Please tell me what you think of these 3 books I just got at the library

Today I went to our public library. Their chess section was pretty sparse, but I did come home with three books. In all my searching online and on the forum, I have never heard these three talked about in glowing terms, if at all.

They are:  Josh Waitzkin's Attacking Chess, Pandolfini's Chess Complete, and Silman's Reassess your Chess Workbook.

As some of you may know, I am a novice turned serious beginner/early intermediate. I have just acquired (through suggestions on this forums and others) some good chess books. Will I be helping myself by reading any of these three books now?

I'd like your thoughts.

stwils

Josh Waitzkin is the kid that the movie "Searching For Bobby Fischer" was based on. His teacher was Bruce Pandolfini. So your first 2 books are geared for beginners. Silman's Reassess Your Chess Workbook is volume 2 of the Reasses Your Chess Series. How to Reassess Your Chess is the first volume. Silman writing style is ,in my opinion, excellent. He teaches you to think in terms of imbalances which is critical in the middlegame. He has 2 other books that I would Highly recommend.1 The Amateur Mind and 2 The Complete Book of Chess Strategy.

I have all 4 of Silman's books that I have mentioned and I call them my Holy Bibles Of Chess.

I have been playing Over The  Board (OTB) tournaments for 15 years and when I left it due to life, I was a class B player (ELO rating 1600-1799).

I would also recommend 2 other writers with the same writing style, Yasser Sairawan and Andrew Soltis. All of these writers are good to get you to Expert(ELO rating 2000-2199) due to the ease of understanding the material. after expert you will need more analysis style books.

Good Luck and Good studing.         chesstech

chesstech,

Thank you for your response. I just received in the mail Yassar Seirawan's book on Strategy. It looks really good.

I am more of a beginner/intermediate, and I don't think I will ever be an expert. I just want to learn to be a good adequate chess player.

Which of Silman's books should I buy first? You said all of his books were your chess bibles, and his writing style is good for good reading as I believe Seirawan's is. Is it a mistake to read his Workbook before his How to Reassess your Chess? Which of his books would be the most helpful to me, not an expert - not an aspiring one - but still a serious student now of chess?

Josh 's book I have just dipped into since I returned from the library. It is a fun read. But how much real help it will be to me, I don't know.

Thank you for your response and if you have any other thoughts I would appreciate them.

stwils

Seirawan and Silman are the best authors I know. Good choice!

Those books will entertain you for many months.

I own the Silman book, and I have to say - it's clearly really good, but I found it to be quite advanced for me. After failing to get the correct answer on 10 of his problems I was quite exasperated.

I talked to Zenchess about it and he basically explained that the nuances the Silman book deals with are mostly useful for players who already have very strong tactical skills, ie. where I'm at skillwise I should solidify my tactics with something like the tactics trainer on this site (plug!) and only later will I be really able to attempt to solve Silman's problems. I have the same difficulty with the Amateur's Mind... this doesn't mean I don't love to read them every now and again - his theory of creating imbalances and then playing the position in accordance with the suggestions of those imbalances is a really powerful way to look at a chess game.

stwils - promise us you'll tell us which of the three you found most personally useful once you've returned them, eh?

/Oh, and as a personal aside - start some games man! You seem to be immersed in studying and are able to say impressive things like "In all the master games I've seen of the Ruy.. etc" (if my memory serves me correctly from one of your other comments) and yet are also wondering what your rating is, well, put yourself out there. You never know till you try, right?
//In the words of Mozerdozer: PLAY CHESS.

How to Reassess Your Chess will go in depth on his recommended thinking process.he will teach you how to see the different types of imbalances such as the strengths and weakness of Knights and Bishops, weak squares and weak pawns, pawn structure to name a few. He says that once you learn how to see these imbalances in the game you will have a better understanding of what move is best in a given position. At first it may seem a bit confusing due to you just starting out, But I can tell you that with time you will see that he is steering you to evaluate a position instead of analysizing the variations, which is the foundation of TRUE STATIGICAL THINKING.

The How to Reassess Your Chess Workbook is basicly a quiz book to reinforce what he taught inthe first book. He give you a quick review in the beginning ,but it is intended for someone who has read How to Reassess Your Chess.

