Chess Books

What would be a good chess book for someone who is familiar with the game but looking to move beyond the level of novice to strong?

This is a good list:

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

John Nunn's Understanding Chess Middlegames has impressed me a lot. Strategic themes by model games e.g. material imbalances, strategy.

Yusupov's series is good - based on direction rather than instruction - you learn by putting the work in studying positions.

Silman's endgame book is good.

As a tactics book, I like Martin Weteschnik's Chess Tactics from Scratch.

My personal favorite is Reassess Your Chess.

Agreed, completely. Heisman is a professional coach who specializes in helping beginner and low level intermediate players reach high intermediate/near expert level. Just ignore any other posts in this thread and go to the link, and do exactly what Heisman says.

Just one exception: Ignore Heisman's own "Everyone's 2nd Chess Book" in favor of reading the archives of his free Novice Nook column online instead. The book's unnecessary if you read all the back issues of his column.

I wouldn't ignore the other posts ... as Heisman's vast recommended-reading list already includes Silman and Nunn's books mentioned above....though not Yusupov (though his build-up series is tough but totally worth working through).

One advantage of going over Dan's list is that it is organized really well for players across different rating classes.

I would strongly recommend going over some good game collection, as it's one of the best way to improve your chess in all areas of the game at the same time, while having fun.

I recommend Reti's Masters of the Chessboard, as a fantastic way to discover the whole spectrum of chess. Chernev's Logical chess Move by move is good too, but Reti's work offers a broader perspective that will help you tremendously in your future chess development.

Go over the games on a real chessboard, read the explanations, try to follow the variations in your head (this way you train your visualization/calculation skills) and enjoy !

Tips for Young Players by Saddler