Ah! Seirawan's Play Winning Chess series is PHENOMENAL. It is so clear cut and instills strong playing habits that I am surprised it isn't considered a modern classic. It delves less into theory as into the structures of each phase of the game. His approach seems to be that if you give the pertinent structures for each phase of the game, imagination can take over. Worth a look. Very thorough, Mr. Lebowski.
What are the best chess books?
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Thanks again for all who posted any opinion about chess books. I did not mentioned, but Im curious about the chess DVDs you are watching too.
I nearly forgot: Merry Xmas to all chess funs!
My System : Nimzowich
The Praxis of My System: Nimzowich
BCO: Kasparov & Keene
Art of War: Sun Tzu
Can't go wrong with this one-- "Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors" by Lou Hays. This is a lot of two and three move stuff.
anything by jeremy silman is great :)
Fred Reinfeld's book are both,fun to read and with many useful insights.
I am not what you would call a "strong" player yet but these are the books that I believe have helped me the most and/or inspired me the most:
Logical Chess: Move By Move by Chernev
Simple Chess by Stean
My Fifty Years in Chess by Marshall
Capablanca's Best Endings by Chernev
Back to Basics: Tactics by Heisman
Chess Tactics for Champions by Polgar
Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Silman (of course I am not through with this as I am using it as he instructed)
My System, Nimzovitch's classic
Any chess book that has more writing than variations and diagrams is a good chess book for me.
streetfighter wrote:
I think Gufeld's 'My Life in Chess' (now released under the title 'Search for Mona Lisa') for showing me that chess could be beautiful and fun, and that creativity is just as important as technique.
I learned chess at school when Karpov was World Champion, tried to base my style on his play and failed miserably! Discovering players like Gufeld (also Tal and Larsen and others like them) changed my view of the game completely.
streetfighter
I have a used copy making it's way through the post right now. I'm really looking forward to working through it.
I will second the nomination of the Chernev game collections. I have also really enjoyed John Nunn's Understanding Chess Move by Move and Neil McDonald's Chess: the art of logical thinking. I'm looking forward to working through the rest of McDonald's game collections.
Is it too high a target to attempt to reach a stage where I own every book posted when one of these threads is created?
The last book I purchased was Bird's Opening- Detailed coverage of an underrated and dynamic choice for White. While it is good for the opening (I have just started playing it) it might not not constitute as one of the 'Best Books'. However, if you want to try an opening your opponents are less likely to be prepared for, and isn't actually any worse than 1. e4 or 1. d4, give it a try!
Schachgeek wrote:
Chess Tatics for Advanced Players, by Yuri Averbakh.
Sportverlag Berlin 1984 or thereabouts.
The English version is long out of print, ebay item. But you can still find the Russian and (East) German version just about anywhere.
Actually labatechess has come out with a reprint of the English edition recently.
my personal favorites are GM Kotov's Think Like a GM, Train like a Gm, and Play Like a GM, which helped me a lot to rethink about chess as a whole. also very helpful for those who aspire to become a master are Dvoretsky's books, which i highly commend. anyway if anybody likes a copy of them in electronic book .pdf or .djvu format email me, and i'll be glad to share them with you guys. quaoar_machine@yahoo.com
Apr 21, 2009
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Some of the books that I learned something from are David Bronstein's The Sorceror's Apprentice, David Bronstein's Zurich 1953, Bobby Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games, Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov's Art of the Middlegame, Alexander's Kotov Play Like a Grandmaster, Mikhail Tal's The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal and Jonathan Tisdall's Improve Your Chess Now.
cofresi wrote:
the best chess book is always one that you don't own yet --
yes
I myself stay away from books, I have chess life magazine coming my way, so, that ought to occupy my time. Also, I get all my needed info from many chess related websites....
as I've mentioned in other forums, I still say the best book I've seen for players rated up to about 1300 or so is "Idiot's Guide" by Patrick Wolff. anyone over about 1300 will get little or nothing out of it. some people over 1200 will probably get little out of it. in my opinion it's good for the absolute beginner or someone up to about 1300 who wants to improve. he writes in a clear, entertaining way. to me it all came down to ability to understand, and Wolff was able to help me comprehend material that had been giving me fits. I'm still not a good player but I know I improved and have a better grasp on the overall game thanks to this book.