Beginner Books I'm prolly gunna Buy

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Possibly helpful:

Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf

Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/

Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1949)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf

Discovering Chess Openings by GM Johm Emms (2006)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf

Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014)

http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html

Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/

A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf

ylblai2 gives some good suggestions.

Can't go wrong following this list:

http://www.danheisman.com/recommended-books.html

My suggestion is Idiot's Guide to Chess by GM Wolf.

This book covers many lessons that a beginner should know.

I particularly liked those two books, also.

My recent personal favorite is...

Palatnik, Sam, and Lev Alburt. 2013. Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player. New York, NY: Chess Information & Research Center.

Also, personally, with what I know now, I would get a good opening book as one of my first books.

P.S.--A dictionary wouldn't hurt either, since then you could try looking up "prolly" and "gunna".

Then maybe a math book on prollability theory?

google and youtube

internet is a wonderful thing

For near-beginners, I don't think Bain's book will be too basic. I suspect the book will help you.

Hi Clifton; none of the books you listed are appropriate for truly beginner players. In fact, John Watson's book is actually quite advanced. They may be good books though, to buy for now and read later.

I would recommend highly:

*Dan Heisman's "Back to Basics: Tactics"

*David Levens' "Basic Chess" (a shit ton of typos, but great instructional content)

If you're up to it, a rather advanced book, but accessible to beginning players, is "Forcing Chess Moves" by Charles Hertan. It talks about computer eyes, and how to be a tactical monster. Of course, it will take a lot of time to work through and will be a real struggle for any beginner.

i found this book really helpful as a beginner

World's Greatest Chess Games- Nunn Emms Burgess

I also have Heisman's Back to Basics: Tactics, and I like it a lot. (Get the 2nd printing, it has corrections.) This book and Bain's book would give you a good start in the tactics area.

Adding to that list: when I was a beginner, these books were also quite useful, and very underrated / relatively unknown:

*Larry Evans' "Endgame Quiz". These puzzles will really make you think, but you'll naturally learn all sorts of nice endgame tactics and tricks, and will get a better understanding of what deep endgames are like in general.  

*Bill Robertie's "Winning Chess Tactics" and "Winning Chess Openings" are amazingly good books that guide beginners through the thought process of more advanced players. It has that really nice, logical, stream-of-consciousness that makes it easy to read many times and focuses on the most important part of chess improvement for beginners: thought process move by move. 

Winning Chess & the others in that series by that yasser seirawan

"... 'Chess Fundamentals' ... does not deal so minutely as this book will with the things that beginners need to know. ..." - J. R. Capablanca in A Primer of Chess

"Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development." - Dan Heisman (2001)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf

https://www.chess.com/article/view/5-great-chess-books-for-beginners

"... Many chess books for beginners speed rapidly through the basics before reaching the advanced material which the author finds interesting. ... this ... is akin to starting a mathemaics textbook with 1+1=2 and rushing on to Einstein's theory of relativity. ... I hold the view that it is better to have a solid knowledge of a few key ideas than a tenuous and uncertain grasp of many, less important, concepts. ... Theory can wait until later, when you have built up your confidence and are seeking to progress further. ..." - GM John Nunn (2010)

well.... what should I say?

I'll say this... I think you're full of Poop to be reading an advanced chess tome because you're an adult.  I think you'll wash out (give up) on reading these dense and deep thoughts about chess- when your actually blunders are much different;

you'll be reading about how to understand subtle positional differences in equivalent positions- but your errors surely are more about basic visualization, keeping peices safe, being patient and solid during attack, making sure you defend effectively....

Nonetheless, I do read Occasionally about adult beginners that get a lot of some of the dense, classic, texts in chess- particuarly "my system".

so best of luck, and consider doing a lot more reading of reviews- if after buying something like the three books you first mention- you find those books unreadable, and uninstructive.

"Learn to Walk before you Run"

Not suprised that Jengaias opinion here is absolutely opposite to my own.  so I'll (proactively) emphasize- that some people Have had good experiences reading 'the classics' and claim that the deep thoughts were very good for their game.

I think perhaps, if you are earnest about making the most of some of these very deep books

• it helps to have strong players to play against and comment
• LOTS of time, lots more effort than most chessplayers put forth in understanding the chess
• Deep analysis- you should strive to See ALL the variations, why are some picked and others Not even commented upon.  with effort you can work on understanding what was NOT played and why it was eliminated (often for unstated tactical reasons)
• Always Play though the long variations- in tactical puzzles there's often a simple answer, in these classic games the answer is far from simple (but its fundemental nonetheless)
• Lastly and most importantly you must find the exercise interesting and enjoyable since its no small effort to get the point from the book.

"advanced" almost always means that even strong players find the point of the play not-obvious, hard to see, and hidden.  there's no reason why a Lesser player can't understand it- but its going to take a LOT more effort.

if that doesn't deter. please feel free to come back After a few months actually absorbing one of the dense tomes- and describe how you did it.

must of us, can't.  I'm not going to try.  I having trouble digesting much simpler (but instructive) books.

Are you acquainted with the reading history of all "good players"?

If you want an example of why you should "learn the basics" before trying to read advanced stuff... look at the backyard professor. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQwEyr5qwws

^This is why you should stick to the basics first (funny!) 

BTW, the guy in the video has a higher rating than the OP, so it is likely to be even worse for the OP is he starts to read too much advanced stuff. 

You don't want to be up a queen and worrying about the "pawn majority" on the opponent's kingside. 

The OP has a tactics rating of 1205. Given how inflated tactics ratings are, I would estimate his OTB to be <1000. He needs to start with the basics.

I am aware of only one person in this discussion who made an assertion about what "good players never bothered to read". That person was not me.

What sort of rating does one have to have in order to be considered a "good player" by jengaias?