Rules of the Game Books

I would have to agree with others that the Kit's in this book are a little weak. In playability as well as game terms. However, the Mythos section gave me many ideas for creating specialty priest's for games that I run as well as characters for other's. It works well if you ignore the sample priesthoods and just use the guidlines it gives to come up with new ideas.

Since the introduction to the 3rd edition D&D a year ago, some 2nd edition books were obsolete, while others were still useful. This very book, "the complete priest's handbook" fits into neither category, however, as it was never good to begin with.

It begins fine with relatively good ways to make up your own pantheons of gods. This is helpful to an inexperienced DM, but for a seasoned DM or any DM using campaign settings providing unique pantheons, this is very little help.

Things go downhill from there. The sample priesthoods are pretty weak. Not one of them comes close to having the spells of a cleric or granted powers of a druid. If you're using 2nd edition rules, you're better off creating priesthoods under the guidelines provided in the players handbook.

Almost everything else is kits and Role-playing personalities taken from other sources.

Uninspired and unimaginative are good words to use for this book.
Numerous superior 2nd edition products are out of print, yet this
one still exists. Go figure.

Where 2nd Edition AD&D endows fighters with the ability to (at first level) swing a longsword in each hand, potentially doing 28 points of damagae in a single round without counting Strength bonuses, the 2nd Edition Priests handbook cuts a Priest's power in half. I didn't find a single Priesthood that allowed it's followers to cast spells from all spheres, and many were reduced in combat ability. The special abilities added often come at the cost of the Priest's ability to Turn Undead creatures.

In short, ignore the sample priesthoods, or at least give them more spheres and/or abilities, if you want your players to still be your friends.

The rest of the book is good. It provides mythos creation guidelines, so if you don't wish to play in Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, you can create your own pantheon and mythology using the guidelines in this book.

The kits are not all that great, one of them even relying on the heavily flawed Martial Arts system from the Player's Handbook. But with a little tinkering, you can use them. Just about everything in here needs a little work, but it's not unusable.

It's a good reference for DMs who are creating their game world. For players, they will probably get little use out of it.

Read it in the bookstore as a reference book when you are creating your world and putting Gods into it. But thats it...leave it there. This is the book in my TSR library with the most dust on it. But I pass it to new DM's more then i read it so it's not completely useless unless you don't know that many-would be DM's.

the book lacked most of what has made the other additions to this series great. As stated before you can probably find all the info included therein as well as some more useful stuff in the Faiths and Avatars as well as the Spells and Magic supplement. IT's ok if you just want to play a boring cleric( but then again wouldn't you just be better off taking the example from the players handbook). Take my word for it, save yourself the money to spend on something that would be really worth your while, but if you have to look at it just flip through it, you can get the important stuff outta there fairly quick.

After reading all the negative reviews of this book, I have to put in a good word for it. It's a good thumbnail review of concepts you've probably learned in other books, and will jog your memory regarding lessons you've learned in your games. I'm a "developing player," rated about 1300-1400, and I gained a lot by just skimming through, following the diagrams, and figuring out the puzzles. Give it a try!

Not one of the wisest investments in chess. Chess terms are learned through exposure and study. This book is unnecessary for chess players at any level. There are better chess books out there.

The name is a bit deceptive to say the very least... More of a book explaining terms and filled with useless things... Maybe Pandolfini has a few good books, this is not one of them... Perhaps someone that is very new to the game could learn something from this... Yet they will not get better from or because of this book... If you want something with chess thinking this isnt the best book... Maybe Art of Attack, Art of Middlegame, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Zurich 1953, Advances Since Nimzo, Tal Life and Games and Botvinnik one hundred selected games... Would help you more with that aspect of the game just to name a few books... Well it is your money so if you wanna spend it on this book... Nobody is gonna stop you, just remember you were warned... Do not get this book thinking its gonna help you formulate an iron clad strategy... Nor that it will help your tactical or positional play... Basically all this will help is lesson your bank account... Perhaps waste some time of yours reading it as well...

This book contains an A to Z listing of chess terms, definitions, concepts, slang terminology, names of special checkmating positions, amongst other things.

