the intermediate level, so we should not expect to become a grandmaster from just reading this book.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000Z9G456?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_titlehttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B079RKQDN3?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_titlehttps://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Chess-Board-Set-User-Friendly/dp/B0CHW3V5LS/ref=sr_1_7?crid=OA3I62YT8Z7Q&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qOfhrsMl-3kR7Q0VBV-dDo_c_Vp5G1q3gz_HQy0t7fOPZdRrg7AXN_9BM_4OkyJdvXGOXOHYUtkULlWBBTqwd5TF_vXQLkjOMcyQH-djyNxeBbfYw18Ab5iQdl1qdyzlh55wB6ZH4KhNEyZOnwtQNh68CVLW6ixVbyJOUNAXdCOT_msilUPNDbS931UMTF9jNG2lAm6zO_tt_T3X-WrnoBPK2TT5jHl-blEkW-oeIVdzRDoe-NvkI24pOqHc-ZH5zfXE7HvrjINb2euJWRGguk9KBDHXtp6iQ85cbjoKIZY.fIDM53sZAGVS3tCrDYraHfMD4leMl2TopHOeRi2BVvc&dib_tag=se&keywords=millennium+chessgenius+pro&qid=1752176051&sprefix=Millennium+ChessGenius%2Caps%2C145&sr=8-7

ELO IMPROVEMENTWhen I first picked up this book, I was an 800-1000 elo player and slowly going up. Once I was done (which did take a while) I was a 1000-1400 player. This book also helped me majorly with openings. I had been going through opening changes twice a week almost, but once I had read this book, I was playing one consistantly and getting better at it.INTERNETA review that I read says that the internet connections were irritating but I find them extremely helpful. They also provide a more indepth study for players who want to get really into chess. there also optional so don't feel pressured.OVERALLThis book was easy to read and engaging. The author really does a great job with this book and I highly recommend it for any players between just starting to early intermediate. thsi is a must get for players wanting an early boost in skill.

This book was exactly what I needed and was looking for! Thanks, Levy for putting this together! It’s clear, thorough, yet understandable. It’s been the sole driver of my improvement. I look forward to book #2 soo much!

An excellent introduction to the game of chess with useful information on the right starter moves.Easy to follow and understand.

I follow Levy on YouTube. This reinforces all of his basic fundamentals of chess to improve your chess ELO rating.

I'm halfway through the book and I'm enjoying the content. It contains a lot of great hints and information laid out in a very concise way. My only problem is with the exercises. While it's cool that they are interactive, they shouldn't be *only* available on a web platform. Several reasons for this:1.- When I sit down to read, I try to "disconnect" from the world. I like to focus on what I'm reading. I don't like that I have to reach for my phone at the end of a chapter to scan a QR and go through the exercises. I get all the notifications and distractions I was trying to avoid.2.- What happens if the platform is down? or it's gone forever? The book then loses absolutely all the "practice" material. This is a problem with online-only content and I don't like the idea of a book having a rather important part of it available only through a web page.3.- Browser compatibility issues: This actually happened to me recently. Apparently after an update of my mobile browser (Chrome for Android), the compatibility with the platform broke. As you can see in the screenshot I attached, I can no longer go through the exercises on my phone, and I had to try to access the exercises on my computer, which is even more inconvenient. The browser update is NOT the author's fault, of course, but it's definitely an issue with web-exclusive content. Compatibility with different browsers is, and will be an issue from time to time, especially because browsers get updated often and they may behave differently on different devices.An additional complaint about the exercises; I was breezing through the book for the first 2 chapters, but it took me forever to move from chapter 3 to 4. Mostly because it has an overwhelming amount of content and opening hints in the exercises alone that I just couldn't retain in one sitting. It's a lot more than in the previous chapter. I tried to space the exercises over several days, to take them in little by little, re-doing a couple of earlier exercises from the chapter in between. But it was to no avail. Maybe it covers way too many options, or maybe I'm just too old.My phone browser problems also started when I was doing that chapter, so that added to the frustration. That's the only chapter I've had issues with so far, but I'm yet to explore the second half of the book.Overall I really love the content. It's BY FAR and without contest, the most engaging and straightforward chess book I've read. It's a book I would recommend to anyone looking to build on their skills, but the exercises shouldn't be available exclusively on an online platform. Some form of printed exercises would've been great, or at least the option to download them in PDF format (at least the "study" sections of them).