members,  any members  know of  a  good book  out there that  will delve deeply into  the  below concepts in chess

KUDOS TO  MEMBERS  KOHAI, ESTRAGON AND EAINCA,  TGHANKS FOR  COMING TO  MY  HELP  IN THIS MATTER.  

  I AM NOW INTO  TRYING TO  STUDY  THE  MANY CONCEPTS OF CHESS DURING THE  GAME TO  SEE IF THEY  WILL HELP IMPROVE MY GAME, THAT IS IN DESPARATE NEED OF IMPROVING.

BESIDES  STUDYING THE THEORY(OF WHICH  MY CHESS CLUB HOST INSISTS THAT I DIVE INTO INSTEAD  SWITCHING TO DIFFERENT OPENINGS ALL THE  TIME

I PLAN ON FUTHER DELVING INTO  TIMING,SPACE,HOW MANY TIMES  ATTACKED OR  HOW MANY TIMES  DEFENDED, PLUS THREATS    ETC.

                                                 THANKS FOR  YOUR HELP

i  find that  its  great  to  have  an intelligent  information base  right  within  

the membership  of  this  site.  i am  sorry that i ask  many questions, but its a habit from  my last cAreer THAT I RETIRED FROM, prior to having my stroke,  THAT 

IF I DON'T ASK, I DON'T GET  USE OF THIS FANTastic information source.

thanks  for your previous help  as  always.

                                                                          antne003, tony from  new jersey shore

ps, if  any member is  annoyed or tired of  responding to my requests,  I'M  SORRY

AND I UNDERSTAND IF YOU  WON'T  ANSWER

                                   I THANK YOU  ALL ANYWAY FOR THE PREVILEGE OF ASKING  YOU.

Things like space, development, and counting defenders (related to over-protection) could be thought of as positional or strategic ideas, so I suggest some books along those lines.

Nimzowitsch's book "My System" is a classic and is highly regarded for these kinds of fundamentals of chess.  Although, in my opinion at least, it's not a good book to start on.  You could learn from it though, it would not be a waste of money, but perhaps as a book to grow on.

Seriwan's "winning chess strategies" is a fine book.

As for openings, I wouldn't suggest an opening book, but instead play many games, and afterwards use something like this site's opening explorer (which you can find under Learn > Openings > Game Explorer)  This way you can find the point when you left "book" and see the reasonable alternatives to the move you played in the game.

Opening books aren't very useful at first, in fact not until 1800 or even 2000 (which is at least 2100 turn based here).  But going through you games like this will help you build a good repertoire.  In the mean time be sure you're working on tactics

orangehonda's recommendations are always good, but in your case I think they may be somewhat advanced.  But buying My System is never a bad move because it will always help you at some point.  I've read it cover-to-cover seven times - but several years apart - and gained more understanding of the game every time.  If you choose it and feel over your head, don't worry:  absorb what you can and come back to it later on.

But the best advice in your position - speaking skill level only, irrespective of health record - is to play, play, play and train with the Tactics Trainer.  For players at an entry level and early skill levels, the biggest problem is ALWAYS overlooking what more experienced players consider simple tactics - "cheap shots" is what we called them back in the day. 

You lose material to cheap shots.  You can measure your improvement by tracking how many games you lose to these cheap shots against how many you win with cheap shots of your own.  Once you are winning more games with cheap shots than you are losing to cheap shots, you can consider other paths of study.  Until then, you need to learn tactics.

Also try the daily puzzles on the home page here, and also at chessgames.com.  Usually they are pretty simple, but sometimes challenging even for strong players. 

In trying to improve, you must work on the most basic weakness in your game first, and that is tactics for almost everybody.

Also, may God bless you for your service.  Nobody loves cops, but when they are in trouble, nobody calls the hippies.

But does Aron make his point, or not?

You booger-nosed meanie . . .

Although things like timing and space may be what's rousing your interest right now -- I'm going to have to throw my cards in with Estragon on this one.

I was flipping through this a few days ago trying to find some good examples I could take for ideas (or exact positions ) to drill beginners on positional concepts.

And although it's a good book, and the examples are fairly simple, I felt like it was too advanced and (much like Estragons post actually) went back to simple tactics and advice on not hanging your pieces.

If he just has to buy a book though, this is a good recommendation.

