My Book Reviews (Part 2: Blindfold Reading)
Last year, after seeing serious results in my 1/0 bullet chess (2773 peak) from solving roughly nonstop tactics (plus 6,000 recent games) from 2 months of Chess King's puzzles, I decided to get back into chess reading, and felt strong enough to read without a set, visualizing the moves.
Since following Yermolinsky's advice to read without a set, I can finish books faster. Unlike back in 2020, I can now read 100+ books per year rather than "only" 50. We'll see where that leads!
The Reassess Your Chess Workbook by IM Jeremy Silman
Oops! I Resigned Again! by GM Ian Rogers
Small Steps 2 Success by GM Sam Shankland
Secret Life of Bad Bishops by IM Esben Lund
Carlsen's Assault on the Throne by GM Vassilios Kotronias
Play Chess Like the Pros by GM Danny Gormally
Foundations of Chess Strategy by GM Lars Bo Hansen
The Best Move by GM Vlastimil Hort
How Chess Games are Won and Lost by GM Lars Bo Hansen
Why We Lose at Chess by IM Colin Crouch
Grandmaster Battle Manual by GM Vassilios Kotronias
Your Kingdom for My Horse (exchanges) by GM Andrew Soltis
Mastering Chess Exchanges by GM Jacob Aagaard
Think Like a Super-GM by GM Michael Adams
Kings Indian Warfare by GM Ilya Smirin
True Combat Chess by IM Timothy Taylor
Understanding Chess Exchanges by GM Amir Bagheri
The Woodpecker Method 2 (Positional Play) by GM Axel Smith
Chess for Life by GM Matthew Sadler
Genius in the Background by IM Tibor Karolyi
Secrets of Chess Defence with GM Mihail Marin
Creative Chess Strategy by GM Alfonso Romero
Decision Making in Major Piece Endings by GM Boris Gelfand
Tiger's Chaos Theory by GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson
Black and White Magic by GM Axel Smith
Invisible Chess Moves by FM Emmanuel Neiman
Key Elements of Chess Strategy by IM Georgy Lisitsin
Key Elements of Chess Tactics by IM Georgy Lisitsin
Magic Chess Moves by IM Michal Konopka
Theoretical Rook Endgames GM Sam Shankland
e3 Poison by GM Axel Smith
Tune Your Chess Antenna by FM Emmanuel Neiman
Build Up Your Chess 1 by GM Artur Yusupov
Checkmates - 2, 3 & 4-Movers by Bill Harvey
Everyone's First Chess Workbook by Peter Giannatos
Reality Check by FM Alisa Melekhina
Road to Chess Improvement by GM Alex Yermolinsky
How to Study Chess on Your Own by Davorin Kuljasevic
Chess Imbalances: A Grandmaster Guide by GM Mauricio Flores Rios
A Matter of Endgame Technique by GM Jacob Aagaard
Secrets Of Chess Training by IM Mark Dvoretsky
Technical Decision Making in Chess by GM Boris Gelfand
Mastering Complex Endgames by GM Daniel Naroditsky (when he was younger)
Mastering Positional Chess by GM Daniel Naroditsky (when he was younger)
How to Reassess Your Chess by IM Jeremy Silman
Positional Chess Handbook by FM Israel Gelfer
Understanding Pawn Play in Chess by FM Drazen Marovic
1.d4: The Queen's Gambit by GM Boris Avrukh
The Complete Chess Swindler by GM David Smerdon
The English Opening (vol 2) by GM Mihail Marin
French Defense: The Solid Rubinstein Variation by IM Hannes Langrock
Playing 1.e4: Caro-Kann, 1...e5 & Minor Lines by GM John Shaw
Converting an Extra Pawn in Chess by GM Sam Shankland
The Modern Tiger by GM Tiger Hillarp Persson
Silman's Complete Endgame Course by IM Jeremy Silman
Keep it Simple: 1.e4 by IM Christof Sielecki
The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement by GM Matthew Sadler
Powerhouse Pawn Sacrifices by GM Ivan Cheparinov
On the Origin of Good Moves by IM Willy Hendriks
Simple Chess by Michael Stean
Study Chess with Matthew Sadler by GM Matthew Sadler
1.e4 vs The Sicilian II by GM Parimarjan Negi
Calculation by GM Jacob Aagaard
Chess Child by Gary Robson
On Top of the Chess World by various authors
Grandmaster Meets Chess Amateur by Steve Davis
Dark Squares by IM Daniel Rensch
Mastering Chess Strategy by GM Johan Hellsten
Mastering Endgame Strategy by GM Johan Hellsten
Logical Decision Making by GM RB Ramesh
Winning by GM Nigel Short
Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate by FM Bruce Harper and GM Hikaru Nakamura
Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov (vol 1) by GM Garry Kasparov
It Is Never Too Late To Become a Grandmaster by GM Vladimir Okhotnik
How I Became a Chess Grandmaster by GM Vinay Bhat
The Stories, Games, and Intrigues of Capablanca and Alekhine by FM Luis Fernández Siles
Learn from the Legends by GM Mihail Marin
Learn from the Legends 2 by GM Mihail Marin
Magnus Carlsen's Middlegame Evolution by GM Ivan Sokolov
Forgotten Genius - The Life and Games of Grandmaster Albin Planinc by 2 authors
The Exhilarating Elephant Gambit by IM Jakob Aabling-Thomsen
My Chess World by GM David Navara
Attacking the Strongpoint by GM Igor Zaitsev
Chess Training for Candidate Masters by GM Alexander Kalinin
3 Steps to Chess Mastery by GM Alexey Suetin
The Enigma of Chess Intuition by GM Valeri Beim
Better Thinking, Better Chess by GM Joel Benjamin
Learn from Bent Larsen by GM Mihail Marin
Korchnoi and his Chess Grandchildren by GM Vladimir Barsky
Sicilian Warfare by GM Ilya Smirin
The Berlin Defence Unraveled by IM Luis Bernal
Modern Chess Formula by GM Vladimir Tukmakov
Think Like a Machine by Noam Manella
Advanced Chess Tactics by GM Lev Psakhis
The Chess Alchemist by GM Mikhail Tal
Italian Renaissance II by GM Martyn Kravtsiv
I have many more books to read, but I won't necessarily update this list. Feel free to follow my twitter for book review updates or check my amazon reviews page for more recent reviews.
I'm hoping GM is possible, it sure seems to take a lot of study! My fast chess is pretty close. ![]()