A Primer of Chess

by José Raúl Capablanca

A basic manual of chess by the master José Raul Capablanca, regarded as one of the half dozen greatest players ever. Capablanca was noted especially for his technical mastery, and in this book he explains the fundamentals as no one else could. Diagrams.

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Games

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

World chess champion from 1921-1927.
One of the best players of all time.
His skill in the endgame and his speed of play garner special praise.

Reviews

[Morris Nelms · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Chess Fundamentals, this is clear, concise, and sharp. Great writing about the greatest game from one of the greatest players, who also happens to be one of the best writers on the subject. I prefer the algebraic edition from Everyman.

[Quiver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even in the age of YouTube tutorials, I would recommend would-be casual players begin with Capablanca.

[Ricky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has good principles and some interesting diagrams to study, but it is hard to follow the moves because he uses descriptive notation. For someone trying to learn chess today I think algebraic notation is probably more helpful and it is a shame that this book doesn't use it, because I felt that it could have been great practice for getting more familiar with it.

[Talvez... · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's instructional (not as much as other primers out there however), well written and it has the reedeming advantage of being written in algebraic notation, while most of the other chess classics are only available in descriptive notation.
The focus on endings is both a positive point and a negative point. On one hand it's throroughly and clearly explained, on the other hand this is a rather technical subject which I am not sure amateurs will enjoy.