The chess software you want for tactics is CT-ART 3.0...Excellent books for beginners are Capablancas best games. I think it was Botvinnik that said no chess player can hope to become a master without reading Capas book.
Dvoretsky Books
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In the introduction to the book Comprehensive Chess Course by Gm Lev Alburt and his Trainer FM Roman Pelts. "To progress from one level to the next, a student must acquire a certain amount of theoretical knowledge and practical strength. The precise amount of knowledge that he must master is determined by his level. If a student acquires too much knowledge for his particular level, he will not benefit from it and could even be harmed by it."
This is in response to your hunger for too much chess literature. It could be costly (pun intended).
Oh and just play a lot. Slow games so it willpush you to analyze and evaluate many positions. 20-30+ minute games.
I second , third, and fourth the vote on tactics. For a good series by one author try Lev Albert's "Chess Training Pocket Book I and II (as well as the rest of the books in that series). A beginner or intermediate player should concentrate on the endgame and tactics. Jonathan Tisdall's book "Improve Your Chess Now" should be kept as a guide and reread often as it is rather advanced but the best advice on what to study and how to analyse that I have seen so far.
i think the topic name is now very misleading, maybe it should be called Books for Beginners.
CPawn wrote:
The chess software you want for tactics is CT-ART 3.0...Excellent books for beginners are Capablancas best games. I think it was Botvinnik that said no chess player can hope to become a master without reading Capas book.
Do you think this means Botvinnik believed that there were no chess masters before Capablanca ?! 
Apr 11, 2009
0
#27
For the opening, Reuben Fine's Ideas Behind the Chess Openings is a bit outdated, but includes a lot of useful general principles. I don't think there is a perfect modern equivalent, but Edmar Mednis's How to Play Good Opening Moves seems not too bad. Nunn's Chess Openings is a fairly accessible encyclopedia.
For the middlegame, Euwe/Kramer's The Middlegame and Pachman's Complete Chess Strategy in 3 volumes offer the most complete coverage of traditional principles. Tree of analysis books are also key I think: Kotov's Think Like a Grandmaster, Jonathan Tisdall's Improve Your Chess Now, John Nunn's Secrets of Practical Chess and Andrew Soltis' How to choose a chess move. Keres/Kotov's The Art of the Middlegame has useful ideas on castling, attack and defence, as does Euwe's Judgement and Planning in Chess. Bronstein's Zurich 1953 has info on weak colour complexes and such.
For the endgame, like NM Reb, my favourite is Keres' Practical Chess Endings, but Dvoretsky, Muller/Lamprecht or Silman's endgame manuals all cover most of the basics in fairly clear style.
rigamagician wrote:
For the endgame, like NM Reb, my favourite is Keres' Practical Chess Endings, but Dvoretsky, Muller/Lamprecht or Silman's endgame manuals all cover most of the basics in fairly clear style.
i think that Dvoretsk endgame manual covers everything, and marks the basics or must-know's in blue or something like that. i dont know much about muller's endgame book, but he really recomended the dvoretsky manual in his essential endgame chessmedia dvd.
My Chess Career…Expanded Edition (Algebraic) Jose Capablanca
Capablanca's best games Harry Golombek (algebraic edition)
You cover the part of the book where Capablanca makes his move and spend 10-20 minutes trying out all the possible good moves. And then you lift the cover to see if your move or other guesses matches his move. This will increase your understanding of the game immensely.