My Chess Book Library
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Quite an impressive collection of books.
Grandmaster Acheivement? Do you mean Performance or Preparation here? I have both of these but not GM Acheivement and I can't recall Polugaevsky writing another book like this.
Grandmaster Achievement is the new title of Grandmaster Preparation. Don't know why they changed it.
It's cool to collect things. But what matters is how many you've read and, more importantly, how many you have understood deeply; preferably, very deeply.
Milliern wrote:
It's cool to collect things. But what matters is how many you've read and, more importantly, how many you have understood deeply; preferably, very deeply.
Correction: ...and which ones you've understood deeply. Quality is as much the matter as quantity, both in understanding and in terms of what the text has to offer.
GM Peter Biyiasis supposedly had only two well-thumbed chess books in his possession: the Levenfish/Smyslov "Rook Endings" and Fischer's "My Sixty Memorable Games."
I have a bigger collection than this and I make no apology to anyone for having 1000+ titles in my library.
I've had a busy life and only now am I getting the time to study them but, at least, the books are there and ready.
GM Reshevsky has been described as having no chess books in his collection except those he wrote himself!
GM Lothar Schmidt had a huge collection.
Presumably both had spent tens of thousands of hours on the game. Not everyone has that time, talent, or inclination.
Questioning someone's penchant for their collection is an argument used to raise the questioner's status while, at the same time, lowering the collector's status.
In that sense, unlike a worthy chess book, I don't buy it. 
bb_gum234 wrote:
Dividing them into opening books and non-opening books seems to show your priorities lol.
I divide my non-opening books into endgame, strategy, tactics, game collections.
FischerChips wrote:
Grandmaster Achievement is the new title of Grandmaster Preparation. Don't know why they changed it.
Possibly to avoid confusion with the older Polugaevsky book of the same name.
I have maybe 50 books in my collection, the majority of which are game collections and tactics. I've read most of them.
CornerPawn wrote:
GM Reshevsky has been described as having no chess books in his collection except those he wrote himself!
Are Reshevsky's books worth buying? I don't recall any discussion of his works on the forums here. Come to think of it, I do recall someone mentioning that as a chess book author, he was horrible.
I've also read about fifty chess books, the majority of which were middle game topics and tactics. Only after I reached 1800 level, did I think about an opening repertoire. Now I focus more on openings than I used to do.
But this has nothing to do with collecting chess books.
I emphasize that I would rather have the chess book collection than the money I paid for it. If I couldn't afford the books, I would never have bought them. Neither I, nor my family, did without when a chess book purchase was made.
I've been collecting for over forty years now AND I have no regrets AND I have only laughter for the mockers who post here. Today, I have more time to pursue interests other than working for a living.
Now, I will read those chess books as I find time to do so and I will do so with the intent of enjoying the books and the learning process. If I become a better player during the process that's a bonus that I will welcome. I enjoy reading a well annotated chess game. It's always been that way for me.
However, if some of the posters here expect me to fell guilty or some other negative emotion I see through that as quickly as I see through glass. They waste their words on me unless they want me to chuckle.
Crazychessplaya wrote:
CornerPawn wrote:
GM Reshevsky has been described as having no chess books in his collection except those he wrote himself!
Are Reshevsky's books worth buying? I don't recall any discussion of his works on the forums here. Come to think of it, I do recall someone mentioning that as a chess book author, he was horrible.
I have his book "The Art of Positional Play in Chess". I think that the title is misleading: it is more of a collection of his games, and the chapter titles are a bit arbitrary, as nowadays you need more specific information and patterns to succeed in chess than "Consequences of a weak pawn" (for example) as not all weak pawns are the same.
Reshevskyk wrote a book on Positional Play and he has a games collection. The most complete games collection for Reshevsky was produced by McFarland and Company, Inc. I forget the author.
You could do worse than read Reshevsky's books. I liked his book on positional play -- read it twice actually.
Some of the best chess books ever written have been written in the last decade or two.
That is more books on the Caro-Kann than any sane chess player should own.
There are more books written about chess (never mind the CK) than any other game but that is more sane than you might first think. The chess book market is there because it works (ie. chess players are willing to part with their hard earned money for these items) in spite of some chess author's lamentations to the contrary.
