I just started playing chess for fun about 6 months ago, and am starting to really like the challenge and variance in game play. I generally don't win to often, though i have caught 1400 to 1600 ranked level players off guard for a win or forced them to resign on occasion. This stimulated my interest to seek information on how to play better. I saw a video on you tube by Josh Waitzken the guy who the movie Searching for Bobby Fisher is about, and he says that getting better is dependent upon which school of philosophy you subscribe to. Some schools subscribe to learning the openings real well, and their variants: while other schools say master the end game first. I've picked up a book for openings entitled, World Champion Openings by Eric Schiller, himself a lifetime master and arbiter of FIDE. The book is extremely through; giving summary of the different types of openings with examples from masters tounament play, how to asses what is the best first move, transpositions of the various openings, plus critical analysis of the games used as example. As for the end game, the downloads section of chess.com has a great free download called little chess partner, which allows you to load in to its database various endgame puzzles, as well as complete games, and can be used as a learning tool quite effectively. Hope this helps. Good luck with your goals...
how to select chess books?
You will get many opinions I'm sure, and all of them will be good. Instead of naming particular books, the best advice I can give you overall is to get on amazon.com and look for books on the particular aspect you want to study, say tactics. Then, see what rating it has and maybe even read through some of the customer reviews. I've done that many times and 99% of the time, if it gets good reviews from other chess players then it is good.
Get "Silman's Complete Endgame Course" by himself. It is very thorough and organizes the material by rating, which makes it easier to understand. Also, Get "Chess Tactics For Champions" by Susan Polgar, and "Winning Chess Strategies" by Yasser Seirawan. The former includes over a thousand tactical exercises, while the latter has many good strategies condensed into a book a thirteen year old could understand! (I am a witness.) Those three cover all that a beginner really needs to know; re. the opening, it is better for a beginner to get a single book based entirely on the opening he or she plays, instead of thousands of openings described only briefly, (You will only use one, so why the extra bulk?)
I just started playing chess for fun about 6 months ago, and am starting to really like the challenge and variance in game play. I generally don't win to often, though i have caught 1400 to 1600 ranked level players off guard for a win or forced them to resign on occasion. This stimulated my interest to seek information on how to play better. I saw a video on you tube by Josh Waitzken the guy who the movie Searching for Bobby Fisher is about, and he says that getting better is dependent upon which school of philosophy you subscribe to. Some schools subscribe to learning the openings real well, and their variants: while other schools say master the end game first. I've picked up a book for openings entitled, World Champion Openings by Eric Schiller, himself a lifetime master and arbiter of FIDE. The book is extremely through; giving summary of the different types of openings with examples from masters tounament play, how to asses what is the best first move, transpositions of the various openings, plus critical analysis of the games used as example. As for the end game, the downloads section of chess.com has a great free download called little chess partner, which allows you to load in to its database various endgame puzzles, as well as complete games, and can be used as a learning tool quite effectively. Hope this helps. Good luck with your goals...
Thedankster, I don't think you have a thorough knowledge of chess books sufficient to answer the question of ankitthemaster. You could hurt his development by steering him towards Schiller. The response by Sambirder was much better.
Hey ankitthemaster,
I think that if you, like myself and many here I'm sure, didn't have formal lessons or a local club to learn the game the right way, then you'll probably have a real imbalance in where your strengths and weaknesses are. You might want to start in a rather fundamental place even if you feel that you are more advanced in some or many areas of the game.
The big headings are: openings, middlegame, and endings. Tied into all of these are tactics and strategy-- neither of which are single headed monsters either. The good thing about chess.com is you can do a lot of training here. Play a bunch of games here and take a look at them. Figure out where you have trouble-- no reason for us to talk about where you're excelling-- and work there, but don't obsess there and ignore the other parts of the game.
There are a lot of threads here that have long lists of books grouped according to novice, intermediate and advanced. I dont' think we'd all agree which books belong in which catagory but they will give you a sense of what books might appeal to you.
There is no harm in going over books that are "beneath" you. Even books that start off teaching just how to move the pieces sometimes get into the full range of skills needed to play well-- such as Tarrasch's The Game of Chess, or Lasker's Manual of Chess. I read somewhere that former World Champ Tal (a major hero of mine) prepared for tournaments by reading a very basic introductory book on chess.
Ditto on the comment about luring a bright eyed novice to the works of Schiller. The experience is like fine dining at McDonalds.
There are a lot of great book recommendations for beginners on Dan Heisman's website (danheisman.com) ... look those up!
Silman's Complete Endgame Course----for endgame
Chess Tactics For Champions" by Susan Polgar----for tactics
Winning Chess Strategies" by Yasser Seirawan----for strategy
which books are good for opening and middlegame?
thanks for all your replies..i really appreciate it ..thanks again
Hey ankitthemaster,
I think that if you, like myself and many here I'm sure, didn't have formal lessons or a local club to learn the game the right way, then you'll probably have a real imbalance in where your strengths and weaknesses are. You might want to start in a rather fundamental place even if you feel that you are more advanced in some or many areas of the game.
The big headings are: openings, middlegame, and endings. Tied into all of these are tactics and strategy-- neither of which are single headed monsters either. The good thing about chess.com is you can do a lot of training here. Play a bunch of games here and take a look at them. Figure out where you have trouble-- no reason for us to talk about where you're excelling-- and work there, but don't obsess there and ignore the other parts of the game.
