What's On Your Bookshelf?

Did you like Chess Duels? That book, Pawn Structure Chess and more game collections (Alekhine, Botvinnik) are on my shopping list.

Oh kay! Really?!!

Was it supposed to be whining?!

I haven't worked my way through all of it yet.  I like the biographical parts, just need to sit down and work through the games.  I haven't dug into Pawn Structure Chess yet.  Bought it when I was buying a bunch of books with a gift card but still haven't got around to it.

@ivanzypher

What happened? Did you give up after one Yusupov book? Are you going to get the rest of the 9-volume series? Thoughts?

What's on my bookshelf? Tons of dust.

The first one is one of the most fulfilling reads I've had with a chess book, but I haven't finished it yet! So no orange 'Boost' until I've finished the first. (I know. When was finishing a chess book a prerequisite to buying another?)

Some have remarked that it is dry, but the enjoyment and entertainment is from solving the problems, not reading the (small) amounts of text.

It's not what's on my bookshelves (I have about 600 chess books) that says the most about what I'm studying. I curently have several books within arm's reach of my computer on various horizontal surfaces (including the floor). 

Currently, I have, in no particular order, 

USCF Official Rules of Chess 6th Edition by Tim Just

Chess Coaching by Littlewood

The Sicilian Scheveningen by D'Costa

The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Games by Burgess, Nunn and Emms

The Complete Spanish by Suetin

Endgame Virtuoso: Anatoly Karpov  by Karloyi and Aplin

Chess Exam and Training Guide by Khmelnitsky

Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book by Emms

NCO by Nunn

Build Up Your Chess (1) by Yusupov

Chess Evolution (1) by Yusupov

Fundamental Chess Endings by Muller and Lamprecht

Korchnoi's 125 Games by Korchnoi

47th USSR Championship: 1979 by AJ Miles

GM Repertoire 1, 2, 17, all by Avrukh.

I may add a pic of my book case later.

And yeah, the room's a mess! I really need to clean up!

I've heard great things about that series. Is it suitable for someone at my level though (approx 1400 online turn-based)? I thought those books were for more advanced folks.

I assume that is a typo. You meant to say 60, not 600.

I think it's fine. It asks difficult questions. It asks for the ability to calculate 1 or 2 or even 5+ moves in some positions. But it always helps you on the way by giving you lots of themed examples. Some chapters are easier than others. It will improve the ability to calculate as you work through the book, and the point is not to get all the questions right, it's to understand where the gaps are.

FWIW I'm about 110 BCF (1500 ELO) OTB. 

EDIT: I have to mention the chapter about K + P endgames. Reading that chapter, which is all of 5 or 10 pages, has been very enlightening. Yusupov asks you at the beginning of the book to stare at the position for 10 minutes on your chess board, and if you can't figure it out, start moving pieces. Anywhere. Just move them around, try to understand what they are doing. For endgames, this has been extremely interesting, to undestand things like opposition much more deeply than before.

Nothing wrong with having 600 chess books. Okay, it's pretty outrageous but perfectly possibly. I have over 700 horse books and probably about 300 chess books - and that is a fraction of my whole library which I have built up over 45 years or so, which includes diverse subjects such as chemistry, art, computer software/programming, physiology, Penguin fiction, language and technical reference, science fiction, gardening and history.

I'm in the 1500's OTB and I found the beginning three books a challenge. It really can show you where you weaknesses are. The next step is to try and fix those weaknesses :D

I think 1400 Online (not live) will probably have a harder time with the first books but still may be worth it. I will say, some of the chapters aren't as good as others, in my opinion (mostly the openings and a few of the more positional ones). Those were ones where I felt the examples and introductory texts really didn't help with solving the problems. However, there is still a lot to learn from going over the solutions to those problems.

No, there is not anything wrong with it. I was not trying to imply that. It obviously worked for him if really has 600. He is over 2000. I love books. It makes sense to have a lot of books on chess, in my opinion.

Have that many books on horses is weird though, in my opinion.

I have 476 books on the history of making glue from horses.

Comics.

Thats what trolls do . 

Kay is a horse, so I understand he does not care for the glue comment. That was insensitive of me Kay. I apologize. I thought your head was severed and you wouldn't care.

Its what kaynight does...

Now you know how kasparov felt :-)

Listen, LullabyVisca has sent me several comments in the paste stating "I LOVE FRIED CHICKEN!!!" Nothing else. it scared me.

I empathize.