Best Books for Beginners

The Chess.com blog recently posted an article on the "Top 10 Books Every Chess Player Should Read" (https://www.chess.com/article/view/top-10-chess-books) and the article is marked as "for beginners".  Many of the books on the list are quite good; however, the recommendation for beginners is utterly ridiculous!  Recommending "How to Reassess Your Chess", "My System", and "Zurich 1953" to beginners???  If they are not confused by first, bored by second, and utterly lost by the third (not to mention other questionable choices like "My Great Predecessors" - a series that contains GM-level analysis), they are likely to give up chess before they ever make it beyond "beginner" status.

With that in mind, I offer my own list of books and series for beginners.

Introductory Books

The following books/series all cover similar material with different styles and methods.  A beginner could read all of them, or any one of them and come away with a good foundation.

Lasker's Manual of Chess by Emanuel Lasker

https://www.amazon.com/Laskers-Manual-Chess-21st-Century/dp/B004OO4JS2

This was one of my favorites when I started playing competitive chess.  The second world champion walks you through how to play the game, introduces you to basic tactics, simple strategies, ideas behind some common openings, introduces you to basic positional concepts, and gives a good number of example games and game segments.  It is a quick read, and gives any beginner a good foundation of knowledge to start building upon.

Soviet Chess Primer by Ilya Maizelis

https://www.amazon.com/Soviet-Chess-Primer-Classics/dp/190798299X

An alternative to Lasker's Manual, the Soviet Chess Primer covers the same types of material and in much the same way.  The main difference between the two is that Lasker's Manual has many more example games than the Soviet Chess Primer.

The Complete Chess Course by Fred Reinfeld

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1941270247

I wish I had found this book when I was beginning.  Like the 2 previously mentioned books, this book (which is really 8 of Reinfeld's books in a single binding) uses annotated example games to teach you how to play, opening principles, basic tactics, important concepts for winning won games and making it complicated for your opponent in worse or losing games, and finally provides good examples of how to play many common openings.  It is also a quick read, and gives a very good foundation for beginning players.

Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess by Bruce Pandolfini

https://www.amazon.com/Pandolfinis-Ultimate-Guide-Chess-Strategies/dp/0743226178

This book takes a slightly different approach than the previous ones.  Specifically, Bruce walks the reader through decisions made by both sides in a single game where the reader is treated as watching the interaction between a student and teacher.  This book is not as comprehensive as the others, but it does go into more details about the decision making process.  For that reason alone, it is worth the time for beginners to read.

Seirawan Series by Yasser Seirawan

Play Winning Chess:  https://www.amazon.com/Play-Winning-Chess-Yasser-Seirawan/dp/1857443314

Winning Chess Tactics:  https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Tactics-Everyman/dp/1857443861

Winning Chess Strategies:  https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Strategies-Everyman/dp/1857443853

Winning Chess Openings:  https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Openings-Everyman/dp/1857443497

Winning Chess Combinations:  https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Combinations-Everyman/dp/1857444205

Winning Chess Endings:  https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Endings-Everyman/dp/1857443489

Winning Chess Brilliancies:  https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Brilliancies-Everyman/dp/1857443470

These 7 books cover a ton of material in Yasser's well-known style.  The first book teaches the rules of the game and the basic concepts.  The second introduces fundamental tactical patterns.  The third introduces common strategies.  The forth discusses the purpose of the opening and how to decide on what openings you want to play (he even gives a recommendation for those that might be undecided).  The fifth book takes a look at some combination themes.  The sixth book introduces some basic endgames.  Finally, the last book looks at some amazing moves played by top level players and the reasons they work.  Throughout the series, you'll find Yasser telling anecdotal stories, which are enjoyable and help the reader remember the information he is covering by associating various concepts with those stories.

Game Collection Books

The Chess.com article recommended several good game collection books, but none of the ones listed are actually good for beginners!  An average tournament player would get a lot from those books, but a beginner would be lost in almost all of them!  Instead, the beginner should start out with books that annotate virtually every move and only then move on to books like "My 60 Memorable Games" (and while I love the "My Great Predecessor" series, leave that one until you are much stronger!).  Some of my favorites are below.

Logical Chess Move by Move by Irving Chernev

https://www.amazon.com/Logical-Chess-Every-Explained-Algebraic/dp/0713484640/

While some players do not like this book because some of Chernev's notes have not stood the test of time at the higher levels, virtually everything he says is good for beginners.  He annotates 33 games in various openings using several themes and describes what is going on with each move.  As a player gets stronger, they may look back on some of his notes and disagree with them, but those disagreements are not at all going to take away from the knowledge gained at the beginner level.  That is, the purpose of this books is to give the beginner and understanding of how to approach the game from a holistic perspective, which Chernev does very well.

