Hello everyone it's my first post here, and so far I've read lots of helpful replies on other threads so I'm hoping to get one too :D

I'm a ~1700 player OTB, and until now I've not studied chess and had been stunt by 5min blitz games on chesscube.com

My tactical abilities are good therefore, but when playing over the board at longer time controls I find myself wasting a lot of time trying to find a plan or even a reasonable objective. My understanding of the game is weak, and my endgame is.. well, how often do you come across those in blitz.

I joined the chess club at school and want to sincerely improve for tournaments. More than ratings and results I want to learn chess, and enjoy its elegance and fireworks like Tal or Kasparov.

I'm planning to spend 2-3 hours a day, but I don't know on what. There are so many books and videos available online it's hard to know where to begin.

Given my playing strength, resources and objective, what do you suggest I do? I've made a list of books that were recommended by lots of people, but I don't know which ones to read and in what order:

Author	Book
Seirawan & Silman	Winning Chess Tactics
Silman	How to reassess your chess/work book
Nunn	Understanding chess move by move
Silman	The Amateurs Mind
Baburin	Winning Pawn Structures
Alexander Kotov	Chess Tactics
Alexander Kotov	Think Like a Grandmaster
Vukovic	Art of Attack in Chess
Bruce Pandolfini	Pandolfini's Endgame Course
Chernev	Logical Chess Move by Move
Reshevsky	The Art of Positional Play
Nimzowitsch	My System
Alexander Kotov	Play Like a Grandmaster
McDonald	The Art of Planning in Chess Move by Move
McDonald	Typical Mistakes
Heisman	Most Common Opening Tactics

A long list I know but it reflects how seriously I'm taking this :D 
What do you suggest? Which ones and in what order should I read them? Or are there other books or methods you recommend instead?

I appreciate anyone who took the time to read this and wants to help. However given how convoluted things already are, I'd appreciate if you comment only knowing your advice is helpful than just an opinion as I'm already very confused. Hope you don't take it the wrong way, I already appreciate your read very much.

Thanks a lot in advance :)
 

I would recommend:

The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games, Burgess, Nunn, Emms.

You should have at least 1 book of thorough annotations such as this.

How about studying life and death problems from Go(wei-chi)?  These will improve your reading skills faster than farting around with conventional chess training:  http://tsumego.tasuki.org/?page=tsumego  <<<yes they are free here.

Just head on over to Coach Dan Heisman's web site (danheisman.com) and follow his advice and suggested books to read.  The opinion of the many time awarded "chess coach of the year" is worth a lot more than anything you will get here.

Ok I will, thanks a lot for the responses :)

If you're struggling to come up with a plan in your games i reccomend The Amatuers mind then How To Reassess your chess. After you read those two books then try Art Of Attack.

I recommend Simple Chess by Micheal Stean. Simple, very well written and a great selection of master games. 

The Vukovic book, Art of Attack in chess, is a book you will not regret buying.  The Reshevsky book has a misleading title, it is basically an anotated collection of his games; it is however a good book.

Rather than throw a list of books in your face, contributing to the already "convoluted" list of names... If I were to start over, I'd begin studying / practicing tactics first, then reading Silman's books about positions, then studying book openings.  Silman does a great job explaining imbalances.  Measure your success in the beginning by how well you've controlled the board and produced positional gains, instead of straight wins and losses, because your losses will be many.  Ugh, it's disheartening how many losses I get, but I think it's getting better.

This means in the beginning phases, you'd be losing tons of games, many times early in the game, because you'd be falling for opening traps, since you haven't studied them first.  Because you'll be starting without an understanding of book moves early on, you're forced to utilize principles you've learned to avoid book traps.  Understanding tactics is great, but opportunities for tactical ideas are less likely if your position sucks.  I chose tactics before openings first, because starting with openings will just overwhelm the starting player like myself, because they often straight up involve memorizing lines, which isn't very stimulating for the beginner.  Silman's books showed me what to look for in every position.  Yet, studying opening books sets me up for a solid position to maximize tactical opportunities.  Understanding Silman before traditional openings is a better approach because, then you'd have a larger context as to what you can do with those openings, once you are playing out of the main lines.  Also, understanding the position is better than memorizing lines since you'll be able to adapt to the organic nature of the game, which was why I think it's better to learn about positioning before opening books.  

Hey, I'm just a noob in this game, so take this with a grain of salt.

If you haven't studied chess so far, I would consider reading Capablanca's chess fundamentals. It's old, but the fundamentals haven't changed, and Capablanca thinks very logical. While reading, you will continously think: it's so simple, why haven't I seen it, too?

---

modern books suck.

general treatsies

chess fundamentals - capablanca

modern chess strategy - edward lasker

openings

a guide to chess openings - barden

ideas behind openings - fine

pocket guide to openings - golombek

modern chess openings - korn

openings practice theory - sokolsky

chess opening theory - suetin

middle game

judgement + planning in chess- euwe

art of middle game -keres

my system - nimzovith

modern chess tactics -pachman

art of attack- vukovic

endgame

chess endings-averbach

guide to chess endings -euwe

basic chess endings-fine

pocket guide to endgames- hooper

games anthologies

development of chess style-euwe

selected chess master pieces -gligorich

masters of chessboard - reti

individuals games

my best games 1908-23 - alekhine

my best games 1924-37 - alekhine

my best games 1938-45 - alekhine

tals best games - clarke

60 memorable - fischer

capablancas best games -golombek

early games - keres

middle years -keres

later years - keres

selected games - larsen

best games - smyslov

There is an enormous number of chess books, and most have some merit, but for what you're looking for I can recommend two short, but excellent books. Amazingly enough, they both have exactly the same title! "Simple Chess" by Michael Stean is often recommended, and for good reason. It's a short, but information-packed book that will repay frequent rereading. But There's another book called "Simple Chess." by John Emms. It is also a small book filled with big ideas. I think you would get a lot out of it. 

The two books overlap a bit, but the lessons they teach are important, and sometimes you can get a better grip on a topic if you see it described in two different ways

Thank you very much for your responses.

I've added Bronstein's book zurich 1953 to my readings and removed or replaced many as suggested. I'm unable to find older books in algebraic notation but it makes sense that they're better, I'll just get used to descriptive notations eventually. But for now I've enough material to get started :)

My tournament is in early January, not quite 2 months but I'll post how I do :D 
Thanks again