Primii Pasi in Sah (The First Steps in Chess) by Elisabeta Polihroniade would help any Romanian child learn how to play chess. We used to own this book and I remember reading the first few chapters.

My copy of “Primii Pasi in Sah”

When my sister came to visit a few months ago, I asked her to procure a copy from a used book store, if at all possible. Well, she found it and a couple other titles by Polihroniade, the best woman chess player of Romania.

As I said in this post about Learn Chess by John Nunn, my motivation to play chess better is to catch up with my children, who beat me at chess more often than not. In both books, the author presents the rules of the game and how the pieces move.

In this book, the author found a way to mingle Romanian history and battles and chess, thus making it very educational on both fronts. As Polihroniade describes the Italian defense or the Scottish defense, she references battles from Romanian history. Pretty clever.

Primii Pasi in Sah inside

Then, at the end of each chapter, you can solve the exercises and learn hands on. This book doubles as textbook and workbook and could keep you busy for several months. I will continue to work my way through the exercises as time permits.

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