Best positional play book for 1800 player

Kavanam wrote, "kohai, this forum deserves to be locked, its going beyond its scope!!"

I certainly hope threads aren't locked because some diamond member requests it to be locked.  This is a useful thread.

The old law for copyright limits was 50 years after the death of the author, and under new laws it can be renewed by estate.  The limit was never 50 years after the copyright.

I was hoping to get some on Openings. Even while online i am reading my new book or it is next to me thanks to suggestions in this thread. Makes playing at the next level so much easier. Thank you!

No Chess book is worth more $100.00. Even with a signature. Still think i am wrong?  When a book first comes out with new material it is at its APEX of value and will decrease as more players buy it and master it. When the knowledge of what is in the book a norm the value has greatly decreased.

Example if 1 country has a Nuke when it first was created they are the most powerful country. Now when 10 have them the edge has shifted. When they were the first with the Nuke they could make threats to opposing countries. Now that 10 have them their threats my be meet with counter threats.

A book valued at about $200 should be your first and final book. A book to end all. No need for articles, Tactic Trainer, puzzles or a coach.

www.librivox.org has volunteers who read books from the public domain and create audiobook versions. Their rule of thumb is anything published in the US after 1920 is copyrighted, anything before is in the public domain. Very rarely something after 1920 didn't have the copyright renewed, and there may be other exceptions but overall their "rule of thumb" appears to be easy to apply and in compliance with US copyright laws. 

I generally try to avoid downloading illegally "free" books, software etc partly because a lot of the sites offering the stuff are basically virus and malware factories or else they're flat out liars who aren't giving the stuff away for free and there's also the minor detail about ripping off the copyright holder even though a lot of people who wouldn't steal books out of a bookstore have no qualms about stealing them online.

Thanks NimzoRoy for sharing this website. I've been looking for free audiobooks of classical literature.

GM Smirnov's Positional Understanding Course is (I think) better than any book about Positional Play. :)

How much does it cost?

From Wikipedia (take with the normal grain of salt) on US copyright:

All copyrightable works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain;^[35] works created before 1978 but not published until recently may be protected until 2047.^[36] For works that received their copyright before 1978, a renewal had to be filed in the work's 28th year with the Library of Congress Copyright Office for its term of protection to be extended. The need for renewal was eliminated by the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, but works that had already entered the public domain by non-renewal did not regain copyright protection. Therefore, works published before 1964 that were not renewed are in the public domain. With rare exception (such as very old works first published after 2002), no additional copyrights will expire (thus entering the public domain) until at least 2019 due to changes in the applicable laws.

It costs $149. 

YOW!! For that much dough I'd invest in a diamond membership here for one yr ($99, unlimited Tactics Trainer, unlimited Videos, unlimited chess mentor) and use the other $50 for chess books. Or get a gold or platinum membership here and more chess books.

That's why you see so much carpet-bombing advertising for his wares. It only takes a few buyers to make it worth his while. 

That is also a great idea but by just watching the video lessons, I gained 300 rating here in chess.com. Oh, and by the way I haven't done the tasks so I still have a lot to work on. :)

Lecumberri, you have been a member of chess.com for less than a month. Your rating goes up 300 rating points because that is how the rating system works here. 

By that logic, I read Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches and my rating went up 700 points on chess.com! There's not actually a causal connection.

Chess.com membership is awesome way to go

Positional book?  My System, Reacess Your Chess 

Sillman helped me and did not help. Too man rules and my blunders went up along with my wins. Crazy right? It made look at the board too long and my hands were not use to that at all. Click and 2 sec later i see the correct move and the blunder i made just then. Not enough examples for my taste.

Yeah that's why I asked how much it cost I've heard his stuff is OK but way overpriced 

I have a great chess book for $ 9.00 so i  will have 140.00 Yippy. Now i can get some lunch, dinner, movie, plus have somebody feed me, read me that $9 chess book, polish my chess set, polish my mouse to play live chess so it does slip, keep stats on my games, name my opponents by alphabetical order, tell my best games by date. Ok just getting warmed up  Now ready to get to the serious items that money can get me!

This is all a matter of perspective anyway.  For example, someone with $1,000 of disposable income per month will see prices and value a lot differently that someone with $1,000 per year of disposable income.

At the age of almost 40 and with a relatively well paying job I personally find a huge value in lessons with a coach.  I also spend several hundred dollars a year on books and DVD's.

But when I was 18 years old and just starting out in the workforce with only a few bucks here and there I would very carefully make my selections and buy only a few used books here and there. 

I also made great use of the public library.  I would go there on an afternoon when I wasn't working and copy down games and notes into a spiral bound notebook.  I'd sit at a table in the back with a pocket chess set for hours just going over game after game.

So is any given book/dvd course worth $X?   Just depends on what you have to spend.  The key is to maximize what you do have.  It's not the book/dvd, it's how you use them.

Well you are joking now, but the fact is i think chess.com is much more time efficent then setting up pieces and go over positions in a book. especially considering that the information is not worse here. Time is money and besides why should learn less in my time when i can learn more. I also like some jokes like i want to encourage weaker players but...

I mean seriously its more the other way around with books you sometimes still get total lemons even so everyone says its a must buy, i think chess.com really rules. Only the chess videos are a mixed bag in my opinion some are rather cool and informative others are in my personal opinion rather boring and not so informativ.