Courier-Post, Camden, New Jersey, Sunday, November 03, 1991 - Page 82
Learning the game by the book
The best-selling chess book “Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess” continues to achieve record numbers. The paperback edition published in 1972 has sold over 900,000 copies, estimates Stuart Margulies, who co-authored the book with Fischer and fellow chess expert Don Mosenfelder.
Margulies had little hope for a financial success when he became involved in the project. In fact, his modest royalty of less than 2 percent earned him only $1,500 from sales of the original 1966 hard-cover edition.
“I just wanted to do something with Bobby,” explains Margulies, a friend and admirer of the Brooklyn-born chess genius.
But the steady sales of the paperback edition and a lucrative sale of foreign rights have earned Margulies close to $100,000 in royalties since 1972. And the book continues to outpace all other chess books in the American market.
The book uses the techniques of programmed learning—a step-by-step approach introducing a small amount of information on each page — to pursue its goal of developing the reader's ability to look three moves ahead on the chessboard.
Margulies, a PhD in psychology and a chess master, is a pioneer in the use of such techniques.
Fischer was enthusiastic about the goal of the book. But his major concern was that the presentation be error-free. “Bobby was much more concerned about quality and accuracy than about money,” says Margulies.
The authors clearly succeeded in their goals. The book is simple to use. And judging from dozens of individuals I've spoken to over the years, reader satisfaction is high.