Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess Mass Market Paperback – July 1, 1982

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.

This is a phenomenal program for beginning players, depending on their age. I found that the most valuable element of this book is the increasing complexity of strategies introduced as one advances in basic knowledge of the game. Personally, and again this is just my humble opinion, I did not find this appropriate for my beginning chess players, ages 6 and 9. Although this is an extremely well-written program, we needed something a bit more visual and basic in its presentation initially. Our first choice was The Kids' Book of Chess/Book and Kids' Chess Set by Harvey Kidder and Kimberly Bulcken Root.Again, I preface this review by saying that although I did not start my younger players with this book, I find that it is ABSOLUTELY essential for every chess player to have.Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess was definitely the next logical source of instruction for us. It contains a good overview of the basics, but delves voraciously into developing mastery. It is referred to as a program, because it is interactive...sort of like a chess "laboratory". Each unit teaches and illustrates a concept, and then requires a written response from the reader. The reader can then compare their response to the author's. This learning technique is invaluable and helps increase retention because the student is required to work through the problem before checking his/her answer. The program is also sequential. You must be patient and NOT skip lessons (you wouldn't want to anyway!) If you do, you will lose some very valuable insights. Each lesson builds on the previous lesson and lays the foundation for following units.Again, you may find this to be the perfect primer for your beginning chess student(s), as most of my fellow reviewers have. Buy this first and evaluate it accordingly. If you require something a bit more elementary, then check out the book I mentioned in the first paragraph; but do not, under any circumstances, move forward with your lessons without this book!5 Stars. Invaluable, educational and provides an excellent foundation.

Just kidding. But this really helped my chess skills improve. I bought this book after learning chess, and after about a month, I went to a real life tournament. Keep in mind, I had NO chess skills, I had only been playing for about a month or so. I didn't plan on playing, only spectating, but my chess teacher told me I had to play since we were missing players (I'm in HS). After playing, I completed the game with an official elo of 768. Before this book, I was probably a 200 or 300. I'm not saying you'll get a 400+ elo boost, but this definitely changed the way I play games, and I am really good at chess now. I can easily compete with a 1500 elo player (might not win but I'll give them a hard time!), and I can also feel very confident when playing against 1000 elo or less players.I feel like to get the most out of this book, you really need to practice. I read this book while also implementing the things I learned into real life practice games with other players. I love this book so much, it is the only chess book I ever needed. I recommend you purchase this if you want to become better at chess, or challenge your brain for a little while. After reading this book, I didn't need advice from others; I began giving it.Good luck nerds.