I have been coaching chess at the high school and middle school level for 13 years. The teams I have coached have between them 6 state championships and 2 runners up. Chess the Easy Way is THE book that I use as an outline for teaching my players how to play good chess. There is no book that is better! Ten essential rules are given for the opening, middle game and end game. These rules are illustrated and expanded with examples. Fine's logical treatment of all of the basic endings is superior! There are class A (1800-2000) players that could benefit from the information in the endings section. As far as strategy goes, Fine offers all of the essential plans for each kind of positional advantage. For example, "If the [opponent's] pawns are absolutely weak, head straight for the endgame." Or, "If the opponent's king is not safe, the plan will be to attack him." There are others, of course. These rules of strategy are simple enough, but to the typical player under 1400 or so they are essential guidelines and prevent the aimless wandering in hopes of finding the right course in a game. It was a revelation for me to read these ideas so many years ago and give logic and order to my games! Thank you to the late GM Fine. If you find a copy of this book and you are a beginner to an intermediate player (under 1600) buy this book and feel your confidence grow as does your understanding!

I don't know what happened to my copy of this book but it disappeared many years ago. I've been waiting years in the hopes that it would be re-printed. Now I'm hoping that Amazon can find me another copy. It is unquestionably the best book for beginners and intermediate chess players. Mr. Fine presents the material in a simple, easy to understand method.

I consider this book my bible of chess.It includes ten rules for the opening game, ten rules for the middle game and ten for the end game.My copy of this bible is worn out. I urge a reprinting so that all levels of chess players will benefit. Remember chess is "the game of kings and the king of games."

I am disappointed... Reuben Fine was a great player and almost reached the very top in chess. However, when it comes to providing a study guide for the ending this is anything but basic. The lack of explanations in some variations is just irritating! I like to be challenged when reading a book and encouraged to think but the author is not teaching me but showing off!

I believe that more diagrams could have been included to illustrate the points or at least, for the verbally oriented, a more thorough description of what is going on. In this regard I want to give "Fundamental Chess Endings" by Muller et. al. an ovation. For example: The pawn endings chapter in Basic Chess Endings requires 287 diagrams in all [ I have added the positions described in the text but not depicted like: "White: King at KN8, Pawns at QB6 and KN2. Black: King at K1. White to move and draw" ] In Fundamental chess endings there are only 64 diagrams for the same chapter and I don't have to go through the aggravation of setting up the board for positions that are not diagramed! And it is so much clearer...

Do yourself a favor and don't buy BCE's by Fine... It is a horrible book.

Ah! Many inaccuracies have been found in BCE's and some of them weren't caught with a chess computer! When I was browsing through old issues of chess life I ran into a bunch... That leads me to regretfully believe that Fine didn't do his best and that his work in endings is very superficial.

OK, it has errors, is difficult to read, and is really esoteric. It also the only really comprehensive one volume manual on the endgames and contains endings that are found nowhere else.

Buy it used, but it does belong on your shelf if you intend to be a serious chess player.

I can't give this book anything other than 5 stars. This is a monumental effort that remained the serious chess players Endgame Bible for years.

Now, should new players use this book as a training manual? No. There are far better books to teach you the endgame. This is a REFERENCE work. A reference work done before huge computer databases and tablebases. There is a revision coming with algebraic notation and corrections done by computers etc. Regardless, the book will never be as useful as it once was. I'm compelled however to give the credit that is due Fine. It's quite possibly the most ambitious chess book ever written.

Bobby Fischer, when asked by a young boy how to improve the boy's chess, picked up a copy of "The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings," and advised the boy to "read this book. This book has everything. It's one of the best chess books, and can definitely help to improve your game." Whenever the legendary Fischer speaks of how to improve one's chess, I have just a word of advice: Listen.

In comparing the 1943 edition of this book to the more recent 1989/90 works, it appears that most of the revisions involve the Indian and Sicilian Defenses. For good reason: These are still the overwhelming choices of many an international grandmaster to 1 d4 and 1 e4, respectively. Other than that, the text is about the same. In fact, the more recent editions even have a few misspellings and caption-reference errors to boot.

Still, I think that's a trivial reason for chess players to shy away from this book. The title states the principle: As long as you understand the IDEAS of the openings you play, you will be ready for nearly any surprises--curve balls, if I may--that your opponent might have in store. It made sense in 1943; it still makes sense today.

I would recommend this book to those in the beginner-to-intermediate range. I believe that, once you understand the ideas of your preferred openings, then and only then should you begin to intensify your studies of opening theory. After that, I feel that everything will fall into place naturally.

There are many great chess books available, but is it critical to find one that is appropriate for your level. Therefore, I will do my best to provide some guidance.

This book should be useful for someone who is somewhere between the Complete Idiots Guide to Chess (an excellent introduction) and the MCO/NCO (intermediate level books that are primarily a list of opening lines.)

As a beginner, I need a book that can break down each major opening into themes. Themes can be "maintain tension" or "simplify." The MCO and NCO both provide lines that are based on themes. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about chess to easily grasp these themes by reading a list of moves. This book can fill that gap.

Now, I can play the French Defense and say, "OK, there are only a few ways this thing can go." I will not memorize all the lines, but I can begin to understand how my choices affect my openings and ultimately, the final outcome of my games.

Once you feel comfortable with this book, the MCO could be a logical next step. Good luck!

I have a chess library that contains several hundred dollars worth of books. And looking at them there are three that I have learned more from than all the rest: IDEAS BEHIND THE CHESS OPENINGS by Reuben Fine, MY SYSTEM by Aron Nimzowitsch, and COLLE SYSTEM by George Koltanowski. A game of chess has three phases: the opening, middlegame, and endgame. This book, as its title says, concentrates primarily on the opening phase, but it also gives the reader plenty of ideas and strategy to carry into the middlegame. Fine explains those opening strategies that both players (White and Black) must strive for in order to enter the middlegame with an advantage, or at least an equal position. He describes pawn structures that lead to positionally won or lost games and alternative variations on mainline opening themes. This book was written in the early 1940's but it still contains a wealth of understanding because the basic opening ideas are still valid today. This is a must-have for any aspiring chess player

This is a revised edition of Reuben Fine's 1952 classic. However, this edition has an average of two or three typos per page! It is disgusting what they have done to an otherwise interesting book.

... Reuben Fine's "The Middlegame in Chess" is one of the greatest technical manuals ever written. The revisor (Mr. Hochberg) states in his revisor's note that "the book was, and is, a unique volume of chess wisdom from one of the greatest players of the twentieth century." Mr. Hochberg then proceeds to ruin the book with typos and mistaken diagrams. A reader will have to spend a significant amount of time trying to figure out what the moves in the original play lists were or where the pieces in the diagrams are actually supposed to be. I still give the book three stars because it really is outstanding information. But I don't recommend it to anyone who can't figure out what the errors in the text and diagrams are.

I borrowed every book written by Reuben Fine from the local college library, to see if I might model my playing after him. (I studied Fischer, but I'm no Bobby.) I so enjoyed this book, I decided to buy it. I agree that this version is flawed with typos in move lists and diagrams, but its re-vamped organization allows the pertinent info to flow more freely.

I always seemed to get lost in my games around the middlegame. This book is so full of recognizable patterns, that I can see my way more clearly now. I especially enjoyed learning the proper way to conduct an attack on the castled king using a pawn storm.

I highly recommend this book for intermediate players, like myself.