beginner books to help me not be intimidated by opponent

I played chess long ago. Never very good. Now I feel an excitement to learn and play again.

So I bought 5 books: Chess for Juniors (I am definately NOT a junior!),Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors by Hays,The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess, A World Champion's Guide to Chess by Susan Polgar, and Chess Puzzles for the Casual Player by Houston.

I like doing the puzzles. Just taking my time and thinking. I love Polgar's book. Lots of information, but not too much for you to digest all at once - and followed by exercises and puzzles.

And about 6 weeks ago I bought Chessmaster 9000.  I play mostly in the "Kid's Room" and use the hint and blunder help.  I also like the flat chessmen - 2D.

My rating must be near 0 as I can never win without using the hint and blunder feature.

Yesterday, I moved to the "Gameroom" for all "ages." I chose as my opponent a little 7 year old girl name Cassie who was rated about 500. The chessmen here were all in 3 D.

I could see she made some bad moves. But when I started to move a piece, I felt intimidated by all the enemy pieces in front of me. Even though I won more material, I still felt uneasy facing all those opposing pieces. I was so slow I timed out several times. The only way I won was by constantly clicking the hint button.

At Chess Cafe I sometimes read Dan Heisman's Novice Nook. But it is not in book form. If it were, I'd pay anything for a bound copy all his articles. But there are two books of his books that I wondered if they could help me: Back to Basics and Looking for Trouble - Recognizing and Meeting Threats in Chess. I wondered if Looking for Trouble would help me not feel so intimidated by my opponent's chessmen.

Are there other good beginner books better than the ones I have?

Why am I so relaxed and at peace doing the chess puzzles and why am I nervous playing a game on the computer? I can feel my blood pressure going up.

Chess is supposed to be FUN.  I want it to be fun for me.

Any suggestions on books?

stwils

These are all good books. I'd say start with "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess" - it's actually an excellent beginner book.

At Chess Cafe I sometimes read Dan Heisman's Novice Nook. But it is not in book form. If it were, I'd pay anything for a bound copy all his articles.

Dan Heisman is an excellent author and I'd highly recommend reading his articles. At Chess Cafe, you can go into "Archives" and get all of his novice nook columns in .pdf, and print them out if you'd like.

 there are two books of his books that I wondered if they could help me: Back to Basics and Looking for Trouble - Recognizing and Meeting Threats in Chess.

Back to Basics would be an excellent book for you. Looking For Trouble is actually a bit more advanced, but still an excellent book. Save it for a while though, the books you've bought already should keep you busy for a while.

Are there other good beginner books better than the ones I have?

There are lots of good beginner books. Better than the ones you have? I don't know. Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is a very good one - but like I said, your reading list is already pretty comprehensive.

Why am I so relaxed and at peace doing the chess puzzles and why am I nervous playing a game on the computer? I can feel my blood pressure going up.

Hmm... I'm not a psychologist, so I really don't have a good answer here. My $0.02: you aren't Gary Kasparov and this isn't the World Championship. Relax, make your move, and learn from your mistakes. Getting good at chess takes lots of practice and you'll make many mistakes on your journey. As you study and practice, you will improve. I guarantee it.

Chess is supposed to be FUN. I want it to be fun for me.

See above. Relax, enjoy, and realize that everyone makes lots of mistakes. You'll make fewer mistakes as you get better - but that's a process that does take time. You can't just read one magic book and turn into Gary Kasparov overnight. But consistent study and practice will improve your game over time.

Any suggestions on books?

The ones you have already are great. Once you finish all of them we can talk about which ones to buy afterwards. Start with The Idiots Guide to Chess.

I think that people sometimes fall into the trap of accumulating books - "the more chess books I buy, the better I'll be!" But it doesn't really work that way. I know I've fallen into this trap before. No book will teach you everything there is to know about chess. In fact, you could read 100 chess books and still not know everything there is to know about chess.

Your chess game will improve much, much more if you read one book and fully understand all the information it contains (i.e., read it several times, take out a chessboard and study all of its examples, play lots of games and try to put what you've learned into practice, etc.) than if you read 10 books once each.

Hope this helps.

Looking for trouble won't be too good for you. It's a puzzle book for recognizing oponent's threats, but most of the puzzles in there would be too tough for you from what you're describing about your skill level. I guess you could buy it for the future, btu for now it will be too complex to get much from it.

If I were you I would continue playing against easy opponents in CM9k and practice some basic tactics on Chess Tactics Server. Just search for it on Google, its free and it will adjust itself to your level fairly quickly. Its baisically all puzzles, but since it adjusts itself to your level, you'll be practicing the things you really need and are able to understand and learn right now. It will also improve your ability to play faster, since it rewards fast solving ability. You may dislike it at first, but I went up about 250 elo points in about 9 months of using it. It may not be the only reason why I've improved so much, but its definetly one of the main reasons.

I like the books by Yasser Seirawan, very easy to read with basic rules to remeber to make any game a little more successful than the last.

My two cents worth:

I have a number of chess books. However, I've found that the Chess "Academies" included in Chessmaster 11 help me more than books at this stage.

My problem with chess books is that they'll show you a position and a bunch of moves, and then (unless you are a born chess player and can easily visualize 9 or 10 moves) you're forced to break out a chess set in order to follow along. I prefer computer tutorials where I'm given the opportunity to move the pieces in order to solve the problem and and then get feedback.

Of course, I only mention Chessmaster because I'm a beginning player and it's an all in one (inexpensive) solution for learning and playing. Chess Mentor 3 (or whichever is the current version) is the best chess tutorial program I've seen for more advanced players.

Please tell me more about Chess Mentor 3. Where can I find it? Is it expensive? Would there be a Chess Mentor for beginners and intermediates ?

I'm really interested. I'd much prefer an interactive tutorial on my  computer - if that is what it is.

Thanks for telling me about it.

stwils

I definitely agree with the YS books.  I also highly recommend Chess for Dummies.  It's very basic but solid.  Books for tactics I would go with 303 Tricky Tactics.  I'd read YS's book on tactics first then maybe go on to the TT book.  you can download 1001 Chess Combinations and do that too, you can do it by theme.  I think the most efficient use of money in chess is C.T. Art by Andy Blokh.  It is by far the best tactics trainer on computer IMHO.  I'd say get C.T. Art and work with it a ton.  I love it.  GL2U

It sounds to me like your trouble is repression of your killer instinct.  In a puzzle there is no opponent, no threat.  Add an opponent and your adrenaline starts to pump, you want to crush him and stamp on his face.  It's your repression of this healthy natural instinct that makes you apprehensive. 

Next time you play, take a moment to scream your rage and defiance at the screen.  Say to yourself 'I am going to destroy you mother-f*cker, tear off your head and sh*t down your neck'.  Also, stop using the hints - so what if you lose? It's a computer opponent you can play over and over and you can beat a 500, otherwise you would be unable to spel wurds.  Winning without hints will boost your confidence, which is the basic problem.

A few people have already said it, but again i have to say Yasser Seirawan's books are very well explained with running commentary on moves and good basic tips for anyone starting up.