The worst chess book I've ever read, and why...

I don't think we're talking about enough material to make a book, or close to a book. More like a pamphlet. As a guess, I dunno, maybe 40 pages of material or less depending on how it's typeset.

I have a Fred Reinfeld book called 'How To Be A Winner At Chess' and what I have read of it so far is pretty great for beginners (which I am).

Well the intro is written by Evans, but as far as I remember it thanks Evans in first person narrative (Fischer is supposedly the person).

Aside from the actual chess related notes you're probably right. Some of it seems to be genuine Fischer though.

"After this move I felt the win was in the bag if I didn't blow it. I had played dozens of skittles games from this position. Pry open the h file, sac sac mate"

Probably not verbatim, but pretty close.

Judging by William Winter's well-documented vendetta against Raymond Keene, almost anything by Raynond Keene must enter the nominations for lousy books.

It's Edward Winter and Raymond Keene isn't the only one.

Well to make more positive contribution, here is a link to Edward Winter's article on Bobby Fischer's "Boy's Life" column:

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fischer2.html

I picked up a book by I.A. Horowitz called How to win at chess, Great read!!

You guys don't understand how to read ANY chess book! I must state that ALL chess Opening books are OBSOLETE by the time they go to print!!!

I must also share a personal story with you that may help you in life:

When I hired into GM many years ago on an apprenticeship I had to work under a journeyman in the particular trade that I was in. It soon became evident to me that not only was I 'smarter' than my tutor, but I could see many flaws in the way he would do a job.

I was pretty young back in thoses days and so I went to the GF over skilled trades and asked to be transferred to a different journeyman. Here is what he told me:

"Working and learning from your tutor is much like reading a book. Journeymen often get students who are 'brighter' than themselves and often see 'flaws' in the way they are planning a job. What you need to do with EVERY tutor (in our case we are referring to books) is to 'learn what you don't know and disregard that which you think is wrong.' "

Ya know what? Once I developed that attitude I applied it to EVERYTHING!  College professors, GM analysis, doctors and espescially books!

During your life YOU MUST DECIDE ON YOUR OWN WHAT IS CORRECT & WHAT IS WRONG. Same principle as when you play a game of chess.

In other words, even a bad book (or a bad tutor) has some information to give you that you do not have.

Cheers,

Don

I'm here because I  found a little mistake in the Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess in the frame 152. But reading all these comments I think ,even this possible error, it is a good book. May be there is nothing new if I had had all these knowlegde. Don't forget the ages. Now were are very lucky  for living in the knowlegde age. We have a lot of informations in front of us . Believe or not, we are smarter than all the greatest genious before. 

That book helped me quite a bit. What is the error?

Genious?  I think you mean geniuses, or genii, if you want to get all Latin about it. 

Well, you could never take anything that Bobby said at face value. Much of the time, what he said was wrapped in delusional thinking.

Has DavidBowieLasker posted anything in this thread since 2015?

I don't know. I didn't think I was responding to an old post, but there's no account by that name anymore. The YouTube video was posted on Nov 20, 2016.

yes, this is truly the worst chess book ever written. 

Always deploy so that the right oblique may be readily established in case the objective plane remains open or becomes permanently located on the centre or on the king's wing,or that the crochet aligned may readily be established if the objective plane becomes permanently located otherwise than at the extremity of the strategic front. 

this is a quote from that piece of rubbish. 

That's good advice

Has Arrakis09 been here since 2014?

Its funny...an outstanding chess player mentioned an experience that he was getting beat many times and often ridiculed by his chess superior players. After he read the book named by the OP, how to think ahead in chess, he came in second in a tournament against the same guys1

TuckerTommy wrote: "... After he read the book named by the OP, how to think ahead in chess, he came in second in a tournament against the same guys1"

I had a similar experience myself, but I think that the warnings about the book are appropriate. The book served to help me to have a somewhat successful start with tournament involvement, but it was not long before opponents knew what I would be up to and came prepared. In the days when the book was first published (1951), I think that opening books were predominantly of the present-a-little-bit-of-everything type. As far as I know, HTTAIC was a pioneering effort in the idea of providing the beginner with a repertoire. It certainly wasn't the first book to explain openings with illustrative games, but I think that it used that approach at a time when it was still uncommon. Of course, in addition to being in descriptive (1 P-Q4 P-Q4) notation, the book is, today, seriously out-of-date as a repertoire, but I think that the book still has merit for beginners as a presentation of annotated games and an introduction to planning. The degree of communicated opening understanding is not great, but I think that it may provide more of that than beginners are usually likely to have. I wonder if, even today, the book might help an unrated player to have a surprising first tournament result. As a side note, although it surely is of no real significance, I can't resist mentioning that I once noticed HTTAIC in a picture of a shelf of books that had been in the possession of the late Bobby Fischer.

http://www.uschess.org/content/view/9447/221/