10180110054 wrote:
is there any book about benoni?
There is "Mastering the Benoni and Benko Gambit" by Ponzetto which is pretty good. Do you mean in general or if the OP owns one?
Besides, chess theory is not static as you should know. As it evolves, the chess mill turns and produces another book or the digital equivalent. It is, undeniably, an information game, at least to some degree.
Chess books/information are to chess players as books are to universities. One does not stand without the other and there is no end to it, as I see it.
I'm not against chess books. I went nuts when I saw the chess library at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco.
That's where I found Berliner's "The System" which I have been posting about in other topics.
The easy part is getting a book and the hard part is reading it, but it's the second part that makes the difference, which I believe was Milliern's point.
Here is my list of books from my library. I am interested in swapping titles.
Opening Books
A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire –Summerscale
The Chess Advantage in Black & White- Kaufman
Winning with the Najdorf –King
Complete Defense to Queen Pawn Openings Schiller
Winning with the Schliemann –Tseitlin
Dutch Defense: New and Forgotten Ideas-Minev, Donaldson
Complete Defense to 1.Pk4(A study of the Petroff’s Defense) –Hooper
Complete Defense to King Pawn Openings: Caro-Kann –Schiller
The Ruy Lopez: Winning Chess with 1. PK4 –Barden
The Benoni –hartston
The Modern Defence –Keene, Botterill
The King’s Indian Defense-Barden,Hartston, Keene
The Siclian Defense Book1 –Gligoric, V. Sokolov
The Siclian Dragon –Levy
The Sicilian Sozin – Kottnauer, Botterill, Harding
Ideas behind the Chess openings-Fine
Caro-Kann Defence- Suetin
The Classical Caro-Kann-Kasparov, Shakarov
The Gruenfeld Defence-Hartston
The Dynamic Caro-Kann –Silman
The Meran System –Pedersen
The Slav Defense –Sadler
The Ultimate King’s Indian Attack –Dunnington
Starting out: Benoni Systems –Raetsky,Chetverik
Winning with the Gruenfeld –Adorjan, Dory
The Complete benoni –Psakhis
An Unbeatable White repertoire –Evans, Smith
Trends: Benko Gambit –Jacobs
Nunn’s Chess openings-Nunn,Burgess,Emms,Gallagher
The Chigorin Queens Gambit –Dunningtopn
B12 Caro-Kann –Seirawan
The Sicilian Scheveningen –Kasparov,Nikitin
The Grand Prix Attack –Lane
The Ruy Lopez Exchange –Panczyk, Ilczuk
How to play the Albin Counter Gambit- Schiller
New Ideas in the Four Knights –Nunn
Mystery of Najdorf – Raicevic,Jukic,Boto
Chess Informant No. 2, 20,21
New In Chess No. 80
Open Ruy Lopez C80-81 –Korchnoi
Chess openings traps and zaps –Pandolfini
Winning with the closed Sicilian –Lane
Surveys: 34 Opening Variations
Strategy ,Tactics, Studies books
Grandmaster Secrets: Endings –Soltis
Granmaster Secrets : Openings –Soltis
Chess Fundamentals –Capablanca, de Firmian
Analyzing th end game –Speelman
The Middle game Book 1 –Euwe,Kramer
My System –Nimzovich
Turning Advantage into victory in chess –Soltis
Winning Chess Tournaments for juniors –Snyder
The Middle Game in chess –Fine
200 Challenging Chess Puzzles –Greif
Combinations The Heart of Chess-Chernev
The King Hunt –Cozens
Development of a chessmaster-Schiller
The Final Countdown- Hajenius,van Riemsdijk
