There is no order. There is only read.
in what order should I read these books?
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Then I should be very close to being a master!
Pawn play is a more fundamental element of "strategy" and needs to be read first in order to better understand strategy. Strategy requires facility with piece (e.g., tactics and endgames) and pawn play, therefore it comes next. Tactics are what you do when there is something to do. Strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do. Openings are what to do when there is even no strategy to do. Read Pawn Play then Power of Pawns next.
Danny, your post neglects a few things:
1. People learn things better generally first, then they go specific, so with respect to "strategy", a basic survey is more important than the intricacies of one particular chessmen.
2. It may be optimal to START studying certain subjects before others (e.g., tactics, endgames, strategy, openings, etc), but you can just master one subject before going to another. Some strategic principles are easier to learn than solving a capture tactic in 8. Some of your books are more difficult than others, even though in a vague sense, the topic of one might sort of logically precede the other.
3. You won't be able to practice any strategic or pawn play skills if you don't get past the opening.
Therefore, Emms and then Stean should be your next priorities.
1. People learn things better generally first, then they go specific, so with respect to "strategy", a basic survey is more important than the intricacies of one particular chessmen.
2. It may be optimal to START studying certain subjects before others (e.g., tactics, endgames, strategy, openings, etc), but you can just master one subject before going to another. Some strategic principles are easier to learn than solving a capture tactic in 8. Some of your books are more difficult than others, even though in a vague sense, the topic of one might sort of logically precede the other.
3. You won't be able to practice any strategic or pawn play skills if you don't get past the opening.
Therefore, Emms and then Stean should be your next priorities.
dannyhume wrote:
Looking for a good chess book to read slowly as I keep devoting the bulk of my limited study time to tactics and simple endgames. These books seem to come highly recommended, but not sure which would more logically precede the others or would simply be more useful and practical to me at this time, even as I scour amazon reviews and the forums...
-Pawn Power by Kmoch
-The Power of Pawns by Hickl
-Discovering the Chess Openings by Emms
-How to Reassess Your Chess, 4th edition, by Silman
-Modern Chess Strategy I-III by Pachman
-Simple Chess by Stean
I have read several of the typically recommended famous books by Chernev, McDonald, Heisman, Alburt, Seirawan, Pandolfini, and Silman (except his 4th edition How to Reassess Your Chess) and would rather read something new before re-reading any of those books. Thanks!
-Pawn Power by Kmoch
-The Power of Pawns by Hickl
-Discovering the Chess Openings by Emms
-How to Reassess Your Chess, 4th edition, by Silman
-Modern Chess Strategy I-III by Pachman
-Simple Chess by Stean
I have read several of the typically recommended famous books by Chernev, McDonald, Heisman, Alburt, Seirawan, Pandolfini, and Silman (except his 4th edition How to Reassess Your Chess) and would rather read something new before re-reading any of those books. Thanks!
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The goal of reading, studying and practicing chess is to build visualization patterns into your brain.
The best method is to build all the 4 different visualization patterns a little at a time everyday:
1. Tactics visualization pattern memory bank (1hr. per day)
2. Openings visualization pattern memory bank (1hr. per day)
3. Middle game visualization pattern memory bank (1hr per day)
4. Endgame visualization pattern memory bank (1hr per day)
The confidence of understanding the correct perspective of a chess position and the understanding of why you are making the move you are making will go a long way to curing your jitters.
#6 1 hr ago
There is a lot of new information in this post. Read it slowly and carefully. Anytime you don't understand or have questions. Just stop and either message me or send me a note.
Purpose of development - why beginners shouldn't study openings
Purpose of development - you will learn that the purpose is to gain advantages in time, space and material by using the strategies of restraining, blockading, and executing the enemy to gain control of the center (the squares d4,d5,e4,e5). Piece moves are direct development. Pawn moves are aids to development, therefore they are indirect development moves.
beginners shouldn't study openings
Almost all strong players would disagree. The reasons they disagree are contained in 2 books that will change your perspective of how to play chess. The 2 books are: "My System" , by Aaron Nimzowitsch. and "Pawn Power In Chess", by Hans Kmoch.
I have learned the basic fundamentals, like develop your pieces, protect them, castle early, don't move pieces twice in a row etc.
Those are NOT the basic fundamentals.
In order to learn the basic fundamentals you must change your perspective of the game of chess in 3 ways. First chess is Siege Warfare in game form. There are 3 basic strategies in Siege Warfare. They are: Restrain, Blockade, and Execute the enemy.
The second change in perspective has to do with pawns. The principle that you must learn is: Winning chess is the strategically/tactically correct advance of the pawn mass.
The 3rd change in perspective has to do with control of the center. There are 2 theories in chess regarding control of the center:
Classical center control theory - control the center by occupying the center (d4,d5,e4,e5 squares) with pawns and pieces.
