Best Chess Book for Positional Play

Descriptive notation is easy enough once you get used to it.  You just get out a board, and play through the games as you read.

I took a peek at couple of Neil McDonald's books, Concise Chess Middlegames and Chess Success: Planning after the Opening. The first one has some discussion of pawn breaks and freeing moves, and the second book covers typical pawn structures much like Soltis' Pawn Structure Chess book.  McDonald tries to keep the writing simple and includes a lot of diagrams, while still touching on a lot of important points.  If you prefer algebraic notation, perhaps you might enjoy McDonald's books.

I ordered Neil McDonald's book Concise Chess Middlegames, because it was pretty cheap and I really liked what it said about the book in front/back cover. I was a little depressed there were no reviews yet!

That Zurich 1953 book also got my interest. I really liked the reviews, that it's in algebraic notation too, and it was pretty cheap, so I ordered it.

Now I can't decide what else to get. PSC is really expensive, 43$, and I don't want to rush into it just yet, maybe start off with cheaper/shorter books first, then delve into more complicated stuff.

The Art of Middlegame is also one that I am very interested in, just thinking a bit, I'm gonna see more about the descriptive notation before I buy it.

Riga made other great recommendations, Logical Chess Move by Move seems interesting. So thank you so much for your incredible help.

I doubt you'll be disappointed by Bronstein's book.

Here's a limited preview from Google-books and you'll see what I mean about how Bronstein takes you through the games. He spends more time on the interesting match-ups, of course.

Check out his commentary to Stahlberg-Boleslavsky for in-depth positional assessments and insights, game 7. What's particularly nice is that he really digs in deep in drawn games, which are the ones that are positionally the most interesting, from a study point of view.

http://books.google.com/books?id=VUrggX89EDcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bronstein+z%C3%BCrich&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

I wouldn't recommend The Art of the Middle Game -- there are better books out there. At any rate, you don't even have to buy that one:

http://books.google.com/books?id=2kOO3Hv8zLsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+art+of+the+middle+game+kotov&source=bl&ots=miJT6xZWYF&sig=00yEv1rj8NbTWfVnC_C0CqJhwZk&hl=en&ei=FrPKS8jFD8uTOJCRrd0F&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

In the introduction to the book Aagaard mentions that he is extending the ideas of the Attacking Dvd's but other than that don't know much about the Dvd's.

Thanks, TwoMove!  I didn't realize the DVDs came first.

Ya looking at it through google books, I wasn't understanding much at all.

You might want to try, "Development of a Chess Master. ( 55 steps to Chess success)" by Eric Schiller, who is widely considered one of the foremost chess analysts, writers and teachers. Good hunting

I think some of the books mentioned in this thread are going to be a little hard right now.  After all, you did say that this book would be one of your very first chess books.  I would still advise the Seirawan book to start with — or the Chernev one, which is also great.

With all respect to everybody here, I think strong players are not always the best people to ask for book recommendations for lower-rated players.  I've seen some crazy recommendations before.  One time, on another forum, a strong player (~2100 FIDE) recommended Pawn Power in Chess to somebody who had only just learned the rules of the game!

Hmmm - good thing you got to check that google-link, then. Go through Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals, you'll find it on Chesszone.org. It's out of copyright and you can download it with an easy heart. It starts out very simply - but really goes through the essentials of chess and positions in a very instructive way.

Check out Silman's site.

Here's a link to his books. The son of a friend enjoyed The Amateur's Mind, and now beats his father.

http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_dossier_js/js_best_selling_books.html

Main link:

http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess.html

Hmm interesting. The amateur's mind caught my interest a bit.

Still deciding between Logical Chess Move by Move, Seirawan+Silman book Winning Chess Strategies, and Amateur's Mind by Silman. I think I need to read more reviews?

Which do you guys own?

eXecute, you ask very good questions. I, too, would like a positional strategy book at my level. ( Upper 1300).

Have you read any of Cecil Purdy's books? They have a little bit of all in them and are wonderful reads. I recommend "The Search for Chess Perfection" as well as some of his other books.

He was from Australia and a wonderful chess writer and person.

stwils

No, but I will definitely check them out an amazon. I think I can really improve my chess if I simply learn a couple openings for white and especially for black and learn the "common responses" for them, it may give me an edge against most other players.

And there is a Search for Perfection II, also.  

Hey stwils, multiple of your posts have helped answer questions I have also had (so thanks!), but what is the format of this Search for Perfection book?  Is it mostly reading/examples?  Reading with practice questions/problems at the end of chapters or end of the book?  A hodgepodge of random chess articles that are largely unrelated?  A primer on positional play?  Does it resemble any chess books that are more famous or more modern?  

But if a perpetual critic such as Bobby Fischer considered Purdy a good teacher, then I too may consider buying The Search for Chess Perfection I and II.  

dannyhume,

I actually love two of Purdy's books. The first is Guide to Good Chess which was in its 12th printing when I bought it.It is one of my favorite books. There is a chapter called "Position Play." The first sentence reads "Position play is the art of improving your position in small ways when no sound combintation is possible." It is a little book filled with wisdom. He suggests we don't get bent out of shape (my words) when the opponent does a strange opening but encourages us to go by the normal suggestions of good opening play.

The Search for Chess Perfection contains a bit of biography, lots of his writings, and then some of his games.

His writings contain many articles:  here are a few:

Combination versus Planning

The Dual Soul of Chess

How to Think in Chess

Play for Position After the Opening

Weak Pawns and Weak Squares

What is Position Play?

Notes on Planning in Chess

Transition from the Opening to the Middlegame

And MANY more articles!

His games are annotated with lots of comments, but so far I have only read his wonderful articles.

I did not know there was Search for Chess Perfection, vol 2. Tell me about it.

Hope I have answered a bit of what you were asking.

stwils

I believe that "the Search for Chess Perfection II" is the second edition of the Thinkers Press Publication of Purdy's book with some corrections and a few new articles in the section on combinations.

Thanks. So same book with updates?

stwils

Yes.  All of the writings that you referred to above are in "II"  The acknowledgements indicate corrections and a few new articles.

Thanks stwils and Robert1838. 

It's interesting to hear about these other positional play books that I have heard little about, but that other people like.  I may have to check it out now.  

How about Daniel Naroditsky's new book Mastering Positional Chess? I haven't read it but since nobody has mentioned it just kinda throwing it out there. Since it has recently come out, perhaps there will be reviews in some time.