Rapid Chess Improvement by de la Maza is rubbish too. His idea is good, but he spends 80 pages talking nonsense around it. It could've done with about 4 pages.
His method caused him to give up chess after he reached the milestone needed to sell the book. There's not much evidence that MDM ever liked the game.
Anything by Franklin Knowles Young.
He wrote The Major Tactics of Chess and The Minor Tactics of Chess in the late 1800s. I picked up one of these in the bookstore and flipped through it and found it utterly disposable. As I recall, he tried mightily to shoehorn military tactics onto the chess board.
If you've never heard of either volume, or the author, don't worry. You are in fine shape.
These are available free through Google Books, and they are treasures if you see the gold in ponderous prose that revels in inappropriate metaphors from nineteenth century military command college.
I have been reading this of late and have found a lot of it useful for a begginner chess player.
My System by Aron Nimzowitsch
I have been reading this of late and have found a lot of it useful for a begginner chess player.
My System by Aron Nimzowitsch
Yes, it is a great book, and it is worth to follow up with its critique by John Watson, Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy - Advances since Nimzowitsch.
My System was published in the 1920's and it is fun to see a modern GM reassess some of Nimzowitsch's theses in light of modern theory.
I once started a collection of 500 chess miniatures (on the King's Gambit?) by Bill Wall and it was the last time I opened a book with his name on the cover.
Since there were no comments in the games, I hoped that they would at least have some instructive value. It appeared that it was mainly a collection of ridiculous blunders.
Anything i've ever seen with Raymond Keene's name on it has been pretty bad.
I've bought two chess openings books in my life, including the 'recommended' one by Paul Van Der Sterren. While the authors do a perfectly fine job of what the book title says "encyclopedia of openings", I find them totally useless, even at my lower level of play.
Even if you know the first 12 moves of a setup and then 8 side variations, it doesn't help you much if you don't know the middlegame plans.
It's far more instructive for me to pick ONE full master-level game in an opening I'm interested in , and then self-analyze it.
Encyclopedias of openings are a total waste of paper. Now, dedicated monographs on a specific opening, can be REALLY good and helpful - many games illustrating the most important themes of the opening.
My next most useless book(s) that I've run across - I'll bet a lot of folks feel this way too:
- Books (paper ones) that include lengthy, complex variations. Seriously, I have no idea how people have the patience, tolerance, or concentrations to read these things. There are dense blocks in John Nunn's game analysis book that are almost all notation for variations for a single move. Even entering the moves in a database is itself a monumental feat of concentration!
Interestingly, those same complex variation lists are fine to play through if they're ALREADY ENTERED in a .pgn or other database. But having them on paper - arrghgh - that should be a crime against humanity!!
I'll actually bet that this is the biggest reason that a lot of folks never pick up a chess book despite reallly wanting to seriously learn about chess.
I have been reading this of late and have found a lot of it useful for a begginner chess player.
My System by Aron Nimzowitsch
I have a really hard time believing this is a good 'beginner' book.
The stuff in there is great, but true beginners will lose pieces to simple tactics far before they can make use of N vs B imbalances and prophylaxis.
Bruce pandolfini-bad
Jeremy Silman- brilliant
pandolfini's PRINCIPLES OF THE NEW CHESS es simply BRILLANT
Not sure why I bought it. Was on a list at some point in time and looked good oh 'traps' cool. Nope; here's an opening, then some bad moves, he shoulda coulda. Thanks at move 10 etc.. there's a mistake etc.. and a tactic applied.
I am forcing myself to finish it, compile notes for the openings made along the way, try to pull at least something from each example.
Anyone recommend a book that simply states: opening, do and dont do, beware of...? or a list?
thank you,
A
Opening books.
Well yes, a 'good' opening book ...
Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
Good Chess Openings Books For Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-openings-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy
There is not a huge pile of $$$ out there to be made by winning tournaments or matches--actually playing the game. But it takes a lot of work to attain and retain high-level skills. So a lot of chess professionals must rely heavily on teaching, coaching, video lessons, internet blogs, and writing books and articles to make their career choice financially doable.
So a lot of books, videos, and the like are done just for the money rather than through any desire to enlighten the consumers or really contribute to the advance of chess knowledge. Consequentially too much material is superficially, hurriedly, and poorly produced.
Anything by Franklin Knowles Young.
He wrote The Major Tactics of Chess and The Minor Tactics of Chess in the late 1800s. I picked up one of these in the bookstore and flipped through it and found it utterly disposable. As I recall, he tried mightily to shoehorn military tactics onto the chess board.
If you've never heard of either volume, or the author, don't worry. You are in fine shape.