I have the sense that this book was a hack job, slapped together in order to make a quick buck. (Look, writing chess books for a living is a tough job.) This book is adequate, but not much more than that.

I bought this book from the "remainder" section of my bookstore, and paid well beneath list price for this book. Had this book been sold at list price, I would not have bought it.

This book may very well be available at your local library. It's the type of book that would seem to fit the needs of a general library population. I would recommend inquiring at your library before buying this book.

'Chess Thinking' might be useful for beginners who are not conversant with chess terminology. Also reluctantly recommended for chess instructors (to have as a ready reference for students.)

By now Mr Pandolfini must know that his chess playing skills and success as a chess coach will never carry over to his writing skills. He throws together random lines of useless material...gets it published by Fireside Chess Library and gets a nice paycheck...he has this down to a science. The purpose of his books is to transfer money from your pocket to his. If you don't agree with me, do a search of just his books here on Amazon and read the reviews.

If you click on my name you will get my personal information and see a recommended study list. I put together this list of books and software with only one thing in mind...to improve your game without wasting your money. If you want to get better at chess this list will give you the most bang for your buck.

Next to Texas Hold'em, Omaha is acknowledged as the second most popular tournament poker game -- and often rivals Texas Hold'em in popularity among European players. A complex, high-action 'flop' game, Omaha Poker is one of the premier tournaments in the annual World Series of Poker. Now Omaha poker expert Ken Warren draws upon his many years of experience to write the "Winner's Guide To Omaha Poker: The Smart Player's Guide To Winning At Omaha". Warren deftly covers the rules and basics of play; provides more than one hundred illustrative sample hands, has compiled expert tables of Omaha odds, features forty hand selection guidelines and tips, includes forty-one tournament play tips, even offers applicable information on internet play! Of special note are Warren's comments on fundamental and money-making concepts for those seeking to become professional Omaha Poker players. There is even a useful glossary that will prove invaluable to the novice Omaha player. Ken Warren's "Winner's Guide To Omaha Poker" is a fundamental and strongly recommended addition to personal and community library Gaming & Card Playing reference collections.

OK book for reading hands but not really much after that.

It has a large number of examples of hands and a very good section on comparing Omaha Hi'Lo (LO8) to Hold'm. this is not really a BOOK but more a group of pages with lists.

It also covers Pot Limit and sort of confuses the two at times.

Although the title is a bit misleading, this book is a good intro to Omaha. I would have given it 4 stars, but I feel the title is a bit misplaced... Better would something like 'Introduction to Omaha'.

That being said, I think that the author does a good job of trying to hammer home the differences between Hold'em (where most players are coming from) and Omaha. He does a great job of providing dozens of examples of reading the board in relation to hand - a topic that can be very confusing, especially in the beginning.

What this book lacks however, is more meat on post flop play. Also, some firmer numbers on how Omaha can be more profitable than Hold'em. He talks about how the pots are bigger, but also how high/low and low splits can eat into your win rate. Additionally, he makes some strong aurguments for why 'better' players will not have as much of an edge in Omaha, but doesn't really get into how to be a 'winner' beyond the topic of starting hand selection.

All and all, I think that this book used in conjunction with one of the other books out there that are lacking some of this fundamentals would deffinately lead to a solid start in Omaha.

Man, having been pleasantly surprised by the amount of useful material that was in Ken Warren's first two Hold'em books, I was extremely surprised by how little he packed into this book about Omaha. I think it was ridiculous having so many pages devoted to reading both hi and lo hands. The examples took up so much space, no wonder he was able to get so many pages out of so little material. He had very little advice on what specific hands to select, how to play pre-flop, how to play post-flop, not to mention very little on play at the turn and after the river. I really enjoyed his second book on hold'em, but I want to warn anyone that is thinking about getting this book not to expect very much out of it. I really wish he had used the same format as his previous book, with assignments at the end of each chapter to apply what you have learned, but he did not.

This book assumes you are coming from hold'em and does a good job of showing the difference between hold'em and Omaha hi-lo. It shows you winning high and low Omaha hands by showing you different card combinations. It does a good job of showing you how to figure out the outs you have, and generally what to look for in starting hands without being specific. What it doesn't cover is the play of the hand. The book uses big font and has a lot of card graphics that take up space. The two chapters at the end are filler on tournament play in general that applies to both Omaha and hold'em, and internet poker. Then there is a glossary, and several pages of advertisement for other books.

