Learn Chess

Description

♟️ Why learn chess with this book?

The difference between learning chess with a good book and a bad one is not speed — it’s that with the good one you don’t need to unlearn later. Many club players who struggle to improve aren’t bad calculators or have poor memory: they learned badly from the beginning and have habits nobody corrected in time.

This book by John Nunn avoids that problem from the first page: it explains the correct principles from the start, with the same rigour he would apply to a book for advanced players, but adapted to the beginner’s level. Nunn starts from the most basic question possible — why learn chess? — and arrives, ten chapters later, having given the reader everything needed to compete with confidence in over-the-board or online games.

🎯 Who is this book for?

• People with no prior chess knowledge who want to learn from scratch
• Adults and young players who want a complete, rigorous introduction — not a simplified one
• Teachers, coaches and chess clubs looking for a quality resource to teach beginners

📖 Contents

The book is organised into 10 progressive chapters, with exercises and solutions integrated throughout:

1. Why learn chess?
2. The rules of the game (basic principles, all piece movements, exercises and solutions)
3. Chess notation (exercises and solutions)
4. Winning your first games (exercises and solutions)
5. How to win material (standard tactical patterns, avoiding being caught, exercises and solutions)
6. The enemy king (attacks on the king, exercises and solutions)
7. The phases of the game: opening, middlegame and endgame (exercises and solutions)
8. Chess psychology
9. Illustrative games
10. Improving your chess (competitive chess, additional resources, conclusion)

📚 Why chess psychology gets its own chapter

Most introductory books end with illustrative games. Nunn adds a psychology chapter because he considers attitude mistakes as common as calculation mistakes in beginners: resigning too early in inferior positions, rushing in superior positions, not handling time pressure well. Giving it its own chapter isn’t a luxury — it’s recognising that chess isn’t only played on the board.

👤 About the author

John Nunn (born 1955) is an English Grandmaster, champion of Europe junior in 1975 and British champion in 1980. He has won four individual gold medals at Chess Olympiads and was ranked in the world top ten in 1989. He is also triple World Chess Solving Champion (2004, 2007, 2010). Translated into Spanish by Juan Sebastián Morgado, supervised by Daniel Elguezábal Varela.

♟️ Why we recommend it at Chesscul

At Chesscul we recommend this book when adults with no prior experience want to learn chess properly. It’s the book we use to work with adult beginner students, precisely because Nunn’s level of rigour guarantees the student won’t need to unlearn anything later.

🔗 Recommended companions

• Learn Openings (Expanded Edition): the complete chess openings compendium — the natural next step for building a repertoire after mastering the fundamentals in this book.
• Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess: the ideal tactical complement, whose circular format forces thinking through each position before seeing the solution.
• 100 Endgames You Must Know: the essential endgame manual to turn the basic endgame knowledge from Chapter 7 into a solid technical foundation.