As for Silman's books, I recommend you start with The Complete Book of Chess Strategy. This book is basicly a quick referance guide to all chess consepts. he give you a basic look at all the standard openings, tactics, statigic mofits, basic endgames and techniques. It is an all in on book, but doesn't go into detail.

Next, is How to Reassess Your Chess. Here he get you to look at how a game is shaped by breaking down a position into themes, not endless calculation.

3rd is The Amateur Mind. This book take a look at how novice and amateurs get so focused on one area or variation that they miss the correct line of play. He starts with a master game and then lets an amateur take over at some point and as he and the amateur play, the amateur discribes his thoughts. This is important to know because it gets you to look at how imaginary threats and responses can steer you in the wrong direction.

Finally, How to Reassess Your Chess Workbook. As  said it is more of a quiz book. it give you game to list the inbalances and asks you to determine the next course action to take. He also gets you to annotate games.

As for Josh's and Bruce's books always remember that as long as you understand the material and enjoy the reading. It will benefit you in some fasion.

One last bit of advice is to study tactics all the time. I have found that the best books on tactic are puzzle books. these are positions where a common  tactic is used to win material, expose the enemy king or even win the game. (Don't get puzzle books where the positions are composed. you will never see those kind of positions in real play)Tactics are used to advance you strategy. Also become familier with all the basic endgames and find 2-4 openings that you feel suit your style of play.

All Silman's books are very good. How to Reassess your Chess is his first I think and it's a great place to start. I'm surprised your seaching didn't turn up Silman's books described in glowing terms... I think I personally have written a few "glowing" reviews of Silman's books.

I've been dropping in on your posts where you are looking for instructional material for a couple weeks now, stwils, and I'm pretty sure that at this point you have more than enough good material to study!

I hope you are putting some serious effort into your study -- skimming ten great books and/or software packages is less valuable than really working/thinking hard thru a single mediocre book -- or even a single well annotated game Master game. 

I also hope you're spending most of your chess time getting practical experience at the chess board playing opponents with a mix of skill levels at slowish time controls (or no time control at all) and above all enjoying the game of chess.  

 You are right. I have spent most of my time "looking" for the perfect book or software instead of focusing on the books/software I already have. So much more fun scanning Amazon's site or getting ideas here.

The hard work is ahead. Tactics - tactics - tactics; focus -focus- focus; study one thing at a time; play online chess here (which by the way I have just started doing.)

Thanks for your thoughts.

stwils

The Silman book is great as are the other two. There is nothing wrong with books written for beginners. I usually read through them because I'll often find some pearl of wisdom that, even though there geared towards beginners, it gets me thinking about better game play.

 Well, since you asked me to tell you which of the three library books I found most useful, I can answer that right now.

Josh's book is fun and helpful, and I like the layout.

The other two books are going back to the library just as soon as I can get there. Pandolfini's Chess Complete is very unappealing to me. I don't like the question format. I know he is a great teacher and I have his Weapons of Chess (which I like) but this book is not for me.

Silman's Workbook is going back, too. I don't have his Reassessing Your Chess, and I think the two books  belong together. Certainly I don't want to struggle with the workbook until I have read the book it is based on. And besides, in all honesty, I am not advanced enough to enjoy it. Maybe someday...

Thanks to all of you for your input.

Oh, and by the way Rael, I AM playing chess now on chess.com and loving it!

stwils

If it's any help, I've just started reading Yasser Sairawan's "Play Winning Chess" (the 1st in the series), and I'm finding it very helpful. I'm one of those players who knew how to move pieces about the board - and that was as far as my tactical knowledge went. This book is geared for me and "my kind". It covers all basic tactics (including Pins, Forks and Traps), and there are numerous quizzes and tests. I'd like to divulge more, but I'm only on the second part (I'm going to re-read each section, just to make sure I've got everything I need from it). As far as I'm aware Sairawan covers his 4 basic principles Force, Time, Space and Pawn Structure. Other than that use the Tactics trainer on this site, it's very helpful!

To hi-jack this thread slightly, has anyone read the series by Aron Nimzowitsch? If so is it any good? Christmas is coming and I'd like some more chess books!!!!