It may be out of print but I still see copies around & although published originally in 1942 it will still get someone who has just learnt the moves off to a good start. One I still recomend is Chess made Easy by Purdy & Koshnitsky. Its an interesting read from a historical perspective but I wouldn't recomend it for actual study, there are far better books out there for beginners. As a 200+ year old book it may be worth little, but as a 200 year old Chess book it could be valuable to the right person. It may still only be worth $40, rare books are difficult to value. I bought it for its historical interest when I was accumulating a Chess library. Actually i couldnt find any philidor book except for his biography. I'll tell you if it was a waste of money when I sell it.Īwesome, i looked for that book i couldnt even find a reprint on amazon. I have a copy of 'How to Play Chess' by Philidor dated 1795. On top of that, endgames and opening study are also helpful in complementing the skill of any enthusiastic amature. Studying and absorbing master games is the best way to develop strong chess intuition and good thought processes. Suprisingly I was a relatively strong(ish) player and after only a few months was improving very quickly. I'm in my early 30s now and after all this time only just started playing last year. I never played OTB or computers or anyone (we lived in the bush) and eventually gave it up when I hit high school and started chasing girls.

Going over master games without an explanation would be waste of time for anyone trying to learn chess - like trying to understand another language without a translation. I'd try to figure out what the masters would do and only then reveal the move and study the analysis/commentary provided. This'll be old news to many of you but I'd play with the winning side and hide the moves with a card. As a kid I'd go over this one old book covering Russian GM games up to the 1960's. Books providing an in-depth analysis of master games are invaluable.

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