A Solid Study Book

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Avatar of Astatos

I am looking in investing in a good chess book.  I am looking for something that would qualify as the textbook for a college class on chess.  There are so many book available but they all seem to be narrow in focus or aimed at only beginners or elite players.  I would hope it covers theory and practical play styles.  Anyone have any great suggestions or links to threads that have covered this?

Avatar of Captain_Coconut

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess is quite good, as far as all-in-one books go.

Avatar of cornbeefhashvili

What would you qualify as a book that is "narrow in focus" other than an opening, middlegame, or endgame book? Pretty much of what is left are the tournaments, players, general instruction/treatises, tactics, strategy, and data dumps.

Avatar of PossibleOatmeal

Maybe Silman's Complete Book of Chess Strategy?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BXU9BLK?btkr=1

Avatar of Shivsky

Jeff Coakley's Winning Chess Strategy for Kids is very PRACTICAL book for somebody starting out and not wanting to be talked down to like a pure beginner. Covers a lot of ground in a friendly easy-to-grasp manner. (e.g. 30 pages between "What is a Knight fork" and "Let's try the Lucena position")

Avatar of Benedictine

Maybe the Yusupov books would suit you - all round lessons, school text book style. Start with the orange ones.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-your-Chess-Artur-Yusupov/dp/1906552010/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414515119&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=arthur+yusupov

Avatar of jlconn

Who would be the intended audience?

What, specifically, did you mean by "theory"?

What are "practical play styles"?

Fred Reinfeld's The Complete Chess Course was actually used as a college chess class text, though I'd sooner recommend his The Complete Chessplayer for that purpose.

I'd suggest Lasker's Manual of Chess or Tarrasch's The Game of Chess. Newer definitely is not better when it comes to manual style books.

Yusupov's books, for instance, are for players who are already of Category III standing, which is approximately high Class C/Class B USCF.

Avatar of TundraMike

John Nunn's Chess Course.  Very good book if you could only buy one. 

Avatar of apostolis1

The Chess Player's Bible might be the book you are looking for. Wink

This book contains few information about every single part of a chess games. Tactics, strategy, basic mating patterns, openings, middlegames, endgames and so on. 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Chess-Players-Bible-Illustrated/dp/0764157876

Avatar of Shivsky

+1 to the Yusupov books but they really seem to be "all business" and suited to very committed players vs. somebody not ready to sell their soul towards chess improvement.   

For the hobbyist who just wants to "learn more in a fun-sy" way,  the Coakley books (Strategy, Exercises) seem to be more rounded.

Avatar of kponds

The Yusupov books would be more like the equivilent of all of the course work / lab manuals for a masters (no pun intended) degree in chess. "something that would qualify as the textbook for a college class on chess" leads me to think of Chess Fundamentals, The Game of Chess, and similar books. Personally, I would go with Capa, having the highest substance to brevity ratio of any chess book I know. The Yusupov series is great for a very ambitious student. I bought all 9 with big dreams, and I'm sad to admit that theyve mostly sat on the shelf. Due to my own shortcomings, not the books. I wouldnt hesitate for a second to recommend them to someone who has enough time and energy to make a very serious go at improvement.

Avatar of kponds

Ugh, paragraphs not working well on my phone, sorry for the ramble.

Avatar of TheGreatOogieBoogie

Sorry, but there is no such book.  You could get a lot of mileage out of Logical Chess Move by Move, but you'll eventually need to move up to specialized books to improve your game.  Every intermediate should have at least one book dedicated to rook endings and pawn endings respectively.  That's assuming they completed a more basic endgame book.