Build up your Chess 1, The Fundamentals

I've instantly fallen in love with this book:

1. scoring system for every example in a book, so you can check how good you did in each chapter. this thing gave me so much competitive spirit to beat a book an A+ grade 😀

2. really every theme covered in all orange Юсупов books is useful. i felt like i'm getting tremendous experience by solving every example. later in my games i started to find new resources, that i didn't see before.

and to be completely honest:

1. this is not the book for 1000-1200 fide, it does often feel like 1300-1500 at least, Yusupov didn't really know what does this rating range play and think, there wasn't such rating when he was an active player, lol! (in the end of 20-th centure fide rating starts with 2200+ elo)

2. strategic chapter of the book are so much harder then tactical or endgame ones, be ready!

2.

This book ist the first of a superb series of training books. I used it as my main training tool last year and ever since then I really feel like I improve. I am myself around 1800 Fide just for reference and I would absolutely reccommend to start with this book even if you are well above the rating range. The book is a mix of Text and workbook but I would say it is mainly a workbook and you should really put in the effort into the puzzles but it is worth it.