Hypermodern center control theory - control the center with the power of your pawns and pieces. This avoids your pawns and pieces becoming targets of the enemy pieces because they are not physically occupying the center (d4,d5,e4,e5).
Once you learn what the basic techniques of restrain, blockade and execute the enemy are, and combine them in your brain with control the center, develop your pieces, etc. you will understand opening books. You will understand how using the strategies of restrain, blockade, and execute the enemy together with control the center, develop your pieces, etc. combine to increase or decrease advantages/disadvantages in time, space and material.
The change in perspective in your brain causes you to shift your focus back and forth from concentrating on the squares the pawns and pieces control to concentrating on the pawns and pieces themselves as you analyze the position. It is difficult at first to do this. But as you practice it drastically improves your analysis of the position in front of you.
The second change in perspective causes you to concentrate on pawn structure. Concentrating on pawn structure will reveal 2 things to you. The first is the 3rd change in perspective which is what center control theory is being applied in the opening that has developed on the board. You will learn that there is a difference in what moves are made if you are fighting for control of the center with the hypermodern method with what is called a small but secure center. Or you are fighting for control of the center with the classical method of occupying the center with your pawns and pieces. Pawn structure is the terrain of the chess battlefield. The second revelation is the pawn structure itself which forms the hills, valleys and mountains of where the war is fought. Your plan of attack move by move has to conform to the pawn structure, Otherwise your battle plan might call for going thru a mountain given the pawn structure of the position on the board. The bird's eye view of the pawn structure of the position on the board makes finding candidate moves much easier. Especially if you know that one the important characteristics that you are looking for in the pawn structure is where the pawn breaks are or will be in the very near future. Pawn breaks are those places in the pawn structure where the opposing pawns are in contact with each other in a formation that permits captures of other pawns or pieces. Also, the execution of a pawn break is almost always the move that signals the first move of the beginning of the middle game.
I struggle at the next moves - the middle game - lack of plan I guess. What can I do in order to get the initiative in the middle game?
Studying opening books teaches you the move that begins the middlegame in that opening. Knowing the exact move when the middlegame begins is a big advantage in itself. Studying the opening books also teaches you what typical middlegame plan(s) of attack result from the opening you are studying. Being familiar with the typical middlegame pawn structures and where the pawn breaks are in the opening you are playing in a game is a great advantage over your opponent. All of this information confirms what you wrote in your post:
I believe, that learning an opening (10-15 moves) could give you an advantage in the middle game, especially at my level, and help me have an actual plan. Am I wrong? What should I do?
What should I do?
Select an opening repertoire that consists of 2 openings as White and 2 openings as Black(one opening against White's 1.e4 and one opening against White's 1.d4). Your overarching goal will be to build a visualization pattern memory bank into your brain of those openings, middlegames and endgames and the typical tactics that are themes or motifs in those 3 stages of the game. As you are studying the openings, the middlegame, the endgame, and tactics your goal in your training is to keep adding visualization patterns to the memory bank in your brain.
I also find it difficult to apply the tactics puzzles I have sold, as there are barely any tactics that can be done, with a bad positioning.
Your chess training system should consist of adding visualization patterns to your memory bank everyday of the following sections:
1. Tactics visualization pattern memory bank
2. Openings visualization pattern memory bank
3. Midddlegame visualization pattern memory bank
4. Endgame visualization pattern memory bank
Pachman, the three-volume version, is what you want, with Silman as maybe a strong primer. Pachman covers it all and leaves very little unturned. I would guess that you are tired and frustrated of topical, fragmented, and pithy treatments of certain chess topics. You won't go wrong with Pachman, which is very comprehensive, but it will be a rough ride for someone at your rating.
Great stuff, fieldsofforce, thanks!! -the original dannyhume
Well,put them in alphabetical order.
Apr 9, 2017
0
#11
By FAR!!This is the best post I've seen since joining this site 5 months ago..... Fieldsofforce....Much thanks!!!!!
magictwanger wrote:
By FAR!!This is the best post I've seen since joining this site 5 months ago..... Fieldsofforce....Much thanks!!!!!
___________________________
You are welcome. Here is a bonus for you to use when you are playing games.
Think of this list as an analysis tool. Analyzing is taking a big complicated problem, like finding the right move(s) in a chess position, and breaking the big problem into smaller simpler problems. Think of the things on this list as those smaller simpler problems that have to be solved in order to solve the big problem of finding the right move(s) in a chess position,
Think of this List as a set of pegs in the calculation tree. The pegs in the list will be great climbing aids in climbing much higher in the calculation tree than you ever could before. This list is your calculation big tree tool.
Here is the list I have kept since I started playing chess:
Things to do before I make a move
1. Am I sitting on my hands now that I am seated at the chess board table?
2. Is my written list in my possession?
3. What is my opponent threatening to do and what is my best move to stop his threat and Kill as much of his counterplay as possible ( you will have to learn what killing counterplay is, and how to execute it on the chess board.)
