I should add that I watch a lot of Matojelic, Kingscrusher, TheChessWebsite, and St. Louis Chess Club on youtube. I absolutely love GM Seirawan. Also, I read the Silman Endgame Course up to and including the Class C section, which is when it started to get difficult for me.
How should I progress through these books?
Sort:
Read in order
Silman - Complete Book of Chess Strategy
Silman - Amateur's Mind
Silman - Complete Endgame Course
Silman - Reassess your Chess (and workbook)
Nimzovich - My System
Bobby Fisher - My 60 Memorable Games
Schandorff - Playing the Queen's Gambit
Give enough time to each book. Yeah you should also play games. You should also have a tactic book. I suggest you get Chess Tactics for Champion by Polgar.
I would also appreciate better book recommendations. I will check out the Polgar book, thanks for the suggestion.
I mostly agree with jambyvedar's order. I would move the Endgame Course to the beginning. Not the whole book but at least to level 1600, or even better, to the 1800 section. I also think you could go through Fisher's book at any time and still learn from it. Overall, jamby's order is good.
Oh, other book recommendations. I like Chernev's "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played"
I'm not widely read in chess literature although I have all the books you listed except the Schandorff and Silman's "Reassess Your Chess" I have Silman's Workbook.
I also like Seirawan's "Winning Chess Strategies" but it is very similar to Silman's Strategy book. Seirawan's other Winning Chess books are probably also good but I haven't read them.
Jan 22, 2016
0
#7
Your books are great, but in order to digest the book knowledge, don't forget to play, preferably long OTB games 
I'm also looking for a good portable tactics book for when I am camping, something similar to the pocket training book. any suggestions?
Jan 22, 2016
0
#9
tmhernandez77 wrote:
I'm also looking for a good portable tactics book for when I am camping, something similar to the pocket training book. any suggestions?
This is a nice "little" tactic book.
Jan 22, 2016
0
#10
Silman - Reassess your Chess (and workbook) + Silman - Complete Book of Chess Strategy + Silman - Complete Endgame Course (in parallel)
Fisher - My 60 Memorable Games
Nimzovich - My System
Fisher - My 60 Memorable Games + Nimzovich - My System (Yes, the second time. It's not a mistake ;)
I hate to say it, but my guess is that, if a person has just read Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, much of the list is not optimal reading at this time. To a certain extent, one has to find one's own way. I think it is a good idea to not buy very much in a short amount of time. After some experience with a few books, one might have a better idea about what would be a suitable next choice. For many, my instinct is to suggest starting with some of the easier books like:
Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/
Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1949)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf
Discovering Chess Openings by GM Johm Emms (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/
A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf
It could easily be that none of those books are best for you. You might have your own idea about that after trying one or two of them.
Of the books that you listed, my best guess is that the Silman Amateur and Strategy books would be the best place to start. Also read whatever part of the Endgame book is identified by Silman as appropriate for your level of over-the-board tournament accomplishment.
Gomer_Pyle wrote:
I mostly agree with jambyvedar's order. I would move the Endgame Course to the beginning. Not the whole book but at least to level 1600, or even better, to the 1800 section. I also think you could go through Fisher's book at any time and still learn from it. Overall, jamby's order is good.
I would suggest going along with Silman himself and not reading 1600 material until one is around 1600. Same for the 1800 material and so on.
jambyvedar wrote:
Read in order
Silman - Complete Book of Chess Strategy
Silman - Amateur's Mind
Silman - Complete Endgame Course
Silman - Reassess your Chess (and workbook)
Nimzovich - My System
Bobby Fisher - My 60 Memorable Games
Schandorff - Playing the Queen's Gambit
Give enough time to each book. Yeah you should also play games. You should also have a tactic book. I suggest you get Chess Tactics for Champion by Polgar.
I would generally agree that this is a reasonable reading order....
You might like perusing this list of good chess books for some ideas...
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
I learned chess when I was a kid, about 6 or 7 years old. Now I am 27 and I havent played chess in 20 years so I wanted to give it another shot. I acquired several texts, and I was wondering in what order I should read them. I have already read through Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess and found it quite easy. I am currently working through Lev Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book, and I get about 1/3 right on my first attempt. I also have:
Silman - Amateur's Mind
Silman - Reassess your Chess (and workbook)
Silman - Complete Endgame Course
Silman - Complete Book of Chess Strategy
Nimzovich - My System
Bobby Fisher - My 60 Memorable Games
Schandorff - Playing the Queen's Gambit
My plan was to read through Amatuer's Mind and My System. Then play a bunch of games before I read some of the more advanced texts. I also do about an hour of tactics a day. I only recently started learning chess again about 2 months ago, and want to start off on the right foot. Thanks for the feedback!