There are a lot of threads here that have long lists of books grouped according to novice, intermediate and advanced. I dont' think we'd all agree which books belong in which catagory but they will give you a sense of what books might appeal to you.
There is no harm in going over books that are "beneath" you. Even books that start off teaching just how to move the pieces sometimes get into the full range of skills needed to play well-- such as Tarrasch's The Game of Chess, or Lasker's Manual of Chess. I read somewhere that former World Champ Tal (a major hero of mine) prepared for tournaments by reading a very basic introductory book on chess.
ya i agree ...it is difficult for me to analyse my strength and weakness ...but what i have seen from recent games played is that I start well and control start of middlegame...but as game progress ...i start to lose winning positions ..so i thnk i am lacking middlegame skills
my another big weakness is playing with clock..i just cant play with it ..so i have drop plan to play with clock...i thnk i need first perfect my skills before playing with clock
Well, the Polgar book and the Seirawan book will improve your middle game, and the end game book will help too in that when you see that you've got the potential for a good ending in a game your playing, you'll push it that way.
But specifically middle game books, I have to say I benefitted a lot from Znosko-Borovsky's The Middle Game in Chess. Maybe not the standard "classic" in that area, but I love that book. I read it 20 years ago, and will be diving back into it shortly.
My System isn't a middle game book per se, but it got me always looking for open files and to invade the 7th rank, so it does tune you into that kind of game plan. Nimzowitch's pamphlet "Blockade" is all about dealing with a passed pawn and while it is a very specialized book, I learned a lot from it.
Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis is a great book that is not just about specific openings but the pawn structures so you get a different take on openings, a more generalized one than either the giant all in one openings books or the "Win EVERY GAME You Play With The Budapest Gambit/Latvian Gambit" hyped up nonsense.
I just picked up the New In Chess opening reference thing called Essential Chess Openings, which is 3 volumes with a 4th coming out soon. It is aimed (like all those kinds of books are) at giving a basic understanding of the full range of openings you'll ever see or consider playing. While there are many books like that-- the publisher Gambit has there 3 volume set, and others do too-- and single volume ones like MCO or NCO, I really like the New In Chess books because the material is presented in a great way visually. I don't know if that kind of thing is neccessary-- I like openings, so I picked it up.
I like to browse through books, and see if I like the way the author writes.
Some authors are suited to some players, and not to others.
For myself, I have to enjoy the the book, else I get bored. I have to understand the book, else I get discouraged.
For me personally, Ludek Pachman is an excellent author, but maybe not for for others.
there are hundreds of chess book and i am really finding difficulty to select books..
i am not begginer but i never trained myself through books...i just played chess as hobby and its nearly 3yrs i have played chess last time..but i want to return in action and this time want to get train in professional manner
so which book you thnk every chess player must have?
Hi, I've been playing chess for maybe 35 years....My first rated tournament was in the 5th grade, I got an 1100 rating. The highest my
USCF rating ever got to was 2015, but I'm not that good anymore. I can tell you that I have lots of chess books, maybe about 75 of them. Some I have studied and some are for more casual "bathroom reading". I'm going to list a few of my favorites with some short comments:
Chess to Enjoy (andy soltis) very fun, casual read...
My 60 Memorable games (by the nut Bobby fischer). This is probably the book I've studied the most. Incredible games.
Chess from Morphy to Botvinnik...and excellent treatise on the developments on all of the most important theortical openings from about 1850-1960
Why Lasker Matters...Soltis again. An examination of the man who held the world championship for longer, by FAR than any other person. Examines what made him so good for so long. Simple stuff, easy to incorporate in to your play right away.
Reassess your Chess, by Siliman. He posts articles here sometimes. An excellent look at learning the process of finding good moves and plans based on his conception of "imbalances".
My System, by Aaron Nimzovitch. this is a tough read, but in it you'll find everything, and I mean everything you'll ever need to know about how to play positional chess.
MCO (modern chess openings) Korn, et. al. I'm not sure what edition they're up to now. I have old one from the 70's, but it's a wonderful encyclopedia of 1000's of openings and variations that can be very useful if you're trying to find some "pet" opening lines or systems to spring on your opposition.
Anyway, there's a short list of some of the books that I find myself returning to for one reason or another. A bit of advice: I find that oftentimes I'm looking at chess books when I'm not around a chess board or computer. For this reason I tend to favor books with lots of diagrams. Also, for the most part avoid anything by the ubiquitous fred reinfeld. Some of his stuff is okay, but a lot of it utter garbage. Also whatever you do, don't buy or read a book called: "how to think ahead in chess". It is without a doubt the most worthless chess book I've ever read. I think I'm going to start a new thread about it!
I hope this helps.
Check out my new thread about the worst chess books:
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/the-worst-chess-book-ive-ever-read-and-why
My System, by Aaron Nimzovitch. this is a tough read, but in it you'll find everything, and I mean everything you'll ever need to know about how to play positional chess.
Not sure about that. According to most strong players there's been a lot of new developments since Nimzo's time. Even a book written with the words "developments since Nimzowitsch" in the title...
there are hundreds of chess book and i am really finding difficulty to select books..
i am not begginer but i never trained myself through books...i just played chess as hobby and its nearly 3yrs i have played chess last time..but i want to return in action and this time want to get train in professional manner
so which book you thnk every chess player must have?