Practical Knight Endings – Mednis
Practical Chess Endings: Keres
Chess Endings Essential Knwoledge – Averbakh
The Chess Sacrifice –Vukovic
303 Tactical Chess Puzzles-Wilson,Albertson
Master The Game of Chess – Sehgal
Winning with chess Psychology –Benko, Hochberg
From Beginner to expert in 40 Lessons –Kostyev
Training For the Tournamnet Player-Dvoretsky,Yusupov
How to play good opening moves-Mednis,Hochberg
Chess Catechism –Evans
Alexander on Chess –Alexander
The Art of Defense In Chess- SOltis
The Art of Positional Play –Reshevsky,Hochberg
3 Steps To Chess Mastery –Suetin
Attack & Defence in Modern Chess Tactics-Pachman
The Art of Chess –MASon
Easy Endgame Stategies – Robertie
The 10 Common Chess Mistakes –Evans
A World Champions Guide to Chess –Susan Polgar
Chess Tactics For Champions –Susan Polgar
Guide to Good Chess – Purdy
# Teach Yourself Visually Chess –Edwards
*Complete Chess Strategy 1 -3 –Pachman
*Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur-Euwe, Meiden
Master Class Typical Mistakes –Mcdonald
Mastering Chess Tactics –Mcdonald
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess –Wolf
Comprehensive Chess Endings 1 -5 – Averbakh,Maizelis,Kopaev,Chekover
Chess For Beginners –Horowitz
Chess Board Magic –Chernev
Planning in Chess- Flesch
Chess for Fun & Chess for blood- Ed Lasker
Chess Endings Made Simple –Snape
Wining Chess –Chernev, Reinfeld
Inside the Chess Mind-Aagaard
Secrets of Rooks Endings-Nunn
Understanding Chess Move by move –Nunn
Improve Your Chess now- Tisdall
New Ideas In Chess –Evans
Winning Chess Tactics For Juniors –Hays
Chess Endings For the practical player
School of Chess Excellence VOl. 1 to 4 –Dvoretsky
Secrets of Chess Training –Dvoretsky
Attack and Defense- Yusupov, Dvoretsky
The Middle Game book 2 –Euwe,Kramer
Play Like a GM –Kotov
Think Like a Gm –Kotov
Train Like a GM –Kotov
The Soviet School of Chess- Kotov, Yudovich
A Contemporary Approach to the Middlegame –Suetin
Plan Like a GM –Suetin
Understanding the Sacrifice-Dunnington
Chess Endgame training –Rosen
Pandolfinis’ Endgame Course –Pandolfini
How to use Computers to Improve Your Chess –Kongsted
Understanding Pawn play in chess –Marovich
The Art of Chess Combination- Znosko-Borovsky
The Soviet Chess Conveyor-Shereshevsky
The Art of planning in chess-Mcdonald
Defence and Counterattack- Florian
Why You lose at chess –harding
How to calculate chess tactics-Beim
The Art of Attack in chess –Vukovic
The brilliant touch in chess –Korn
Winning Chess Tactics –Seirawan,Silman
Biographical Books
Chess At the top 1979 to 1984 –Karpov
Beyond the 13th Move –Torre
Gary Kasparov’s Fighting Chess-Kasparov,Speelman,Wade
My Best Games of Chess 1935-1957-Smyslov
Reshevsky’s Best games of chess- Reshevsky
Jon Speelman’s Best Games of Chess – Speelman
Devlopment of a GM –Adams
Morphy’s Game of Chess –Sergeant
The Chess Games of Adolph ANderssen –Burnett,Pickard
John Nunn’s Best Games –Nunn
Chess Praxis –Nimzovich
Nimzovich –The Hypermodern –Reinfeld
Grandmaster Achievement –Polugaevsky
Mikhail Tal’s Best Games of Chess –Clarke
The Closed Openings in action –Karpov
The Development of A Chess Style –Euwe,Nunn
My Life and Games –Kramnik,Damsky
My 300 Best Games –Karpov
The Games of Anatoly Karpov –O’conel,Adams
My Best games of chess VOl 1 1908 -1923 –Alekhine
