Help me figure out which of my books to start with? pleeeeeeeeease?

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nTzT

Books are great if you are into that but I think they are less efficient than simply doing the online courses/lessons that this site has to offer. It's less expensive as well. Books are great though and if you enjoy collecting them then that's great. 

MovedtoLiches
DemonicEmbrace wrote:

Books are great if you are into that but I think they are less efficient than simply doing the online courses/lessons that this site has to offer. It's less expensive as well. Books are great though and if you enjoy collecting them then that's great. 

I would like to respectfully disagree. I know I’m new and not a good player yet, but books are different than online. Yes, a person could sit down and work a Chess board with online puzzles and games, but a book forces the study. I believe most people today do not have the self discipline to utilize books. 

blueemu
Subculture_of_one wrote:

(also, if there are any -must haves- that I should pick up, please let me know)

Pawn Power in Chess by Hans Kmoch

My System by Aaron Nimzovich

Xanitrep

I'd start with Bain, Heisman, Chernev, and the early parts of Silman's endgame course.

nTzT
ExploringWA wrote:
DemonicEmbrace wrote:

Books are great if you are into that but I think they are less efficient than simply doing the online courses/lessons that this site has to offer. It's less expensive as well. Books are great though and if you enjoy collecting them then that's great. 

I would like to respectfully disagree. I know I’m new and not a good player yet, but books are different than online. Yes, a person could sit down and work a Chess board with online puzzles and games, but a book forces the study. I believe most people today do not have the self discipline to utilize books. 

This might be true. I think people do learn differently though. 

nTzT

I think I really need to actually take one of my books and just sit with a board and study it that way.

RAU4ever

I looked up your rating and I would say that you should focus on tactics. As a Dutch person, I'm extremely indebted to the 'stepmethod', which you can nowadays also find in English, here: https://www.stappenmethode.nl/en/index.php. With both the handbook and the workbook, you'll soon start to learn about tactics, what different tactics there are and how to spot them. It will also teach you basic endgames, like what opposition is and how to win King and pawn versus King, and a little bit about what constitutes safe opening play. It will get to more difficult endings and opening problems when you get further in the series. Also, continue to do a lot of puzzles here!

From the books that you have, I would highly recommend 'Reassess your chess' by Silman. But focus on the static advantages Silman lists. For example: weak pawns or open files. This will teach you what your pieces like and how you can best use them. In other words, it will teach you 'normal' moves. Don't do the dynamic parts, like 'initiative'. These concepts are difficult to grasp and even more difficult to exploit correctly, especially because the goals are not so well defined. Where you generally want to try and win a weak pawn (a static weakness), my dynamic play might very well be meant to create some weak squares that I want to use later on. 

Don't study too many openings though. Just try and play reasonably: with white try to get e4 and d4, with black try and avoid giving white that. Try and develop every piece and castle your king into safety. Yes, you will find out later on that there are exceptions, but try and focus on the main rules first before getting bogged down in all the exceptions.

I also wouldn't study too many technical endings yet either. When you get to an ending a piece or a queen up or down, the ending just doens't matter too much yet. Apart from the basic ways to checkmate your opponent of course. In this sense, Silman's book on the endgame is pretty nice too, as long as you don't go for the more advanced parts of the book. Not because it's not good to know about it, but because your other needs are much stronger.

MSteen

I have many of these books, and I highly recommend "Logical Chess" as a logical starting point. And I completely agree with an earlier poster who said he goes through the same game 3 or 4 times, learning something new each time. Bain's tactics for students is terrific. So much so that I cut out all the positions and pasted them on notecards with the solution on the back. Now I have a set of 400 flashcards and carry about 30 to 50 of them around. Great for getting positions "at sight." The Brennan books I have on my Kindle and work about 10 or so before nodding off to sleep at night--great stuff drawn from actual games. Finally, you cannot possibly do better than Silman's "Endgame Course." It's broken down by rating class, and gives you all the essential knowledge you'll need right up to expert and even beyond.

"Reassess" and "Amateur's Mind" are super for positional chess--"Amateur's" first--but I think for the majority of us slugging around at the lower levels, tactics is the giant need. 

Problem5826

What ratings are you?

If your tactics rating is below 1200 on something like chesstempo, I would greatly recommend Bain's tactics for students. I own it too and went through it. Helped me a lot and is meant to be a classic. If you have a tactics rating of 1300 or above, then you've probably wasted your money on that book, as you will have passed it's usefullness.

Next would probably be focusing on endgames. Pandolfini's endgames is my favourite and worth a look.