Reddit mentions of Chess Tactics for Champions: A step-by-step guide to using tactics and combinations the Polgar way

If you're serious about it, you can find a coach on lichess.org/coach. A good one will guide your study and accelerate your learning.

Start solving tactical puzzles. A lot of them. All of them. As a total beginner, this is the best thing you can do to improve your game. It will take time, but it will yield results.

To learn basic tactics, check out Predator at the Chessboard which is a free online resource. Or get a book like Back to Basics: Tactics, or Judit Polgar's Chess Tactics for Champions, or Reinfeld's 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations. All of them will introduce the major motifs and give you practice with them. Pick one and get to work. You can also find free puzzles at chesstempo.com. Consider getting an app for your phone, like CT-ART 4.0, so you can practice on the go. Seriously, tactics are the big focus right now.

As you start learning about chess, you'll see a lot of people talking about openings. It'll seem like a lot of fun to learn a particular opening and talk about "Oh, I'm an Open Sicilian man," or "I always play the Petrov and here's why . . ." Don't worry about any of that. For now, just learn the basic principles of the opening and concentrate on actually practicing them in your games. Most beginner's books (see below) and lots of videos on youtube will be able to introduce these to you.

There's another book you should get: Chess Fundamentals by José Raúl Capablanca. It'll take you through the basics of the game and will give you a solid foundation on which to build. Make sure it's in algebraic notation. Go through the book slowly, methodically. Make a study for it at lichess.org/study and go over the moves digitally. Go over the positions on a physical board. Take notes. Only move forward when you truly understand what Capablanca is talking about.

Practice what you learn by playing slow time controls. 15+15 games (or longer!) will give you the time you need to think about the moves you and your opponent are making. 5-minute games are fun, but they're not the best way to learn to play well. I mean, play whatever you want--it's a game, and it's meant to be fun. But know that the longer the controls, the more you will learn from your games. For that matter, google "how to analyze a chess game" and then analyze your games after the fact. That way you'll learn to avoid traps and pitfalls into which you fell.

All of this is my opinion, but I'm just some patzer, right? Take or leave this as you like. Or just get a coach and do what you pay them to tell you. Good luck; have fun!

Puzzle above is a variation of a puzzle from Susan Polgar's book Chess Tactics for Champions (Link here: http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-Champions-step-step/dp/081293671X). I recommend that book for people who like to just sharpen their tactical combinations as it offers many puzzles for you to train on.

The advice given by most decent chess players is to learn the basic rules (which you've done) and then focus on tactics. I see you have used chesstempo, which is excellent. I'd say to focus on that. Recognizing common tactical patterns really is the best way to improve and there are many, many sources for this sort of training. This book by Laszlo Polgar (for many basic mate examples) and this one (to explore the various tactical ideas) by his daughter are quite good imho.

You can sign up and play on these websites.

1.chess.com

2.lichess.org

3.chess24.com

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Watch beginner videos on youtube. You can subscribe to these channels and watch their videos regularly. Many of these channels are not entirely aimed at beginners. You can watch them for entertainment and learn chess history too.

1.https://www.youtube.com/user/AGADMATOR

2.https://www.youtube.com/user/ChessNetwork

3.https://www.youtube.com/user/STLChessClub

4.https://www.youtube.com/user/wwwChesscom

5.https://www.youtube.com/user/RosenChess

6.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqLLqbclDQ6IQg39Wsgy-4w

7.https://www.youtube.com/user/PowerPlayChess

8.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWRXqVXhkHYp9HU9gJATgJA

Check out these books that are great for beginners and intermediate players.

1.https://www.amazon.com/Bobby-Fischer-Teaches-Chess/dp/0553263153/

2.https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-Champions-step-step/dp/081293671X/

I think it's a good idea to start with a chess book because its structure and organization of puzzles from easy to hard will probably help the learning process.

Then you can test your new knowledge on tactics website.

Two suitable books :
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Tactics-Everyman/dp/1857443861/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467101274&sr=1-1&keywords=seirawan+winning+chess+tactics

https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-Champions-step-step/dp/081293671X

I think I understand what you are trying to experiment. You are asking if 2 beginners start playing chess while reading different beginner books, how will their play styles and understanding of the game change? I think this is a very interesting idea, and although I hypothesize that "no matter how different the books are, the difference will be because of the players, not the books" I will gladly suggest some ideas for your experiment.

There are plenty of chess books that are written by classical GMs that many people still find amazingly helpful.

"Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals" is still a very good for learning strong end game and good idea of how pieces work together. His end games are still considered some of the cleanest. He was somebody who could take puzzling situations and make them simple. It's very satisfying to following his games.

"My System" by GM Nimzowitsch is a bit different. Where as Capablanca relied more on classical openings and simplified situations with strong piece control, Nizomwitisch was of the hypermodern school which focused more on challenging the old classical fundamental beliefs and positional superiority.

If both of you start with one of each book, it'd be interesting to see how both of you end up playing. But honestly as beginners, (I'm a low level asshole myself aka patzer) some of the higher level things we're talking about here may not even mean anything for a long time.

Honestly, everybody in life has a certain chess style. Some play for the tactics, some for positions, some for the calculations, while others for the pattern recognition, some play sharp while some play loose, some play meek while some play aggressively. It really depends on you as a player, and I think that in the end, no matter which book you start with, you will end up the player you are going to be anyway.

As for other books that may be of interest for both of you, as they always say in chess "tactics, tactics, tactics": it may be a good idea to supplement both of your books with a tactical book such as https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Tactics-Everyman/dp/1857443861 or https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-Champions-step-step/dp/081293671X or this https://www.amazon.com/Predator-At-Chessboard-Field-Tactics/dp/1430308001

and also supplement tactics with mating motifs like this: https://www.amazon.com/How-Beat-Your-Chess-Gambit/dp/1901983056

I hope you and your friend have a lot of fun playing and learning together. I have definitely enjoyed playing with my work mates. If you guys haven't chosen an online platform already, I suggest lichess.org or chess.com. Both are very great sites for playing chess for free. One is absolutely free and offers some very cool features for self analysis and community study material, while the other has paid premium memberships which offer a breadth of learning material in videos and articles.

ah, if you want tactical puzzles in book form, I don't own it, but you could get:

1. Judit Polgar's Book: http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-Champions-step-step/dp/081293671X
   
   or
   
   2.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1579125549/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1535523722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=081293671X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0VZ8DGQMPTVRFEEN20VW
   
   Keep in mind I don't own books #1 or #2. I do own: Paata Gaprindashvili's Imagination in Chess, but I wouldn't get it until you've got some serious calculation down. The puzzles are top notch difficulty. If you want a serious challenge, Get it.