--- product_id: 28140137 title: "The Game of Chess (Dover Chess)" price: "£27.45" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/28140137-the-game-of-chess-dover-chess store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # The Game of Chess (Dover Chess) **Price:** £27.45 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Game of Chess (Dover Chess) - **How much does it cost?** £27.45 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/28140137-the-game-of-chess-dover-chess) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The Game of Chess (Dover Chess) [Tarrasch, Siegbert] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Game of Chess (Dover Chess) Review: My favorite beginner's chess book. - This book is my favorite beginner's chess book, and I have worked through big chunks of it multiple times. I believe this book contains everything needed to go from a complete beginner to an intermediate player of 1500 FIDE or USCF strength. The general style of this book is to teach via examples. Every lesson has a diagram that the reader should set up on his or her own chess board, Tarrasch will explain the concept in words as well as having variations of chess moves to work through. This book has five sections: The Elements, The Endgame, The Middle Game, The Opening, and a collection of grandmaster games with Tarrach's commentary reinforcing everything learned in the previous four sections. The Elements is a short (around 30 pages) introduction to the rules of chess and basic movement patterns of the pieces. This section is cleverly written, as it also introduces fundamental ideas such as king opposition and the Rook+King versus King checkmate. While the novice is learning how the pieces move, they are also learning some basic checkmates, how the pieces coordinate in a basic way, and how the pieces play against each other (as in rook versus bishop). The Endgame is the second section (around 60 pages), and all of the basics are explained: the lucena and philidor positions, Queen vs. Rook, Bishop+Knight vs. King, Rook vs. Bishop, Rook vs. Knight, a little about pawn play, and a primer on rook endgames. In this section Tarrasch details a lovely trick for understanding pawn endgames, where the player should simply count the number of moves required to promote a pawn for both White and Black, and in this way can get a sense of which exchanges are advantageous or not. Of course, entire books have been written about the endgame, but I think there is enough in this section for anyone to hold their own in tournament or online play. In fact, when playing against my friends, I usually win or can equalize in the endgame based on what Tarrasch has taught me. My endgame play is noticeably better than theirs. The third section is The Middle Game (120 pages). This section is the most information-rich, which is appropriate considering the middle game is the most complex phase of the game. Tarrasch takes a tactical approach to the middle game- focusing on pins, skewers, forks, back rank mates, etc. However, there is much more here than just the classic tactics. Here are just a few of the subtitles of what Tarrasch teaches: The point KR6 as a point for attack, The Passed Pawn, The point QKt6 as a Target for Attack Turning a Flank, The Broken-up Castled Position, The Capture of the Queen After Her Penetation to QKt7. That sample of lessons should give you a sense that Tarrasch goes well beyond the basic Tactics and that this book cannot be replaced by any simple tactics primer. This section should probably be read multiple times for full absorption. The fourth section is The Opening. Tarrasch begins the section with an essay (?) on his theory of how the opening should be conducted, including his analysis of tempi. From there, he gives an full account of 28 different openings with multiple variations for each. Tarrasch himself states that this section is not intended to be read, but rather consulted in after-game analysis. This section gives you all the goodies- the Italian Game, the Ruy Lopez, Queen's Gambit (both attacking with and defending against it), King's Gambit, the French, the Danish, etc. I would doubt that there is anything a typical club player would see regularly which is not featured in this section. Some people have said that this section is where the book shows its age the most (for instance, Tarrasch doesn't approve of the Scotch, which nowadays is considered sound), but I think this is a minuscule complaint. If you're the class of player who would truly benefit from the most up-to-date opening analysis, then you're well past this book in playing strength. The last section is a collection of 12 grandmaster games. While this section is useful, interesting, and instructive, there isn't too much here that won't be found in any other collection of grandmaster games aimed at beginning-to-intermediate players. Overall, this book is 423 pages of rather dense chess instruction. This book makes Play Winning Chess by Seirawan and Logical Chess Move by Move by Chernev seem like a breeze to get through. But that effort is rewarded. The reader, by studying and working through large portions of this book, will gain more from this book than any other. Tarrasch has clearly thought very hard about the best way to teach chess, and he does a splendid job of it. If a student understands a large portion of what Tarrasch teaches here, he or she would be ready to understand some of the more formidable and advanced chess books out there such as My System. Review: A Great Book For Learning Chess - My chess instructor recommended this book. It might be more accurate to say he required me to buy it, as I need to read a little bit every week to improve my game. Anyway, I have not gone through the whole book yet. I am still a novice, so I tend to follow his lead when it comes to reading and studying. However, from what I have read so far, the author of the book really took his time putting this book together. I have come across no typographical errors yet. A lot of care and consideration for the novice player has been used. Moves are explained, and good alternatives are given. For those who are absolute beginners, this book might seem confusing. I recommend finding another player (in the event that you can't afford a chess teacher) who knows the old descriptive notation. This book doesn't use 1. e4 e5...etc., but uses notation such as 1. P - K4 P - K4 . The book teaches one a little bit about the descriptive notation, but it is easier to have someone go over it with you. By the way, the book is written with endgames first, middle-games second, and openings third. This might not make sense to everyone. However, there are fewer pieces on the board in the endgame, thus fewer distractions. Also, you want to learn how to win some endings (or survive them if you must strive for a draw) so that all your hard work in a given game isn't for nothing... You CAN go through the book without reading about endgames first. Your needs might be different. My instructor decided to start me on some openings he thinks I can handle. We have studied some endgames that are appropriate for someone at my level (my current rating is just over 1100). ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | ASIN | 048625447X | | Best Sellers Rank | #345,892 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #312 in Chess (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars (147) | | Dimensions | 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches | | Edition | Reissue | | ISBN-10 | 9780486254470 | | ISBN-13 | 978-0486254470 | | Item Weight | 10.4 ounces | | Language | English | | Part of series | Dover Chess | | Print length | 448 pages | | Publication date | November 2, 2011 | | Publisher | Dover Publications | ## Images ![The Game of Chess (Dover Chess) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91daAfZkLgL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ My favorite beginner's chess book. *by A***X on July 20, 2019* This book is my favorite beginner's chess book, and I have worked through big chunks of it multiple times. I believe this book contains everything needed to go from a complete beginner to an intermediate player of 1500 FIDE or USCF strength. The general style of this book is to teach via examples. Every lesson has a diagram that the reader should set up on his or her own chess board, Tarrasch will explain the concept in words as well as having variations of chess moves to work through. This book has five sections: The Elements, The Endgame, The Middle Game, The Opening, and a collection of grandmaster games with Tarrach's commentary reinforcing everything learned in the previous four sections. The Elements is a short (around 30 pages) introduction to the rules of chess and basic movement patterns of the pieces. This section is cleverly written, as it also introduces fundamental ideas such as king opposition and the Rook+King versus King checkmate. While the novice is learning how the pieces move, they are also learning some basic checkmates, how the pieces coordinate in a basic way, and how the pieces play against each other (as in rook versus bishop). The Endgame is the second section (around 60 pages), and all of the basics are explained: the lucena and philidor positions, Queen vs. Rook, Bishop+Knight vs. King, Rook vs. Bishop, Rook vs. Knight, a little about pawn play, and a primer on rook endgames. In this section Tarrasch details a lovely trick for understanding pawn endgames, where the player should simply count the number of moves required to promote a pawn for both White and Black, and in this way can get a sense of which exchanges are advantageous or not. Of course, entire books have been written about the endgame, but I think there is enough in this section for anyone to hold their own in tournament or online play. In fact, when playing against my friends, I usually win or can equalize in the endgame based on what Tarrasch has taught me. My endgame play is noticeably better than theirs. The third section is The Middle Game (120 pages). This section is the most information-rich, which is appropriate considering the middle game is the most complex phase of the game. Tarrasch takes a tactical approach to the middle game- focusing on pins, skewers, forks, back rank mates, etc. However, there is much more here than just the classic tactics. Here are just a few of the subtitles of what Tarrasch teaches: The point KR6 as a point for attack, The Passed Pawn, The point QKt6 as a Target for Attack Turning a Flank, The Broken-up Castled Position, The Capture of the Queen After Her Penetation to QKt7. That sample of lessons should give you a sense that Tarrasch goes well beyond the basic Tactics and that this book cannot be replaced by any simple tactics primer. This section should probably be read multiple times for full absorption. The fourth section is The Opening. Tarrasch begins the section with an essay (?) on his theory of how the opening should be conducted, including his analysis of tempi. From there, he gives an full account of 28 different openings with multiple variations for each. Tarrasch himself states that this section is not intended to be read, but rather consulted in after-game analysis. This section gives you all the goodies- the Italian Game, the Ruy Lopez, Queen's Gambit (both attacking with and defending against it), King's Gambit, the French, the Danish, etc. I would doubt that there is anything a typical club player would see regularly which is not featured in this section. Some people have said that this section is where the book shows its age the most (for instance, Tarrasch doesn't approve of the Scotch, which nowadays is considered sound), but I think this is a minuscule complaint. If you're the class of player who would truly benefit from the most up-to-date opening analysis, then you're well past this book in playing strength. The last section is a collection of 12 grandmaster games. While this section is useful, interesting, and instructive, there isn't too much here that won't be found in any other collection of grandmaster games aimed at beginning-to-intermediate players. Overall, this book is 423 pages of rather dense chess instruction. This book makes Play Winning Chess by Seirawan and Logical Chess Move by Move by Chernev seem like a breeze to get through. But that effort is rewarded. The reader, by studying and working through large portions of this book, will gain more from this book than any other. Tarrasch has clearly thought very hard about the best way to teach chess, and he does a splendid job of it. If a student understands a large portion of what Tarrasch teaches here, he or she would be ready to understand some of the more formidable and advanced chess books out there such as My System. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Great Book For Learning Chess *by M***L on April 9, 2017* My chess instructor recommended this book. It might be more accurate to say he required me to buy it, as I need to read a little bit every week to improve my game. Anyway, I have not gone through the whole book yet. I am still a novice, so I tend to follow his lead when it comes to reading and studying. However, from what I have read so far, the author of the book really took his time putting this book together. I have come across no typographical errors yet. A lot of care and consideration for the novice player has been used. Moves are explained, and good alternatives are given. For those who are absolute beginners, this book might seem confusing. I recommend finding another player (in the event that you can't afford a chess teacher) who knows the old descriptive notation. This book doesn't use 1. e4 e5...etc., but uses notation such as 1. P - K4 P - K4 . The book teaches one a little bit about the descriptive notation, but it is easier to have someone go over it with you. By the way, the book is written with endgames first, middle-games second, and openings third. This might not make sense to everyone. However, there are fewer pieces on the board in the endgame, thus fewer distractions. Also, you want to learn how to win some endings (or survive them if you must strive for a draw) so that all your hard work in a given game isn't for nothing... You CAN go through the book without reading about endgames first. Your needs might be different. My instructor decided to start me on some openings he thinks I can handle. We have studied some endgames that are appropriate for someone at my level (my current rating is just over 1100). ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great book for beginners!!! *by D***A on April 18, 2021* I believe it’s a great book, because it has the principles you need to learn to develop your chess skills. One thing I didn’t like was the descriptive notation, but I believe there’s a version with algebraic notations. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/28140137-the-game-of-chess-dover-chess](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/28140137-the-game-of-chess-dover-chess) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-05-31*