This blog post is written by WIM Luciana Morales, Social Media and Community Manager at Chessable. 

I’m going to keep it real – I never read IM Jeremy Silman’s books when I was learning. My own path was shaped by different books and authors. But what’s become undeniable to me over the years, especially as a titled player and coach based in the United States, is how deeply Silman’s writing impacted the way many of my peers think and teach the game.

Imagine my anguish when I got tasked with writing a post about the chess books of Jeremy Silman. Since I had not enjoyed firsthand his instruction or his writing, I was afraid I wouldn’t do justice to this giant of chess improvement. So I asked my colleagues for help and in the process discovered that I had been missing out on something truly special.

The stories they shared painted the picture of an author whose influence was massive and far-reaching but deeply personal too. For starters, the late Silman was a prolific author and larger-than-life personality, who remains one of the most revered chess authors in the English language with 39 books under his belt and reported sales of 600,000 copies!

One of the things that made Silman stand out was his distinctive writing style, which was different from the formal voice typically found in chess literature. At a time when chess was dry and not necessarily fun, Silman’s voice emerged as humorous, eccentric, and even empathetic with amateurs. NM Todd Bryant told me that after reading his books, “you knew about outpost squares and minority attacks and stuff, but you also felt you knew him.”

On his part, NM Sam Copeland noted that the way Silman described strategic themes for intermediate players resonated with him for years: “The idea of imbalances is awesome, and I think about it all the time in strategic settings.” And Sam is not the only one to bring up imbalances regularly.

Though Silman’s bibliography is extensive, four of his all-time classic books have been adapted to MoveTrainer format and are now available in both the Chessable library and Chess.com Courses. Let’s take a look at them:

• How to Reassess Your Chess
• The Amateur’s Mind
• Silman’s Complete Endgame Course
• The Complete Book of Chess Strategy

How to Reassess Your Chess

How to Reassess Your Chess is perhaps the most famous of Silman’s books. It was the first Silman book that Chessable writer extraordinaire Jabe Esguerra ever read, and it made a lasting impact.

Jabe was heavily biased toward visual aesthetics in chess, believing that the center must be claimed with two pawns, and pieces must be centralized whether or not they belonged there. This would result in either a spiral of negativity if/when the opponent would claim the center, or underestimation of the opponent’s counterplay if he got to the center first.

“The imbalances taught me that there's always a fight in the position. Even if you don't like your position, there's always a difference between Black and White positions that will allow you to create play. Your job is to find that,” says Jabe.
“On the flip side, it also taught me that no matter how great my position looks, the opponent will always have favorable imbalances and therefore they will always have chances–applying this part is hard though,” he reckons.

The Amateur’s Mind

One of Silman’s most unique and beloved books, The Amateur’s Mind, explores positional factors that were exploited by a great player in a famous game. Then, the author would take the other side of the position and spar against a student rated between 600 and 2100. Both he and the student would narrate their thoughts so each time the reader could understand the flaws in the latter’s process.

NM Todd Bryant shares, “The genius of the book was that it didn't just show how you should play chess. It uncovered and analyzed how us mortals mess it up. As various students tried to launch attacks because they liked attacking (not because it was called for), blithely traded off good pieces, or made moves due to emotion instead of logic, I was amazed by how many of my own mistakes I recognized.”

The impact of The Amateur's Mind in Todd’s chess was quite tangible. He credits it with helping him gain several hundred rating points. “But more importantly, chess became more fun. Because I understood chess better, but also because I understood myself better and had begun finding expression in chess, too.”

Silman’s Complete Endgame Course

For NM Dane Mattson, Silman's books had a recurrent presence at the chess club he attended. Whether woven in the way fellow club members discussed their games, or as physical copies, Silman's books were present in his early chess development.

Silman’s Complete Endgame Course was reportedly the only endgame book Dane seriously studied during his journey to US Chess National Master. “Whenever I see a "deep freeze" or a "fox in the chicken coop," I always think of Silman and his influence,” he says.

The Complete Book of Chess Strategy

This book has been referred to as “the best all-in-one reference book for improvers” in a review by the podcast “The Chess Angle,” which is ran by the Long Island Chess Club. Structured as a dictionary, The Complete Book of Chess Strategy covers strategic concepts across the three phases of the game: openings, middle game, and endgame. Online reviews point at its clarity and practicality, with many suggesting that it’s best suited for beginner to intermediate players.

Nevertheless, there are thoughts that can be useful or inspiring to more advanced players. For instance, as the video review below points out, Silman posits that beyond development, “the real purpose of the opening is to create a difference or a series of differences in the respective positions and then develop your army around these facts.”

Conclusion

The more you learn about IM Jeremy Silman, the clearer it becomes that he was a towering figure in chess improvement. After hearing from my colleagues and reading lots of reader reviews, I’ve learned that Silman’s genius was in making strategic themes feel accessible and even personal. The imbalances aren’t intrinsically different from positional themes taught by other authors but his framework and methods made them memorable for players of all levels.

Plus, he was very intentional about engaging with amateurs in his books and beyond.

Silman’s legacy as America’s Chess Teacher is one that few can aspire to emulate. He was guiding hundreds of thousands of chess improvers before the Internet’s Chess Teacher or even before the Internet!

Chessable Courses by IM Jeremy Silman are on sale for a limited time! Check them out at his author profile page.