The Rules of Chess

by Bruce Pandolfini

Chess is one of the most challenging - and enjoyable - games that has ever been played. It has a history that goes back over a thousand years, and there is some evidence that perhaps it is even older than that. The Rules of Chess is a free book, in electronic format, that will teach young and old how to play the "Royal Game." Written by one of the great instructors of the modern era, Bruce Pandolfini, it is in fact a small excerpt from his extremely popular book Let's Play Chess (2nd edition). After the material is presented, there is a section listing and describing the chess books published by Russell Enterprises, Inc. which are also available in electronic format. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy The Rules of Chess by Bruce Pandolfini...

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Reference, Games, Amazon

48 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2010

About the author

Bruce Pandolfini (born September 17, 1947) is an American chess author, teacher, and coach. A USCF national master, he is generally considered to be America’s most experienced chess teacher. As a coach and trainer, Pandolfini has possibly conducted more chess sessions than anyone in the world. By the summer of 2015 he had given an estimated 25,000 private and group lessons.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Sneh Pradhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As elementary as elementary can get , this book's the ABC of Chess . Am just getting introduced to the game ...yup , sadly at the old age of 24 , but looking forward to reading the higher level books now ...

[James Weakley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brief but Impactful

Pabdolfini's book provides a concise explanations of chess's rules and procedures. Each section is broken down to digestible portions that allow the reader to build a framework for understanding.

[Ralph Zoontjens · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book explains the basic rules of the game of chess.
But - and this perhaps questions the mental acuity of the author himself - the book fails to describe more advanced rules such as castling, en passant captures, algebraic notation, and providing checkmate.

There are far more rules than this book describes and one wonders, why read this book if you can download the official FIDE rule book which is also free and has half the pagecount:

https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/La...

[Joseph Leskey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I fear that I have suddenly placed myself just a very small bit in thrall of the concept of strategy games, and that, as a matter of course, means chess, and chess means such somewhat helpful books like unto this one, this one being quite as enjoyable as is to be expected.

[Joshua Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple explanation of the rules

The book does not cover any openings or strategy but provides a simple explanation of how the board is set up, how the pieces move and how they capture. It would have been nice for it to mention the point system.

[Fernando Muñoz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literalmente las reglas para comenzar a jugar ajedrez y a pesar de tener una buena descripción de la composición inicial de lado disposición de tablero y piezas, nada dirigido a quienes ya sabemos jugar.

Solo recomendado para quienes no tengan alguna noción de ajedrez.

[Lakshan Bandara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

A Very good introduction book in chess. I enjoyed every bit i read. Thank you for sharing this eBook. Cheers

[Leandro Ferreira de Souza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too basic

If you didn't have any previous contact with the game this would be a good starting point. Otherwise if you had played it at least once... It is too basic

[Rajat Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

Great book
Nice book keep it up you are doing a very great job it helps beginner to kearn basics of chess

[Ramona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and concise

Chess begins with this book and the explanation of its foundation...the pieces, the board and its objective. Read, study and play.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very basic primer for someone who has never played chess before. Works well in that regard. Could maybe have touched on the castling and en passant moves to be a more comprehensive rulebook.

[Donnel Cuasay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basic fundementals

Learn the basics and fundamentals , I love the knight exercises. Definitely a book for the super beginner to know the basic understanding of chess

[Matthew Ricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Schikaneder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro para un nivel 0 de ajedrez. Es cortito y puede servir si quieres enseñar a alguien las primeras lecciones

[Killer of Dreams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very bare minimum explanation of chess rules. This book numbers the rules and gullets it, making it hard to follow along making it a terrible layout and hard to comprehend. The book also lacks check rules, en passant, and castling rules.

This book is also an excerpt from a larger work and although it may be unfair to critique such a small excerpt, it's just as equally unfair to provide a small excerpt that doesn't explain fully the rules of chess.

Rating Update 4/8/19- 2 stars to 1 star. My review supports a 1 star rating. Also, having skimmed over it, I already know the rules of Chess and had found this short book boring to read.

Update 12 June 2019
With the adoption of my new rating system, a one star rating is befitting. The original rating and review conform to the new rating system. This book is not something I would consider reading again, and as a resource book, it did not provide me any new information.

January 30, 2020
Update
One star to two stars. I must raise the volume because I am unsure whether the original reception of the book, after having finished reading the book, was that of a one star-rating, where I found the book to be a waste of time. Currently, I consider the book to be a waste of space, though I am not sure if that is the case. What is most concerning is that I have kept the version of the book on my phone all these years. My only memory is of the book being a trudge to get through, as I had to force myself to finish it within the same day I started reading.

January 31, 2020
Update
To digress on the previous update, I lean to the belief that I finished the volume believing that it should be rated at two stars because it had some value as a reference book. Because I have so little to go on, the color of the rating is grey with a grey outline.

[Elmo Ensio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waste of time. It explains some of the rules of chess. If you have never heard of chess this might be of some use for you but honestly speaking, wikipedia page has more than this book. Thankfully it was a kindle freebie.

[Filipe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Presented as a full book is only a part of a book and not even a complete part due that it doesn't present all "the rules of chess".

[Heather dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a standard rule book. Good to have if you need reference to how the pieces move and contains good example pictures.

[Antwon Vazquez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating

this is a very educational knowledgeable book. This book told me about many chess moves I did not know about! Now I know more rules to chess and more skills.

[Christopher Booth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay, but for me a little hard to follow and I'm still in the learning stages of the game of Chess.

So hopefully I will find more books to read on the game of Chess down the road.

[Christopher E. Duque · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good for beginners

Nice, very suitable forma beginners I recommend it for sure, very understandable you will learn the basics read it ok