Good chess books for beginners and beyond

Ben - The Power of Pawns by Hickl...any idea where one can download that pgn they mention in the book? The link redirects to some German language site where I cannot find it.

I would like to add these books on the list.

Chess Secrets Giants of Strategy by Mcdonald

101 Endgame Tips by Giddins

How To Win At Chess by Daniel King

World's Champion Guide To Chess by Polgar

Chess Tactics for Champion by Polgar

You might try contacting the publisher with your concerns at

editors@newinchess.com

https://www.newinchess.com/The_Power_of_Pawns-p-9034.html

More on the list

Lessons With a Grandmaster by Gulko

How I beat Fischer's Record by Polgar

Just listing a bunch of books means nothing unless you explain why they belong on the list.  Take a lesson from RussBell and be thorough in explaining how they are helpful or, at the very least, why you like them.  

Cornfed -

I contacted New In Chess (publisher) and received a response from the book's author, Jorg Hickl.  He indicated how to find and download the files for his book "The Power of Pawns".  Actually it turns out to be pretty simple. 

Open the following link, and go to the very bottom of the webpage that opens.  (It is in German as you had noted.)  There you will clearly see the words (bolded) ZIP, PGN, and PDF.  Each of these is clickable to download the respective file.  In the same location there is also a clickable link for Chessbase compressed .cbv file which can be opened with the free Chessbase Reader 2013 app which can be downloaded from the Chessbase website (link below).

http://www.schachreisen.eu/schachtraining/schachreisen-verlag/die-macht-der-bauern

http://en.chessbase.com/pages/support

 Ben - Thanks! Opened up perfect in my Chessbase program.

 I've been rated between 2000 - 2170 for the past 20 yrs and remembered Hickl from his passive white opening play I always kind of liked and picked up the book. I really like it...explains some things really well and in ways I had not thought of before.

I took the book on a long bike ride to a nearby park over the weekend and without a board went over a good 20+ pages. I actually opened it to the Rauzer games starting about page 134 as I had just watched Yermo's ICC video for the week which features his adventures in the Rauzer. They went together pretty well.

Again, thanks!

Cornfed - 

You're welcome.  Glad to be of help.  Impressive that you are able to read the book without a board.

P.S. - Not sure how you came up with "Ben".

Russell

Sorry, I'm not sure how I came up with 'Ben' either!

Well, I don't follow whole games all the way thru, but with well placed diagrams, its easy enough to play thru many moves in my head...after a while things do get fuzzy.

Much obliged, this resembles an extraordinary rundown! I'm truly new to chess strategies, so I've saved this page for future reference as I attempt to show signs of improvement. My exclusive reference so far has been chess lessons for kids which I saw isn't on this rundown. It's useful for all children.

Thank you.  You might want to check out Jeff Coakley's "Winning Chess Strategy for Kids" which is in my list.  Its' great.  Also "Tips for Young Players" by Matthew Sadler is also instructive for the beginner - it deals with general plans, strategies - i.e. good chess thinking.  Neither book is just for kids, but are targeted to the average beginner-novice.  

On a similar note, I just acquired a new book which I think may be useful for beginners, for the opening.  "My First Chess Opening Repertoire for White" by Vincent Moret.  It presents a complete repertoire for White in the sense that it covers all of Black's major responses (e.g., Sicilian Def., French Def., Caro Kann Def., etc.) to White's openings, but as the book is targeted to the beginner-novice who is looking for suggestions as to what to play in the opening, the treatment is not comprehensive in the sense of not overwhelming the new player with lots of lines and theory to learn.  It's more about the ideas and general plans behind the suggested lines of play.  I find the book interesting, and after I've had a chance to look at it more thoroughly, I may add it to my list.  The author also plans to publish a similar opening repertoire book for Black in the not too distant future.

P.S.  I just checked out Lauren Goodkind's website that you posted.  It looks good.  I wish her lots of success.  The world could use more of her kind who seek to make a positive difference in the lives of others.  

http://www.laurengoodkindchess.com/

http://www.alexcolovic.com/2016/06/good-books-part-i.html

http://www.alexcolovic.com/2016/06/good-books-part-ii.html

http://www.alexcolovic.com/2016/06/good-books-part-iii.html

chinmaykarnik wrote (~3 hours ago):

"Hi.I am an amateur player.My chess.com standard rating is 1630.I want to improve in chess.I want to buy a book  for it.I have heard mixed opinions about jeremy silman's books.Plz tell me which book should I buy for max progress.I thank all of you in advance"

Perhaps it would be helpful to look at comments here.

At your level, about any book will help. I started (over 30 yrs and 2000 rating points ago) on Horowitz and Reinfelds 'How to Improve Your Chess' and then Reinfields 'The Complete Chess Player' ....before going thru Complete Chess Strategy vols 1 and 2 by Pachman. I still have each. All can be had cheap in second hand bookstores.

The truth is, you just need to know basics and then APPLY them in real games. That's the truth about most things in life - a little knowledge and a lot of elbow grease will go a long way. Don't obsess (some do...not saying you) on finding 'the right' book.

That little bit of advice may save you hundreds of dollars in books over the years. It's yours for free.

can any one tell me where I can download the life and games of mikhail tal.....???

Pay Everyman books for it, like everyone else. It's well worth it.

You CAN get a PGN...but no notes or variations, if you want to play thru the main game on a computer.

Thanks for the book tips, hopefully I can find some of them at my local library to check them out. 

That's a good book, but hardly one I'd recommend for beginners.

     I don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but "Judgement and Planning in Chess" by Dr. Max Euwe (a former world champion) was an excellent book-however the last I saw it was in descriptive notation.  Still an excellent book.