A Primer of Chess

by José Raúl Capablanca

A Primer of Chess teaches you how to find the good moves. When it is your turn to move, your objective as a chess player should be to find a good move. If every move you play in the game is a good move, you will win, usually because your opponent will throw himself on the sword. Jose Raoul Capablanca is regarded as the greatest chess player who ever lived prior to the modern era. This was intended to be the second book in a series of three books by World Chess Champion Capablanca. The first book was Chess Fundamentals.

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Games

294 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.