I don't think as highly of it as some do -- I think it may be a matter of taste.  I hear some players (like Estragon) talk about how they've read it a dozen times, and think to myself it must be good.  I mean I think it's good... but not the best :)

thanks again as  always, you guys always  come through.

I WORK AT the entrance to our county  zoo seaso nal two dAYS  A WEEK  AND HAVE BEEN LOADING  UP A BAG WITH  CHESS BOOKS TO  READ.

TODAY, I WAS  READING MY SYSTEM BY NIMSOWITCH,  COMPLETE BOOK OF STRATEGY BY  JEREMY SILMAN  AND THE ART OF  POSITIONAL PLAY  BY SAMUEL

RESTREVESKY,  ALL THESE  BOOKS  addressed  some imbalances such as timing and  space,  threats  etc./

                                                   thanks  again  and yes many other chess players  i know  recommended  tactics.

                                               thanks  antne003,  tony

Along Tonydal and Tony,

I agree tactics is king, but in my friend's  antne003 case we must encourage him to get the basic's down first! But reading chess books if you have the time is interesting is fun as your learning more about the game. 

Mahalo for everyone's inputs! :-)

I've heard this comment often, so it's not an argument on my part. I'm just seeking to understand. What's the harm in opening preparation for live chess?

Example One: I'm glad I know to play 2...Nc6 after 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5. I used to get clobbered after 2.Qh5, but not anymore.

Example Two: I like playing 2.d4 after 1.e4 e5, but that was after some study into the reason behind this move. And 2.d4 is useful, because 1...e5 is a common response to 1.e4.

Example Three: I like playing 2.d4 after 1.e4 c5 for the same reasons.

Example Four: 1...c5 usually stumps my opponents after they play 1.d4. They pause and think while the clock ticks. I like that, and I know what the best next replies are for both sides, and why the moves are good ones.

This does not take much time to learn and it helps me to get off to a good start.

Good points.

Sometimes I feel funny giving out this advice about openings because... I did the exact same thing it sounds like you're doing (and I think it's good too).  1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 3.Nxe5 fxe5 4.Qh5+ g6 5.Qe5+ and Q takes rook killed me more than once when I was beginning.  So after the game I would put it into my chessmaster computer which also an opening tree.

Then I stopped falling for the most common traps, and I would do this whenever I just felt really uncomfortable in an opening or if I lost really fast out of an opening.  I'd put it into the computer or use an opening explorer type of thing to see what my good options were.  Slowly, and on a need to know basis, this built my opening knowledge.

This is what I suggest others to do.  Not to completely ignore openings, but don't buy an opening book, which will dive over 10+ moves deep into many variations and sidelines within the variations.  I feel like just now are my peers starting to get the better of me by knowing openings well and I've had to suffer buying an opening book or two.  I'd never noticed before, but they really aren't written at all for beginners, and sometimes I feel like they're too dense for my level... like they're written for masters.  I just don't see a 1500 rated player for example getting much out of an opening book at all.  For one thing when are they ever going to get a chance to use it when their peers leave book in 5 moves?

Anyway it sounds like what you're doing is exactly correct.  You're finding good moves to use that you're comfortable playing and against the openings you most commonly run into.  Buy a book on the Sicilian for example, and they may have 80 pages devoted to a variation that appears on move 6 that you've never even seen before... and on the moves that look scary to you, they don't even mention what to do in case your opponent does ______ :p (they assume a certain level of player is buying the book).

So if you're thinking like me, who needs that crap, let masters be the ones prepared to bash out 15 moves of theory in (nearly) any line you play.

FRANK  AND THE REST OF THE MEMBERS,  I AGAIN APPRECIATE  THE HELP YOU  HAVE GIVEN ME, I HAVE  ARON NIMOSOVITCH BOOK, SILMANS ON  COMPLETE  STRATEGIES.  I ALSO PRE-ORDERED  SILMAN'S NEWEST  BOOK ON  4TH  EDITION ON IMBALANCES  IN CHESS.

                                                                       THANKS  antne003, tony from  jersey  shore

FRANK,  MAHALO FOR YOUR COMMENT

100% agreement. Thank you for the perspective and sharing one of the methods you used to improve as a chess player. We are on the same page.

After playing two OTB games with my 7th grade daughter, she got excited about learning tactics. I set my tactics trainer to unrated (600) and I could see the wheels turning in her brain. She is now seeing checks, captures, forks and simple mating patterns. Tactics trainer works!!