best strategy book?

Friends! There is the great book: Nimzowitsch Aron, My System. Try to find it!

...and give it to somebody with a higher rating. 

i hear some ppl say my system is good for intermidate and some say its for advanced players which i it? and arent some of the theorys in there outdated?

I wouldn't take it up until I was 1700-1800 USCF.  And yes, some of the theories are outdated.

"you must master openings you play and know strategy behind them. For example, when I play queens pawn opening I have elo performance of 2700 where as if i were to play E4 opening I would have an elo of 1500."

There's your reliable answer.

 I wonder about such comments. I've been following this thread since I'm working up to an intensive Chess study next year. I looked up several of the books on Amazon and read the reviews. One of them (I forget which) had one review that said it was only useful for beginners, and another review (for the same book) said only advanced player would be able to understand the book.

I suck at Chess. I read My System. I got a lot out of it. YMMV.

overprotection, for one

As for me I think overprotection  big squares is wise.

Suit yourself.  But Watson (in his Secrets book) devotes a fair amount of space to this topic, and seems to feel that overprotection is a bit specious.

I also notice that people around here frequently speak of overprotecting weak points...when Nimzovich himself said that that wasn't looking at the concept correctly.

I agree with you about weak points.

I think that Nimzo's books have very much chess wisdom in them.

After My system one needs to read "My system on practice". I am not sure "on" or "in" :)

With respect. Alex.

No doubt they do.  But some of it probably isn't really valid.

Read Watson in Secrets...he goes into the whole matter at length (and better than I ever could).

This book is not wide known in Russia. Seems it is not translated in Russian.

How is it right "My system on practice" or "My system in practice" or else?

With respect. Alex.

Are you talking about Chess Praxis?

In Russian it is called "Моя система на практике". Thank you very much. Now I know how it is called in English. Best wishes! Alex.

My English is poor so I am sorry. I think that for almost all people it is not good to follow thinking of modern GMs. Their thinking is too professional.They spend all their time on chess and a lot of money. (chess base, the staff of assstants and so on).

And with all that 95% of them don't leave the spur in chess history.

I think one ought  study books only of chess giants. (For example Nimzo,Tarrash,Lasker, Capablanca) and well commented games of world champions. And then freely create one own's plans and combinations on chess board. Much knowledge of openings not needed unless one reach master's level. (>= 2300). Better is to study chess tactics and endings. This is my point of view.

(There must be a set of openings you like them. But one must know only main lines and strategical plans in them ) .

If you like Silman's approach to chess strategy (looking for imbalances in a position), join our chess.com group:  "Silman Fans & Fanatics"!

Afraid you lost me somewhere in there...

already read and made my choice Modern Chess Strategy is the best strategy book there is hands down. i didnt want to read it cause of the descriptive notation but the topics covered and straight foreward teaching style made me decide to put it at the top of my list just by a little right ahead of HTRAYC and mastering chess strategy. but after reading it i now say its not only the best strategy book but the bes chess book iv ever read and i have read alot and skimmed through hunderds of the highest acclaimed classic and nothing has come close to it. now i see why ppl give pachman and MCS so much praise(cause he deserves it)

Some books not mentioned but also worthwhile:

Judgement and Planning in Chess by Max Euwe

Chess Middlegame Planning and Chess Middlegame Combinations by Peter Romanovsky

Three Steps to Chess Mastery by Alexei Suetin

Re-thinking the Chess Pieces by Andrew Soltis

Rook versus Two Minor Pieces by Esben Lund

Open Files by Wolfgang Uhlmann and Gerhard Schmidt

Power Play with Pieces by Jan Timman

Last but not least: a collection of high quality annotated game collections by the greats: the 2 vol. Smyslov, the 3. vol. Botvinnik, Alekhine's My Best Games, Korchnoi's 2 vol. , My Great Predecessors by Kasparov, etc, etc.  Working through those books, thinking about the moves and perhaps checking afterwards with a computer, is hard work but ultimately worthwhile.

@ss1alexwarren, did you reach your rating goal of 2000?