This was my first:
(URy!!Wk~%24(KGrHqUOKjsEwRRSvg-,BMNKq3oGt!~~_35/http/85a20fe4aa.JPG)
(Btw the explanation of castling was so abstruse I had to wait till I got my first Reinfeld before I understood how to do it!) 
Have you EVER really finished reading any Chessbook??
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Did not finish.I guess I'll never finish a chess book.
fi nally- just finished -"how to think ahead in chess" by l a horowitz & fred reinfeld. and yes, it has helped.
Julio_Ajedrez wrote:
books are for losers anyways
buy dvds
much faster
Downloading online is even faster.
And cheaper.
bcoburn2 wrote:
fi nally- just finished -"how to think ahead in chess" by l a horowitz & fred reinfeld. and yes, it has helped.
2 year old thread - 2 years to finish? :p
My System
Dvoretsky's School of Chess Excellence 2: Tactical Play
Endgame Strategy
Secrets of Endgame Strategy (recently finished, will start How to Play Chess Endgames for my next strategic endgame book then cap it off with the second half of School of Chess Excellence 3: Strategy)
Questions of Modern Chess Theory
Basic Chess Endings
Secrets of Pawn Endings
Survival Guide to Rook Endings
Halfway done CCE:Volume 3 (Queen volume)
Turning Advantage into Victory in Chess
How to Defend in Chess (like a decent Lasker and Petrosian game collection)
Improving Chess Thinker (prose only, as in I didn't play variations out on a board though the book itself contains analysis one can play out over an actual board)
Think Like a Grandmaster (prose only with some playing out positions on a board)
A lot of games in collections I don't even finish and think I'll focus on annotated master games in the next few months.
Problems in GM Prep: Calculation and Practical Chess Defense are quite heavy and aren't even near getting them completed and wouldn't want to spoil any of the problems with a sloppy superficial thinking so I usually do problems from them at my best.
yes i have finished
it is not difficult
you just need to persistent
it is like reading the mockingjay hummingbird series
Yes, gobs. Secrets of Chess Strategy by Watson, Reassess your Chess by Silman, BCE (Fine) revised by Benko, How to Defend in Chess by Crouch, Tactics for Advanced Players by Averbakh,, openings books about Caro-Kann, Catalan, Pirc and Modern, KID, Gruenfeld, games collections: Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian, Korchnoi, Karpov, Shirov, Speelman, Miles, Fischer, Larsen, Nezhmedinov, Stein. This is just to mentioin a few.
The Averbakh tactics one is good! I didn't even know Nezhmedinov had a game collection! The Karpov one is great, still thinking of getting the Korchnoi one.
i don't like descriptive notation
Yes i have even read a few chess books more than once, Masters of the chess board by Reti and Modern ideas in chess also by Reti. Also read Micheal Steans Simple chess more than once and Soltis pawn structure chess more than once. Favourite player is Fischer although I am not a great fan of my sixty memorable games.
Have like 15+ chess books, but never properly finished a single one. Too much time needs to be spent going through them, while chess doesn't earn me money....
I've read only one book, that being Nimzowitsch's My System. I'm starting to think books are over rated.
Chess doesn't earn me money either and it can be difficult to find the time needed to absorb the ideas presented or to seek them out yourself. Desciptive notation is tedious and not as clear in its meaning as algebraic notation.
Dec 9, 2014
0
#77
I read Silmans books cover-to-cover, several times. His large print, writing style, and instructive material make it easy to do.
Other than that, I read non-instructional chess books cover-to-cover as well. Ones just for entertainment value and trivia.
just once...
Legendary_Race_Rod wrote:
I've read only one book, that being Nimzowitsch's My System. I'm starting to think books are over rated.
I have never read My system, i heard it was good for the time but is too dogmatic by todays standards.
A publisher called Quality Books has put out an updated algebraic edition of My System which seems to be relevant for modern chess players, imo. The language has been modernized so that it doesn't come across as quaint. This book does contain some useful ways of thinking about pawns and openings. I need to read it again.
Yes, my first chess Book was by Timman on the match Karpov-Kortchnoi and I was like 11years old. I did not understand why they played what they played, but I read the Book probably 3 times cover to cover. So much fascination... Long time ago.
Silmilar experience for me. It was an old book by an author I can't remeber, but it included about a dozen games by the old masters of the board: Blackburne, Steinitz, Morphy, Capablanca, etc. It hooked me and I read it cover to cover multiple times, without really understanding it.
That is why I buy a lot of books even I know I'm buying them faster than I can read them. Kid in the candy store thing or whatever. Just enjoy playing through them.