Recommendations on chess books??? (been away from chess for 20+ years)
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Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell
Hi. Given your previous rating and interest in strategy, you might like Amateurs Mind by Silman. I read it last year and thought it was a great introduction to Imbalances, Strategy and Planning. It teaches how analyse a position and come up with a plan that makes best use of the features in your favour. Look for the 2nd edition which has 25 test questions at the end - the fully annotated answers are nearly 100 pages, what's not to like? It's a precursor to How To Reassess Your Chess which goes into greater depth.
I'll also suggest Simple Chess by Michael Stean. It teaches positional ideas: outposts, weak pawns, open files, minority attack, colour complexes, space. I got both AM and Simple Chess after seeing them on @RussBell list and thought they were good books for improving players, say 1300-1600ish.
"Chess Fundamentals" - Capablanca
Jun 24, 2021
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#7
I, too, recently returned to Chess after a 40-year hiatus. I did play competitively at club and tournament level, so I had a good grounding.
I was surprised how much was still stored away. I played against robots a lot initially and did puzzles. The theory and strategy did come back, and I now feel confident. Although not as sharp as those late 70's halcyon days.
I found The Amateur's Mind (Jeremy Silman) a great refresher, and the winning chess series by Yasser Seirawan to be a great help.
Try, "Think Like A Grandmaster" by Alexander Kotov.
Hey, so I used to play chess semi-regularly on a purely recreational basis when I was younger. Would guestimate that I was in the 1400-1500 range when I was a kid (at least that's what I'm vaguely remembering from my old Caissa profile). For a recreational player, felt like I was decent for someone who never had any book (or any other form of) training other than playing occasionally (so for example have never studied opening game, mid-game play, etc,). But stepped away from the game after I got older and graduated from college.
Am interested in getting back into playing occasionally (primarily just for fun) but would like to enlist the assistance of a couple of books as books throughout my life have been the my most effective way of learning. Would anyone mind suggesting a couple of good strategy books for a beginner (though perhaps not really a beginner) hoping to return to, and perhaps with time and practice, surpass my previous skill level? Thanks!