An excellent book for beginners. It stresses the official colors for board & checkers, teaches the correct rules in an interesting way. There have been exceedingly few new books on checkers in the last 40 years or so. I have given away several copies of this book to nieces, nephews, and children of friends.

Today I received my copy of "Checker Power by Robert W. Pike. I was excited about advancing my knowledge and skills in the game of checkers. I spent the next '10' minutes reading this (book). Each set of pages contain, (on one page), a LARGE checker board which takes up the entire page. The opposite page contained at least 'one' (usually small), paragraph explaining the absolute most basic aspects of checkers. If you have ever played even one game of checkers, you know more than all the knowledge contained in this (book). I say (book) in parenthesis because this should be classified as a PAMPHLET. The entire book contained about 40 or 50 paragraphs..!! Need I continue!. AOL, please do us a favor and remove this "PAMPHLET" so others will not have to pay the postage to get this PAMPHLET and the postage to RETURN this PAMPHLET.! Richard Mathis rdsupply@easilink.com

Very disapointed. I did not lean anything new. I expected some good stratagies for winning the game.I think any thinking person would already know the tips they gave.

This book together with Football for Dummies gave my wife an appreciation of the sport.

This book does not contain all rules and in many cases only contains pictures that allude to rules.

If you'd like a book that is complete, I would suggest that you look elsewhere.

Very basic and not very exciting. I only wanted the basics (as a new comer to the US) and this only just made it. Pay the postage, but not much more.

If you don't find this helpful, then i'm sorry!!

To sum it up:

Competitive Players:
The USCF's official rules of chess is fine if you want an in depth book which has every possible necessary rule you would need in a tournament. If you want an "Official, In-depth book" this is it. No other book has rules that are official - period -.

Learning the Basics:
If you are a beginner and want to learn the rules of chess, first you just need to know how the pieces move and check/checkmate. If you have come further along to the concepts of promotion and castling, thats good too. Anyone who fully understands enpassant must have a knowledge of the rules that gets them farther than most people want to go with chess. "Play winning chess" by Seirawan or any number of all the beginner books out there will teach you the rules.

Learning Tournament Basics:
I'm talking about clock etiquette, 3 move repetition, and so forth. Most people learn these rules from friends or coaches at a tournament, but if you really need a book on it, "Winning Chess Tournaments For Juniors" is fine. anything else is a waste of $$$.

Learning the unofficial "official" rules of chess:
What was schiller thinking??? And why do we need a 2nd edition? as if the rules have changed??? His "official" board has decided that the "official" rules have changed.

Or more likely:

Schiller: I don't know if we can go on vacation this summer if we don't have the money

Publisher: Just write another book tomorrow

Schiller: I know, I'll write the official rules of Chess!!! Dumb people will want it!

-next year-

Schiller: You know, after writing such dumb books like Standard Chess Openings (he acts like he's the authority!) and cranking out some other junk, I still don't have enough money. I know, we'll alter the rules of chess. We'll call it a "2nd edition"

Publisher: Sounds good Eric, shall I have it edited?

Schiller: No need, no one will notice!

Very few of Schiller's books are worth it

Conclusion:
Don't Buy!!!!
Ever!

Whearas, the "United States Chess Federation" has their own official rulebook it is not user friendly to a beginner or a person who is new to the tournament world in the US.
Did you know that the United States is the only country in the world who doesn't use the FIDE ("World Chess Federation") rules?
Now this being said what could the United States Chess Federation do to assist players with their rule book who are not experienced tournament directors and players?

The solution would be to write a book that:
1) Points out which rules are the most important rules from a practical standpoint for a player to know,
2) Explains in more simplistic wording and detail what the important rules mane to make them more understandable, ranging from the detailed sudden death rules to understanding how to read a crosstable.
3) Point out some of the faults with the rules. This is unlikely because the rule makers are unlikley to admit to any problems - BUT THEY DO EXIST.

Mr. Schiller's book calling itself the "Official" rules implies that it has "official" approval from the governing body of chess in the US, "The United States Chess Federation". It does not and many officials have found it rather offensive to say the least to see the word "Official" on the cover.

