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

Everything was perfect

I have seen this book recommended by so many different sources I figured for the price it is a must have. I am nearly finished reading it, and I guess it is helping me as a player, but I do not think it is as it is advertised. It goes from what the pieces do to how to deliver checkmate. It doesn’t go into how to develop pieces or openings. I was quite taken aback by the fact that every other page after page 15 is printed upside down. Why? I don’t know. It’s NOT to check your response to the previous “frame”, since the explanation is given on the following page. Halfway through the book you have to turn the book over and read it with the cover upside down, which has raised some eyebrows when I am reading it in front of people. A few of the examples are not as airtight as Mr. Fischer presents. I actually set up my little board and set the pieces up as the diagram shows (frame 199) and found an escape. I know I am an awful chess player. I’m not some Lichess chess bro who thinks he can beat Magnus Carlsen. I guess for the price it is handy, but it should be advertised as what it is: Endgame puzzles with Bobby.