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev

https://www.amazon.com/Most-Instructive-Games-Chess-Played/dp/B000O5Y5KC

A follow-up to his previous book, this one goes through 62 more games in the same fashion.  The wide variety of openings and middlegame positions used in this book is a great introduction to many different ideas.

Understanding Chess Move by Move by John Nunn

https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Chess-Move-John-Nunn/dp/1901983412/

Following in Chernev's footsteps, John Nunn (a much stronger player than Chernev) uses the same technique of annotating virtually every move of 30 games to demonstrate several topics in the opening, middlegame, and endgame.

Tactics Books

One of the best things a beginner can do is practice tactics.  Nothing will help you improve beyond the beginner level faster than not losing material and winning material when your opponent makes mistakes.  Play Winning Tactics has already been mentioned, and there are a ton of good tactics books out there.  The key for a beginner is to find one that is at the right level and is organized by theme.  The ones listed below are in the beginner to intermediate level range (basically, anyone below 1500).

Chess Tactics for Students by John Bain

https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-Students-John-Bain/dp/0963961403

There are over 400 puzzles in this book, and they are all between 1 and 4 moves long (with a few having 2 potential variations).  It covers all of the basic tactics in a workbook format.  The one downside is that it provides hints for every puzzle that are difficult to ignore.

Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar

https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-Champions-step-step/dp/081293671X/

Another book organized by theme.  This book provides no hints (other than the theme of the chapter), so it will be slightly more difficult than Bain's book.

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess by Murray Chandler

https://www.amazon.com/How-Beat-Your-Chess-Gambit/dp/1901983056

This cute title is actually a decent tactics book.  It is a short book, but contains a lot of good beginner-level puzzles.  My daughter asked me to get it for her (thinking that after reading it she would be able to beat me).  Sadly, she said it was false advertising as that still has not happened, but that should not be a knock against its quality.

Chess:  5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games by Laszlo Polgar

https://www.amazon.com/Chess-5334-Problems-Combinations-Games/dp/1579125549

This massive book can take a while, and might be a bit daunting for beginners when looking at its almost 2" binding.  However, it is broken down by a theme, of sorts.  Specifically, the bulk of the book is checkmates.  Chapter 1 is "Checkmate in 1", Chapter 2 is "Checkmate in 2".  Chapter 3 is "Checkmate in 3".  Later chapters are miniatures and selected games played by the Polgar sisters.  If you can get passed the size of this book, it is well worth the time spent solving the puzzles!

Reinfeld's 1001 series by Fred Reinfeld

1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate:  https://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Checkmate-Century-Reinfeld-Classics/dp/193649082X

1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations:  https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Sacrifices-Combinations-Reinfeld-Classics/dp/1936490870

As the names state, these are puzzle books that have a ton of puzzles selected by Fred Reinfeld for their instructional quality.

Endgames

The Chess.com article mentioned Silman's Complete Endgame Course, and I've already mentioned Seirawan's Winning Chess Endings.  While a beginner only needs to read the first few chapters of Silman's book, both of these are a good introduction to endgames.  When a player gets a bit stronger, they can read further into Silman's book, and also look into other books (Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, de la Villa's 100 Endgames Every Player Must Know, and Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics are good places to start when they are ready).

Methods

While it doesn't exactly fit into "books and series", there are a couple methods that are worth mentioning as they have been proven to take people from beginners to reasonably strong.

Steps Method

https://www.chess-steps.com/home.php

This method is used in the Netherlands and has been introduced to the US recently.  The basic idea is that a player is walked through material in a step-by-step process.  They do not move onto new material until they have mastered the material presented.  It is designed for teaching kids the game, but can be used by adults as well.  The earlier steps have a strong focus on tactics (which should not surprise many people).

Chess for Tigers by Artur Yusupov

https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/docs/14/artur_yusupovs_awardwinning_training_course/

There are 9 books (plus a workbook) in this series.  Each book covers a wide variety of topics and is meant to follow a similar process as the Steps Method (i.e. you are not suppose to move on to the next chapter until you have sufficiently mastered the current one).  The material covered is more balanced in terms of what is presented, and the difficulty of some chapters (even in the lower books) may be a bit too high for some beginners).  And the higher books are difficult enough that I've seen IMs use them to practices prior to major tournaments.

Conclusion

While the Chess.com article meant well, it missed the mark on some of its recommendations.  While all of the books mentioned are good, once a player has reached a level where the material will be well-received, a beginner would be completely lost when reading My System or My Great Predecessors, and would gain almost nothing from How to Reassess Your Chess (Side Note:  How can you recommend How to Reassess Your Chess without also recommending The Amateur's Mind? - though neither of those are really meant for beginners).  Instead, beginners should focus on fundamentals:  learning to develop their pieces and learning how to not hang pieces!