The Fundamentals | Build Up Your Chess 1 | Artur Yusupov

"Build Up Your Chess 1” is the first book in the “Fundamentals” series.

Artur Yusupov's esteemed nine-part training series is meticulously crafted to elevate chess enthusiasts from foundational concepts to advanced mastery.

The series is divided into three levels, and there are three books for each level:

• Fundamentals (Orange books): Aimed at players rated under 1500.
• Beyond the Basics (Blue books): Targeted at players rated under 1800.
• Mastery (Green books): For those rated under 2100.

The various topics – Tactics, Strategy, Positional Play, Endgames, Calculating Variations, and Openings – are spread evenly across the nine volumes, giving readers the chance to improve every area as they work through the books.

• Each chapter presents a specific theme, accompanied by exercises and detailed solutions.
• Yusupov emphasizes a hands-on approach to studying to promote retention and understanding rather than rote memorisation.

The Build Up Your Chess series won the prestigious Boleslavsky Medal from FIDE (the World Chess Federation) as the best instructional chess books in the world.

Reader’s Reviews:

This is an excellent and highly methodical book, though concise in its approach. The series consists of nine books, and I’m certain I’ll purchase the next one once I finish this.

However, the order of the books can be a bit confusing, so I recommend doing some research beforehand to decide which one to start with.

For me, this book was the first to introduce some fundamental motifs that I hadn’t encountered in other chess books I’ve read, such as Boden’s Mate and the Arabian Mate.

In summary, this is the best chess book I’ve come across so far (alongside Nunn’s Learn Chess Tactics). For context, my chess.com rating is approximately 1500, which may help you gauge the relevance of this review to your own level -S Kreil

About the Author:

Artur Yusupov is a prominent Russian chess player and author, renowned for his contributions to chess education through a comprehensive series of instructional books. He was born on May 30, 1963, in Moscow and became an International Grandmaster in 1994. Yusupov is particularly celebrated for his training methodology, which emphasizes a structured approach to learning chess.

Other details:

Paperback

Pages: 264

Dimensions: 15.2 x 1.3 x 23cm

ISBN-13: 9781906552015