Chess Books Reading Order

I have the following chess books in my possession (without going into detail of why I chose to get each one):

• The Game of Chess - Tarrasch
• Three Hundred Chess Games - Tarrasch
• How to Reassess Your Chess - Jeremy Silman
• The Amateur's Mind - Jeremy Silman
• Back to Basics: Tactics - Dan Heisman
• My Chess Career - Capablanca
• My Best Games - Anatoly Karpov
• How to Build Your Chess Reportoire - Steve Giddins
• Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
• Improve Your Chess Now - Jonathan Tisdall
• The Middlegame (I and II) - Euwe and Kramer

I would appreciate if someone gave me some advice on how to set my priorities in terms of reading order of these books. I am a novice player who previously received training for a year and a half (4 years ago).

Thanks for the advice. I have a question though, why would you start with 300 games and not The Game of Chess by Tarrasch?

Oh, and regarding my level, I would consider myself a beginner, but I used to train at a local club 4 years ago.

These books span a very wide range of skill level in my view.  It is like an assortment of piano music ranging from chopsticks to rachmaninoff.

I would read (and reread) the Tarrasch books, Amateur's Mind, Hesiman's Tactics book, and the Capablanca book before venturing into the others.  Not sure the order within that.  The Dvoretsky's book should definitely be read last, probably preceded by the Karpov book.  The list seems thin on tactics/puzzle books.

Which Watson book are you referring to?

chessmicky wrote:

Well, "The Game of Chess" is considered a classic. In fact, famous chess author John Watson recently wrote that it reamins one of the very best instruction books ever written. My recommendation of "300 Games" is just based on the fact that I personally find well-annotated games a more fun way to learn.

Hello.  I have read some but not all of the books.  Here's my take on each:

• The Game of Chess - Tarrasch - Haven't read
• Three Hundred Chess Games - Tarrasch - Haven't read.  I personally don't care too much for Tarrasch's games.  Some of his theories have been debunked.
• How to Reassess Your Chess - Jeremy Silman - Very good.  Intermediate level.  Read when you reach class C (1400-1600 ELO).  Chapters on Minor Pieces were especially good.  Not as good on pawn structures (only covers a few structures).
• The Amateur's Mind - Jeremy Silman - Haven't read
• Back to Basics: Tactics - Dan Heisman - One of the best tactical books.  You can start reading now.
• My Chess Career - Capablanca - Haven't read this one, but have read other collections of Capa's games.  His games are great for all players, but especially beginners because his play is very clear and strategic.  Also, many of the openings he plays - QGD, Ruy Lopez - are still good.
• My Best Games - Anatoly Karpov - I also like Karpov, but his games are more advanced, so read when you are an intermediate player (1400-1600 ELO).
• How to Build Your Chess Reportoire - Steve Giddins - Good, but more advanced.  Don't worry too much about repertoires until you are at least Class B (1600-1800 ELO).  I would say that you should know the main line of 1 main opening as White (preferably Ruy Lopez, QGD or English) and 2 openings as Black (1 vs. e4 - I recommend e5 or c6 - and 1 vs d4 - I recommend QGD).
• Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual - Very advanced book.  For Class A (ELO 1800) and above.
• Improve Your Chess Now - Jonathan Tisdall - Don't know
• The Middlegame (I and II) - Euwe and Krame - Don't know

Oh, ok, thank you. Sorry for not reading your post more carefully.

chessmicky wrote:

I was referring to a review of Tarrash's "The Game of Chess" that he wrote for The Week in Chess

...please!...if you are really starting, DO NOT waste a year readiong books over your head like i did; just focus on tactics, tactics, tactics, and once you are really done with tactics, the you can really try on ...tactics!...

My second best advice: start working with easy tactics over and over, repetiton, De la Maza, woodpecker method, call it what you like, but first work on a set of 500/1000 easy tactics until you kinow them as the face of your mum, before you tackle more complex positiona; of course you can do some hard puzzle from time to time, but what is going to help you in your own otb games to really see that double attack, is to have seen that "easy" pattern many times before, so you develop an intuition to look for it whenver the board offers you the oportunity...

I have most of the books on your list; i would recommend the 300 games by Tarrasch to read some games from time to time to relax from the hard work that tactics implies; you can play those games that are in correspondence with your fav openning; time ago i read the games in tahat book that featured the french and the Spanish openning...

all the best.

Oh...well!..my last advice:  reading chess books DOES NOT make you any better (it hurts me still to remember, ouch!) ; just really working and sweating a bit through them eventually will. the more YOU invest, the more you will benefit.

          Dan Heisman has a little different order with the Silman books. I won't go into how and why, but he explains that at his web site.

http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Events_Books/General_Book_Guide.htm

Yeah I know, the list is very inconsistent.

Maybe I should change the question to: "What alternate list would you recommend for a beginning chess player"

AWESOME!!

I saw that webpage 3 or 4 years ago, but I could never remember where.

Thanks!

Your welcome

emzinator wrote:

Bronco70 wrote:

http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Events_Books/General_Book_Guide.htm

AWESOME!!

I saw that webpage 3 or 4 years ago, but I could never remember where.

Thanks!

Great piece of advice, thanks!