100 Instructive games of Alekhine –Reinfeld
CJS Purdy;s Fine art of Annotation Vol. 1 to 3 –Purdy
My 60 Memorable Games –Fischer
Learn from Bobby Fischer’s Games –Schiller
How to beat Bobby Fischer –Mednis
Bobby Fischer: from genius to legend –Gufeld
Profile of A Prodigy –Brady
How Fischer Plays Chess- Levy
Bobby Fischer and His approach to chess-Agur
The Immortal Games of Capablanca –Reinfeld
The Art of Sacrifice in chess –Rudolph Spielman
Botinnik’s 100 Selected Games 1926-1946 –Botvinnik
Kasparov’s VOl. 1-6 –Chess Asia
Tigran Petrosian: His life and Games –Vasiliev
Spassky’s 100 Best Games –Cafferty
The Games of Robert James Fischer – O’Connell
Kasparov’s Chess Openings-Borik
#Achieving the aim –Botvinnik
Interview with a GM –Summerscale
My best Games –Karpov
A Memorial to Steinitz –Devide
The Test of Time –Kasparov
My 50 Years of Chess- Marshall
Fire on Board: Shirov’s Best Games – Shirov
Why Lasker Matters-SOltis
The Blockade-Nimzovich
William Steinitz:Selected Chess Games –Devide,Hooper
My Chess Carrer-Capablanca
Anatoly Karpov: His road to the world championship –Botvinnik
The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal- Tal, Nunn,Chandler
Gary Kasparov:His career in chess-Yudovich
Tigran Petrosian : Master of Defense 1946 to 1963 –Clarke
Aron Nimzovitch: Master of planning –Keene
Chess Matches,Tournaments,Collections
Best of Chess 1988 – 1995 Game sof Worlds top ten –Chess Asia
World Championship Chess 1990 Cycle-Chess asia
“ ‘ ‘ 1993 Cycle –Chess asia
Fischer vs Spassky 5M illion Comback –Davies,Pein,Levitt
“ “ “ The Chess Match of the Century –Gligoric
Best Chess Games 1970 -1980 –Speelman
The GM’s Mind –Avni
The Golden treasury of Chess- Horowitz
1992 Fischer –Spassky 10:5 – Matanovich
Moscow Marathon 1984/1985 World Chess Ch. –Speelman,Tisdal
World Champion from Ruy Lopez to Fischer –Santos,Ramirez,Valdez
5 Crowns: The Complte Karpov- Kasparov Duel –Seirawan,Tisdal
World Chess Championship 1995:Kasparov vs. ANand: King
The World Chess Championship 1948-1969 –Glogoric,Wade
Great Chess Victories and Defeats –Byrne
500 Master games of Chess- Tartakover
Zurich Int’l Chess Tournament 1953 –Bronstein
The book of the Nottingham Int’l Chess Tournamnet –Alekhine
The 1974 Canidates Semi-finals –Santos, Ramirez, Mendez
The Leningrad Interzonal 1973 –Torre,De Castro
Interzonal Chess Biel 1993 –Chess Asia
Interzonal Chess Manila 1990 –Chess ASias
World Chess Olpympiade 1988,1990,1992,1996 –Chess Asia
Various Tournament books from 1988 to 1997 ( Iceland, Spain, Belgium, France,)
# Chess Match between Steinitz and Blackburne –Steinitz
Folkstone 1933 Int’l Team Chess Tournament –Kashdan
Trophy Chess: Lessing Rosenwald Tournament -1954 -1955 –Evans
The World Chess Crown Challenge:Kasparov –Karpov Seville 1987 –Bronstien
2nd Intl’ Chess Tournamnte Moscow 1935 –Krylenko
Soviet Union vs World 1970 –Petrosian,Matanovich
Mammoth Book of Greatest Chess Games –Nunn, Emms, burgess
Chess Magazines
Chess Asia
VOl 14 #1
VOl 17# 3
Vol 16 # 2
VOl 17 # 4
Vol 17 # 2
Vol 14 # 2
Vol 8 # 2
Vol 7 # 4
VOl 9 # 2
Vol 7 # 3
Vol 8 # 4
Vol 11 #2
Vol 10 # 4
VOl 12 # 3
Vol 11 # 1
Vol 9 # 1
Vol 3 # 4
Vol 4 # 2
Inside Chess
Vol 7 # 13
Vol 5 # 7
VOl 6 # 24
Vol 10 # 10
Vol 7 # 10
Chess Life
July 2005
July 2006
Aug 2005
May 2005