markgalassi reviewed The game of chess by Harry Golombek (A Penguin handbook)
Review of 'The game of chess' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is the book I learned from, and it is the nicest concise introduction to the game.
But don't get it! The book is written in old descriptive notation and has never been reworked to use algebraic notation, so it's useless unless you're old enough to read the old notation, and even then it's a poor idea to give to a beginner.