You need to get books that are appropriate for your skill level.
For endings:
Silmans Complete Endgame Course.
For middlegames:
Chess Middlegame for Beginners: The Complete Tactics and Strategy Guide for Beginners.
Cory Klein.
Openings?
Stay away from opening books. Stick with opening principles:
Opening Principles:
- Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
- Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key
- Castle
- Connect your rooks
Tactics...tactics...tactics...
The objective of development is about improving the value of your pieces by increasing the importance of their roles. Well-developed pieces have more fire-power than undeveloped pieces and they do more in helping you gain control.
Now we will look at 5 practical things you can do to help you achieve your development objective.
They are:
- Give priority to your least active pieces.
- Which piece needs to be developed (which piece is the least active)
- Where should it go (where can its role be maximized)
- Exchange your least active pieces for your opponent’s active pieces.
- Restrict the development of your opponent’s pieces.
- Neutralize your opponent’s best piece.
- Secure strong squares for your pieces.
Don’t help your opponent develop.
There are 2 common mistakes whereby you will simply be helping your opponent to develop:
- Making a weak threat that can easily be blocked
- Making an exchange that helps your opponent to develop a piece
Pre Move Checklist:
- Make sure all your pieces are safe.
- Look for forcing moves: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) as this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
- If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
- If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
- After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"
I am a fairly new player who teeters from a 1050-1150 rating in Classic. I am hoping to get some recommendations for books to help me progress. I am currently reading: Discovering Basic Chess Opening” by John Emms. I had purchased and began reading “How to reassesses your Chess: Chess Mastery through chess imbalances” by Jeremey Silman but found it difficult as I struggled to create the board imagery while following the algebraic notations. If anyone knows any books around my skills level that could be beneficial towards my progress I would greatly appreciate. Thanks and stay safe!