I 've been playing chess for 5 years and read about 25-30 chess books. The best one I think was Alexander Kotov's work, that helped me to make a great progress to understand the psychology of the game. I don't know it's English title, but it is something like 'Secrets of The Chessplayer's Thinking'. I would like to know the title of those books, that helped You the most to become a stronger player.

I think Gufeld's 'My Life in Chess' (now released under the title 'Search for Mona Lisa') for showing me that chess could be beautiful and fun, and that creativity is just as important as technique.

I learned chess at school when Karpov was World Champion, tried to base my style on his play and failed miserably! Discovering players like Gufeld (also Tal and Larsen and others like them) changed my view of the game completely.

streetfighter

Thank you for your post, Streetfighter.

Think Like a Grandmaster is I believe the usual rendering of the Kotov title into English.

The following are the books that I've gotten the most out of, I think (at least, they're the ones that come most readily to mind):

Learn From the Grandmasters--ed by Raymond Keene

Pawn Structure Chess--Andy Soltis

Modern Chess Strategy--Ludek Pachman

Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy--John Watson

Selected Games 1935-57--Vassily Smyslov

And one early favorite:

The Complete Chessplayer--Fred Reinfeld

I almost bought "The Complete Chess Player" yesterday, but instead bought "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess".  I like it to though and is my favorite chess book that I won.  Tonydal, do you think it's a good book?

I should add that I am a 1400 - 1500 player and the better question is do you think it is good for a player of my level?

What about 1100 - 1200 player been playing for about 2 years, think I've reached a peak after dropping to 950 and getting back up, floating around this level for about 8 months. Not sure what book might be best to help, ideas?

The best chess books are any chess books that actually get opened, then read.

MrBogs & RN9 - you guys should create your own threads. It would be nice to see this topic stay on track as it's a good one.

Logical Chess: Move by Move - Irving Chernev

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played - Irving Chernev

"Guide to Good Chess" by Purdy. Here is a copy of my mini-review of the book:

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Will do.

Although there are a ton of great books out there to read, these in particular helped round out important gaps in my chess knowledge:

Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking (a modern collection of GM games written in the same move by move annotation style as Chernev's Logical Chess; although there are better game collection books out there to be had, at the time, this one was an eye-opener for me on how GM's think and plan).

Starting Out: The Sicilian by John Emms, my favorite opening from either side. 

Mastering the Chess Openings, vol.1 by John Watson: very thorough explanations and analyses on the ideas behind 1e4 openings. 

Understanding the Chess Openings by Sam Collins: a concise overview of every book opening. 

Just the Facts: Winning Chess Endgames by Lev Alburt

The Survival Guide to Rook Endgames by John Emms - very technical and subtle stuff on rooks essential to know.

Thanks for all posts, I will search for the books mentioned above.

tonydal, my heart was warmed when you mentioned The Complete Chessplayer.  Back in the 60's that was the book I learned chess from as a kid. It served me well at the time.

"Winning Chess - How to See Three Moves Ahead" by Irving Chernev & Fred Reinfeld. An old book, but still very good. After several years away, I got back into chess a few months ago and have reread this book which has helped me. Its a good refresher even for more experienced players.

When I was in high school, I was the captain of our new chess team (I was the only real player the first year, but by the 3rd year we had 40 players).  I was only a 1500 USCF, so take this with a grain of salt.  What seemed to raise my teammates up from the 700-900 level up to about 1100-1200 was Capablanca's Last Lectures. Working through the principle of opposition seemed to really help at that level.  Next we worked through Chernev's Logical Chess: Move by Move.  This seemed to help a lot and actually got some of them to try 1.d4 which helped in our league, where the Italian and Spanish game were dominant. Chernev helped about four of my teammates get into the low 1300s, it seemed, and with the five of us we won most of our league matches.  I think I got from the 1300s to 1500 using Nimzovitch, especially utilizing the idea of over-protection.  I am no expert in getting much beyond that level, but I do think Silman's The Amateur Mind is very helpful and interesting.

the best chess book is always one that you don't own yet --

• The Art of the Middlegame by Keres and Kotov
• 100 Selected Games by Botvinnik
• The Art of Attack in Chess by Vukovic
• Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces - 100 Selected Games by Kmoch

for me the best is the clearer you read and understand

"The Golden Treasury of Chess" by I.A. Horowitz  !!

...you can find affordable chess books at Abe Books:

   http://www.abebooks.com/

.....Danno12