Non-the-less Schiller's book in interesting and to some degree helps give a different wording of what is intented to be an "official rule". Unfortunately, sometimes it changes the meaning of the rule. But getting Schiller's rule book is not a bad idea as long as you already own the USCF's Official Rulebook. Schiller's book cannot be used in USCF tournaments in any manner. There is at least one book, that is specifically directed to supplementing these rule books that doesn't change the meaning of the words but does take a large number of most important rules and explain them and points out some of their faults. It is a book called "Winning Chess Tournaments for Juniors". Very user friendly and is recommended for every newcomer to chess as a suppliment to the rulebook, or a book to be used to learn how to train in chess.

As far a Schiller's book goes it can use some updating, rewording, and should not call itself "official".

I'll state upfront that I was reading the first edition of this book, not the second, so perhaps some of the flaws I saw were fixed in the second edition.
I found the first edition of this book annoying. I'm a parent, trying to run a chess club, and I was looking for readable tournament rules. This book IS readable, but it's filled with clunky definitions, what looks like a tiff with the USCF, and also several typos.
I also do not appreciate the word "Official" in the title of the book, which vastly misrepresents the book's place in the chess world.
My recommendation is to buy the latest edition of the real "official" book: the "United States Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess."

I suppose anybody can start a chess organization, write a rulebook, and declare the book to be the "official" rules of the organization. In this case the breakaway organization appears to be the Chess Education Association, whose All-America Cup in November 2000 drew 29 players to its high school section. Similar events run by the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF), the generally recognized governing body of American chess, regularly draw in the thousands. This book is certainly not for the beginner attempting to learn the rules of chess. Few beginners could figure out how the knight moves, based on the book's explanation: "The knight moves to one of the squares nearest to that on which it stands but not on the same rank, file or diagonal." The definition of checkmate is just plain wrong, as "a position such that the opponent's king has no legal move which would avoid the capture of the king on the following move". This definition overlooks interposition and capture as ways to get out of check, and fails to distinguish between checkmate and stalemate. The book is not for the aspiring tournament director, either, as the details are woefully inadequate, especially the discussion of Swiss pairings. The book might be acceptable for the player who already knows how the pieces move and is about to enter his first tournament, but even here there are pitfalls. For example, standard USCF rules state that, if both players run out of time before either notices, the game is drawn, while this CEA version tries to make the arbiter figure out which player's flag fell first. If this book has any strong points, they are the Etiquette section and the advice to Chess Teachers, Coaches, and Trainers. These sections fill a need in the often overlooked area of sportsmanship at scholastic chess events. The book would be improved by a more honest title, such as "Proper Procedures for Young Chess Players", and the removal of such words as "absurdity" in the discussion of USCF rules. If you buy this book for amusement, be sure to read it with a grain of salt. Greatly preferable is the USCF version, either the current 4th edition or the upcoming (in about a year) 5th edition.

The United States Chess Federation (USCF) publishes an "Official Rules of Chess" which is more generally thought of as "the" official US tournament rules. I wondered, therefore, whether publication of "another" set of "official rules" made any sense, other than as a marketing ploy. This book, though, proposes a workable set of rules for play. The authors take a small swipe at a flaw or two in the USCF rules, which swipe seems to me largely unnecessary. The authors do make the useful observation that most chess is not played under USCF auspices. However, most US "live" rated chess probably is, which this book obscures. But if the title "Official Rules of Chess" is a bit strong, given that the USCF "official rules" are probably used for more over-the-board rated games, the book is nonetheless an enjoyable read. I suppose I wish that the title were "Rules of Chess--a Proposal", but even that title would not quite work, as this set of rules is in use for at least one scholastic chess league.

Why should one buy this book when it is not a "USCF" official rules book? Perhaps because it's got good sections on chess etiquette, good suggestions for rule variations, and an easy, free flowing style. Mr. Schiller's smooth style remains quite readable.

I docked this book a star because of its title "Official Rules".
But I found it a fascinating read, nonetheless. It's a good buy for those interested in chess possibilities, but perhaps a less essential buy for those literally hunting US "official rules", who would do much better by buying the USCF official rules.

