You know, as long as we're talking about Reinfeld, I should really mention one of Fred's biggest OTB claims to fame. He was one of the very few Americans who had a winning record against Sammy Reshevsky, with a +2-0=3 record. Here's his two wins:

[Event "Western Championship"]
[Site "Minneapolis, MN"]
[Date "1932.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Fred Reinfeld"]
[Black "Samuel Reshevsky"]
[ECO "E15"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "60"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 c5
6.d5 exd5 7.Nh4 g6 8.Nc3 h6 9.O-O a6 10.cxd5 d6
11.e4 Bg7 12.f4 Nfd7 13.a4 O-O 14.Be3 Kh7 15.Qc2 Nf6
16.h3 Nbd7 17.Rae1 Re8 18.Bf2 Ng8 19.e5 dxe5 20.f5 Nf8
21.fxg6+ fxg6 22.Be4 Qd6 23.Be3 Ne7 24.Rf7 Kg8 25.Ref1 Nxd5
26.Rxb7 Nxe3 27.Qf2 Nf5 28.Nxf5 gxf5 29.Qxf5 Kh8 30.Rf7 Ng6 1-0



[Event "Pasadena (08)"]
[Site "Pasadena (08)"]
[Date "1932.??.??"]
[EventDate "1932.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Samuel Reshevsky"]
[Black "Fred Reinfeld"]
[ECO "D79"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "62"]

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 O-O 5.O-O d5
6.c4 c6 7.cxd5 cxd5 8.Nc3 Nc6 9.a3 Ne4 10.Be3 Nxc3
11.bxc3 Na5 12.Bf4 Bd7 13.Ne5 Bb5 14.Nd3 Rc8 15.a4 Ba6
16.Ra3 b6 17.Re1 Nc4 18.Ra2 Na5 19.Nb4 Bb7 20.Qd3 e6
21.h4 Rc4 22.Rb1 Qd7 23.Bd2 Rfc8 24.f4 h5 25.e4 dxe4
26.Bxe4 Rxc3 27.Bxc3 Rxc3 28.Qxc3 Bxd4+ 29.Kh2 Bxc3 30.Bxb7 Qxb7
31.Nd3 Qe4 0-1


He had a losing record against Reuben Fine, but still managed to take a bite out of him in this game:

[Event "Marshall CC Championship"]
[Site "New York, NY"]
[Date "1931.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Fred Reinfeld"]
[Black "Reuben Fine"]
[ECO "D65"]
[PlyCount "47"]

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.e3 Be7
6.Nc3 O-O 7.Rc1 c6 8.Qc2 a6 9.cxd5 exd5 10.Bd3 Qc7
11.Bxh7+ Nxh7 12.Bxe7 Re8 13.Bh4 Qf4 14.O-O Qg4 15.Bg3 Ndf6
16.Ne5 Qh5 17.Qb3 Ng5 18.f3 Ne6 19.Na4 Qh6 20.Nb6 Ra7
21.Rfe1 Ng5 22.Nxc8 Rxc8 23.Qb6 Raa8 24.h4 1-0

Having written chess monographs for a general audience, I can tell you that Reinfeld is writing for people who not only have never played tournament chess, they never will play tournament chess. In Reinfeld's heyday there were maybe 1,000 USCF members in the entire country. To write chess books for money he had to aim at the millions of people who play chess at Christmas and such. I think that accounts for his verbal style. It just doesn't pay to be thoughtful and balanced when writing for those kinds of players. What they want is something unambiguous.

As for the best beginner book, probably Capablanca's book. We have Botvinnik's word on that.

All right, so when we ask what are the best beginner books, the next question is why does the beginner want to learn? If he wants to become a scholastic player, one book might be good, but if he wants to beat his sister, a different book might be good, is that it?

Come to think of it, didn't Murray Chandler write a book called How to Beat Your Dad at Chess? I never read the book, but the title is memorable. I think he also wrote one called Chess Tactics for Kids, so apparently he understood this idea of targeting your audience. (Didn't there also used to be a book called How to Beat Your Chess Computer, or something like that?)

I had a copy of Chess Fundamentals, but think I lost track of it somewhere along the line. I haven't even seen Silman's book, but that's the only other one people have recommended. Which Silman book are we talking about, anyway? I see several on Amazon. How to Reasses Your Chess, The Complete Book of Chess Strategy, and a couple of others, but am not sure which one people mean. How about what's the best book to use as a kind of lesson plan if someone asked me to teach them how to play chess (and they haven't decided yet how far they want to go with it).


Since Fred was the first big American name in beginner's instructional books, I don't mind using his thread for a general discussion of that topic too.

To answer your first two questions:

the beginner is of course unaware of the swamp he is wading into, so it is best to give him just a teaser, the better to lure him in completely mwah ha ha ha...

Question 2: yes.

I'd have to look at the Reinfeld books I have to gauge which one is the best. I've got maybe thirty of them.

I've also written a cheap monograph that I give away free. I would suggest it to every chess player to try his hand at it. You don't realize how much you know until you try putting it on paper, or photons, if you will.

I saw a book by Reinfeld at the Half Price Books last night, of 100 of Alekhine's pre-WWI games. Not a beginner's book. I might go back and buy it.

Every time I see an old book I buy it. That's why I have 1,000 chess books and no money. But that Reinfeld sounds like a good buy.

I saw a Silman book today at Barnes & Noble, called The Complete Book of Chess Strategy, which I don't think is the beginner book people are talking about.

What about Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess? That's one of the few Fischer books I haven't read, even though they riff on it in a Get Smart episode, where Max reads an instructional book DURING a game, that was written by "an 8 year old champion".

There are two Dummy style beginner books. Chess For Dummies, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess. Are either of those any good? I've never heard of the guy who wrote the first one, but the idiot's guide is by Patrick Wolff.

I never trust anything entitled "idiot". BFTC is good at teaching combinations but nothing else.

Edward Winter speaks very highly of the book by GM Patrick Wolff. If that's not the seal of approval, I don't know what is!

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"You don't realize how much you know until you try putting it on paper..."--Ed Yetman, III

How true! I had enough games and combinations for many more books, but I had to narrow it down to 22 games and 42 combinations. That was the only really tough part of the whole process. You get attached to certain games and combinations and it takes time to realize that not all of them will be suitable.

As part of the preparation for writing my own book for beginners, I read a great many beginner books, mostly by titled players. Only a few stood out; GM Michael Stean's book, Simple Chess, is one that did; another is Positional Chess by IM Shaun Taulbut.

Of Reinfeld's enormous output, offhand I think the best might be How to Win in the Chess Openings. The opening knowledge is dated (1951), but still useful; but the "chess movies" he gives are what make the book truly instructive, since these give the reader the essential practice in visualizing chess positions.

As for Capa's beginner books, both are pure gold, but watch out for bad translations into algebraic (De Firmian's is notorious); if you want to be doubly sure, get the descriptive editions.

I think Ed is completely correct about what the mass of chess players want. But the best writers will always try to frustrate that desire by sneaking in enough of the essentials so that the reader will think he's getting just what he wants, but is really getting some of what he needs. They will write in layers; the topmost layers are obvious enough, but for those who care to penetrate more deeply, there is much more.

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