Chess for Beginners

You have a board, a free evening and a nagging feeling that everyone else already knows something you don't. Maybe you learned the moves years ago and still lose your queen to a trick you never saw coming. Maybe you are starting from absolute zero and wondering, where do I even start? This book answers that, one patient step at a time. Chess for Beginners is a complete first course for adults and older children. It does not drop you into theory. It starts with the board and how each piece moves, teaches castling, en passant, promotion and notation with clear diagrams, and then spends its core on thirty essential tactics, each with practice puzzles you can solve with a pencil and a real board. Unlike books that ask you to memorise long opening lines, or advanced courses that assume you already play, this one teaches principles first, hands you a few simple openings for White and Black, and shows you how to find tactics, avoid beginner blunders and think a few moves ahead. Inside, you'll learn: The board, the starting setup and how to read and write chess notation How every piece moves and captures, plus check, checkmate, castling, en passant, promotion and the ways a game ends in a draw The relative value of the pieces and the basic principles that guide good play Thirty essential tactics, including forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks and back-rank mates, each with diagrams and puzzles Opening principles and a few simple openings for both White and Black, without heavy memorisation The basic checkmates and the key pawn endings every player needs How to avoid the most common beginner mistakes and check a few moves ahead before you move How to start playing online safely and keep improving after the last page Every chapter ends with puzzles and answers, so you learn by doing. Set up the board, turn the page and make your first move.

Imad Muratspahic is an independent author of practical how-to guides, technical handbooks, history and fiction. The books aim to be clear, honest and useful from the first page.