I was quite intrigued by the title of this book as I am sure most folks are who are interested and buy books on domino. I have seen this book often sold with a big set of dominoes included with the package elsewhere - but that hardly makes up for the book which has too many gross errors. At one point in reading about one game description and rules I became hopelessly lost and couldn't really understand much! Its just another book. I finally got the book "Dominoes Plus: The Dominoforms Handbook" as my main guide of use myself to replace this one.

My specific goal with this book was to find information about the famous Texas domino game of "42," so I was primarily interested in that section of the book. Its attempt to teach that game is inconsistent with the known guidelines and strategies played in Texas 42, so be careful if that is your interest in this book. If so, a comprehensive new book solely on the domino game of "42" is available from amazon.com - "Winning 42: Strategy & Lore of the National Game of Texas."

I am not sure if there was a translation error, bad print run, etc... but watch out for typos and other errors in this book. Learning a new game becomes even more challenging when the diagrams do not match up and the text is wrong.

It boggles the mind how a book publisher can put out a book with so many typos and mistakes. Since the author's name looks German maybe the problem was in the translation process. After struggling with this book for a week I went back and purchased Jennifer A. Kelley's Great Book of Domino Games... what a difference. My advice is don't waste your time or money on Muller's book. Buy Kelley's book (her book is a pleasure to read).

Over all this book isnt worth the purchase. The "new" races require signifigant adjustment to either bring them into acceptable PC power levels or large adjustments in the ECL. At first I thought the core classes might save this book but I was mistaken. They too are extremely over powered. Aditionally the prestige classes are just plain silly. Even the spells are over powered. The only reason for the 2nd star is that it has some neat ideas, making it a seed book for a DM that wants to add some spice to his game world.

I was really hopefull for some deep meaning here. Regretably it was a nice comparison / contrast but a little light on philosophy. It kind of draged on. A better book would the Iraq and the Art of War I learned a great deal thinking about Iraq when reading this book....

This would be a decent (but not great) book for 20 cents. I don't see how it's worth twenty dollars.

It's full of large-print, pithy advice. Sometimes, the advice is quoted from a well-known master, and those few quotations are easily the best parts of the book.

Normally, there are 2 of these per page, but sometimes (at chapter boundaries) none.

The last several pages do not even have this much. Instead, they show diagrams of many different openings, with a brief comment. Typically, the diagrams show only a single move; sometimes 2 or 3. I have no idea how this could be valuable to anyone.

I would say one star, but I save that for truly horrible books. This book exudes quality in its pages, its binding, its printing, etc. All the advice that I read (and you can read the whole thing standing at the bookstore) was sound, but none of it was supported by example. (Well, maybe a few rare examples.) It does not actually require any thinking by the reader. It is similar to some pretty pop philosophy gift-books I've seen in the bargain bins.

I think the book would be most valuable for a chess coach to clip the pages and pin them to a bulletin board. It has absolutely no other value. The author and publisher are certifiably insane if they imagine someone could learn from this.

Addendum:
I have learned that several quotations are wrongly attributed. This poor research turns a 2-star book into a 1-star book. Avoid.

I'm not sure why this book has been maligned so much by previous reviewers. Some of the ideas in this book are very worthwhile guidelines for the tournament player. I especially like the suggestions regarding modified piece values in various situations. My chief criticism of this work involves the unnecessary repetition of ideas that have been merely reworded from one "rule" to another. For example, once the author has stated that "a knight on the rim is dim," there's no need to mention other rules that cover poor knight placement on the edge of the board.

Further, a few rules have contradictory rules elsewhere in the book. For instance, Alburt lists the rule "don't exchange pieces with a patzer." Yet another rule states that beating a patzer becomes easier if you bring the game down to an endgame. How does one move into the endgame without exchanging pieces?

Finally, a few of the chess maxims are little too rudimentary; they resemble Fred Reinfeld comments (e.g., "develop your pieces quickly"). I think these detract from a perception of the book as one for advanced players.

Since I consider a book worth the purchase as long as I glean one or two good ideas from it, I still recommend this book -- just if it's purchased at a bargain price, not the list price.

This book is crap.

Waste less time on it than I have here.