Best chess books for beginners?

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DNmc0

I've read about "The Amateurs Mind" and "Reasses your chess" by Silman I think, and wanted to buy them. Are there any other books I should be aware of or that are must buys for a man who wants to become very good at chess but who has only played for 3 months?

I'm not good with openings, but if any videos on youtube cover that I'd much rather watch that than spend hours trying to follow a chess book.

kindaspongey

I don't think any book is a must-read for everyone. It can be hard to know what the right book is for any one person. Here is a guess at the sort of book that might help:

Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf

Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/

Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf

Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf

Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro

http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html

Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/

baddogno

Heisman thinks playing through master games helped him a lot so maybe something like Irving Chernev's Logical Chess?  That book is on almost everyone's beginner list.  Anyway. Here's Heisman's book list.  You could also do a Search Forums here and come up with dozens of previous threads.

http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Events_Books/General_Book_Guide.htm#anthologies

Oh and lots of youtube chess on openings including our own chess.com channel.  Have fun.

classof1970

the right way to play chess by david pritchard

Obscurist

Silman's The Amateur's Mind is good. Silman recommends studying that before going into How to Reassess Your Chess.

Dan Heisman has recommended some good annotated game collections for beginners. Check out the bad dog's link in post #3 above.

For tactics I like Predator at the Chessboard by Ward Farnsworth. The book is available online for free at http://www.chesstactics.org/, or you can purchase a physical copy.

I'd also recommend an endgame book. Chess Endgames: Essential Knowledge by Yuri Averbakh and Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman are both good books.

LetTheW00kieeWin

Here's another vote for Chernev's Logical Chess and Winning Chess by Chernev and Reinfeld.