I am a 1400 - 1500 players and was wondering what chess books people recomend for someone at my level.  I have been playing chess for about a year and pretty much only play online.  I recently bought "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" and have found it helpful.  Any other suggestions?

I recently picked up Sharpen Your Tactics! after hearing erik rave about it. It's definitely helpful and I recommend it as well. 

Thanks Bondiggty (Nice name)  I'll look into getting that book.

is that sharpen your tactics by lein and arkhangelsky?  excellent book, but it's really just a series of positions to solve rather than a book that teaches tactical concepts, the OP may require something of that ilk before immersing himself in this.  I'd recommend Palatnik's Chess Tactics For The Tournament Player because it's what I read, but there are lots of options, all basically fine.

The book you really want to read is How To Reassess Your Chess by IM Silman, there are countless reviews for this written by much better qualified players, so I won't complicate matters :)

Yeah I have heard of "How to Reassess Your Chess" and will look into it.

are books really necessary?

I think they are necessary for me to improve my game.  20$ for the help of experts, worth it.

"You don't get better off of playing. You get better off of studying."
--- Bluvshtein

Nicely said.

I'm currently studying "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess" Patrick Wolff. Good stuff! No joke! And I'm rated 1600+.

i made the mistake of reading 'bobby fischer teaches chess' first, simply because it had his name on it. after you've read several good books, you'll see why it's not so great. i'd go and read some of yasser seirawan's 'play winning chess' series. skip his endgame, strategy, and tactics books, though. instead get jeremy silman's endgame book, and get it now: it's broken down into levels of experience, and will be useful to you now. it's almost imperative for you to read 'the amateur's mind' by jeremy silman too. after reading his amateur's mind, then you can read his 'reassess your chess' series. he recommends using his books in that order. for tactics books, get judit polgar's 'chess tactics for champions' and/or Martin Weteschnik's book 'understanding chess tactics'. the 'sharpen your tactics' book mentioned above is fantastic, but tooooo much for a 1400-1500 player--seriously. you need the why's, and the two books i mentioned will give you them. for strategy books, either read silman's 'complete book of chess strategy' or watson's 'secrets of modern chess strategy'. some people swear the best way to learn chess is to go over GM games. the book 'logical chess move by move, every move explained' by chernev goes over a few dozen GM games, telling you why each move is made. fantastic stuff. neil mcdonald's book 'chess, the art of logical thinking' does the same thing as the chernev book, and is equally good. i hope i haven't overwhelmed you. none of these books will steer you wrong. i own all of them and have read them. they're just a small part of my wannabe chess library.

best wishes!

and stay away from "idiots guides" and, in my opinion, almost anything written by lev alburt or eric schiller.

Thank you very much Ivoryknight.  Your posts are extremely helpful.  Surprised to see you saying to stay away from Schiller, but I'll take your word for it.  I think it would make sense for me to read "Sharpen Your Chess Tactics" once I improve.  I think I will start off with "The Amateur's Mind" and then move on to "Reassess Your Chess" as recomended.  Once I get through those I will look into the other books mentioned.  Thanks again Ivoryknight and everyone else.

Merry Christmas!

As has been stressed before, THE AMATEURS MIND . I would also suggest reading tactical puzzle books for 30 minutes each day. Tactical skill is the biggest difference between higher and lower rated players. If you master tactics, and learn how to play the middle game with Jeremy Silman's books "The Amateurs Mind" "Reassess Your Chess", you will be in the 1700-1800's in no time.

"The amateur's mind" "Reasses your chess" and "Kasparov teaches chess".Buy one if you can afford it. It's worth it.Merry christmas everyone!

Thanks guys looks like "The Amaterus Mind" is a must!  Thanks Phelan, I will take your advice and wow hopefully in a few months or so my rating is 1700.

it's fine to read the amateur's mind, but to then jump to reassess your chess is premature and frankly a mistake. you need to know more about chess before you reassess it. you need to...

1) learn about tactics (it's more than just doing puzzles)

2) get an endgame book now and read what you need at your level

3) get a book that goes over some GM games and explains each move

4) read a book on strategy.

after that, and only after that,

5) go over silman's reassess your chess.

best wishes!

Keep in mind that ratings here are inflated a few hundred points beyond typical USCF ratings. A book recommended by authors and reviewers for players starting at 1400 is likely too much for a 1400 here.

yeah, i agree w/that statement. i'm lower rated by ~100-200 pts. in the USCF than i am here.

For introduction to tactics, I suggest Winning Chess Tactics by Yasser Seiranwan or Chess Tactics for Beginners (software by Convekta). A good instructional game collection is found in Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev and finally, for the end game, I would recommend Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame course.