4. What is the pawn structure on the board and what are the pawn break points?
a. Remember pawn moves are permanent because they cannot move backwards.
b. Are there any pawn majorities on either side of the board?
c. Are there any open or half-open files on the board? Who is in control of that file?
d. Are there any pawn weaknesses on the board? You will have to learn about (doubled pawns,
isolated pawns, backward pawns, etc.) and how to exploit those weakenesses
e. Is the center blocked. Flank attacks succeed more often when the center is blocked
5. Are there any of mine or enemy undefended Pieces and/or Pawns?
a. Beware of pieces and or pawns that are defended indirectly. ( beware of tactics here!)
b. Beware of pieces and or pawns that are defended backwards. (yes enemy pieces can defend their own backwards because pieces can move forwards or backwards. Pawns can only move forward or diagonally forward when capturing.
6. Are there any weak square complexes in the position? Learn what these are and how to exploit.
7. Have I checked all of these items above 2x before I make a move,
I'm giving a trophy to fieldsofforce for post 6 + 12. And 2Q says he can't talk chess in the forums anymore. 
Apr 9, 2017
0
#15
Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess, 4th Ed, is more of a strategy than tactics book and I'm going to do it and the Workbook after I finish some tactics books and videos I'm studying. If I was weak on openings, I'd also study them - like your Emms book - first.
But I gave the 1st Ed. of How To Reassess Your Chess to each of my tournament players in the high school chess club I coached and it was good for 100 or more points for USCF OTB Regular Ratings of 900-1300;
I don't think the 4th Ed. can hurt - outside of the 658 pages plus 432 for the Workbook compared to around 200 for the 1st Edition!
Dan Heisman recommends a certain order for reading the Silman material.
Assimilating patterns? Silman says to quickly play through tens of thousands of 2300+ level games in order to achieve this. Maybe I have been misguided all along and asking the wrong question(s). If I blast through 40 games per day, 5 days per week, then that will be 10,000 games in one year. Maybe after that, it will be time to re-ask the question of the beginning of this post.
I suggest your read first Simple Chess by Stean.
Thank you. I was very lucky when I was starting out in chess. GM Ron Henley and NM Gary Sanders taught me everything I know.
I am very happy to pay it forward here on chess.com
Now why Nimzowitsch over Pachman? While I hear about My System quite often in hear forums, I have found a greater number of higher-level players I have spoken to think more highly of Pachman's three volumes, because it is more clearly written, modern, and comprehensive.
Secondly, how does one gain these patterns? De La Maza did his 7 circles for tactics, but why repeat tactics? Should you study them slowly in depth or very quickly? If quickly, is that 5-10 minutes per problem, or 20-30 seconds per problem?
Silman recommends zipping through dozens of thousands of master level games.
How does one read a book to gain patterns? Read the text and play through variations just once without lingering? Then you get to read more books and see more patterns, but rather superficially. Should you study any line in a book you don't understand in depth until you see why other moves are bad? Then it will take a year or more to get through a book.
Should one just read 20 books on a topic? I can find 20 books that go over general opening principles and survey openings at a basic level... would that be a good way to assimilate "the opening", opening "principles", and opening "patterns" before studying a specific opening? I can find maybe 7-8 books on pawn play and pawn structures... same logic? Of course, the same can be applied to books on the endgame, on the attack, and on strategy, etc.
Secondly, how does one gain these patterns? De La Maza did his 7 circles for tactics, but why repeat tactics? Should you study them slowly in depth or very quickly? If quickly, is that 5-10 minutes per problem, or 20-30 seconds per problem?
Silman recommends zipping through dozens of thousands of master level games.
How does one read a book to gain patterns? Read the text and play through variations just once without lingering? Then you get to read more books and see more patterns, but rather superficially. Should you study any line in a book you don't understand in depth until you see why other moves are bad? Then it will take a year or more to get through a book.
Should one just read 20 books on a topic? I can find 20 books that go over general opening principles and survey openings at a basic level... would that be a good way to assimilate "the opening", opening "principles", and opening "patterns" before studying a specific opening? I can find maybe 7-8 books on pawn play and pawn structures... same logic? Of course, the same can be applied to books on the endgame, on the attack, and on strategy, etc.
-Pawn Power by Kmoch
-The Power of Pawns by Hickl
-Discovering the Chess Openings by Emms
-How to Reassess Your Chess, 4th edition, by Silman
-Modern Chess Strategy I-III by Pachman
-Simple Chess by Stean
I have read several of the typically recommended famous books by Chernev, McDonald, Heisman, Alburt, Seirawan, Pandolfini, and Silman (except his 4th edition How to Reassess Your Chess) and would rather read something new before re-reading any of those books. Thanks!