What are those books? Are they commented games, a general introduction for beginners, an opening or endgames book, what is it? If they are too advanced, they might be only frustrating you. And there are different techniques of studying a chess book depending on what it deals with.
You are right to use a real board when reading a chess book, it is almost vital to do so. I can't read any chess books without a board.
here's an article i wrote a while back. see if anything in it gets ya going!
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/904029/chess_video_lectures_are_they_for_you.html?cat=19
Have you taken a look at the chess.com study plans? They can be found under "read", then "articles", then chess.com help. I too find books frustrating to learn from. As a diamond member you can use the ChessMentor and I've found those courses a lot easier to follow than books. You just don't have the "overhead" of having to set up a board, and you get immediate feedback on ideas you have. Tactics are crucial of course so the tactics trainer should probably become a daily habit as well. Nobody said chess was easy, so frustration is part of the learning process for all of us. Good luck.
The books I bought are as listed below:
Encyclopedia of Chess Wisdom, by Eric Shiller
Simple Chess, by Michael Stean
The Dynamic English, by Tony Kotsen
Grandmaster Repertoire 3 - The English Opening vol. 1-3, by Mihail Marin
Reassess your Chess, by Jeremy Sillman
Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master, by Jeremy Sillman
The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery, by Jeremy Sillman
Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games by Laszlo Polgar and Bruce Pandolfini
These are the books I have purchased in the past few months.
Thanks!
Hey Selunto,
At your level, The Dynamic English and Grandmaster Repertoire are far too advanced. Learning openings this early won't really serve you well. Until you get to ~1800, your main focus should be tactics, tactics, tactics. When you get to 1300-1400, you can add openings as secondary. If you plan on getting into tournaments, I would strongly recommend getting a coach, if it is affordable to you. Overall, with those books, if you don't feel like you're learning much, it's probably not worth your time. For now, focusing on tactics and playing a few long (> 15 min) live games a week can take you pretty far. If you lose, find a better player than you to look over it and point out your mistakes.
Tactics is an area I am currently trying to improve on. I am reading "Winning Chess - Tactics" by GM Yasser Seirwan (with IM Jeremy Silman), which I am finding to be an excellent introduction to tactics. This book goes through the various tactical themes (i.e. double attack, pin, skewer, etc...) and utilizes positions ranging from simple illustrative examples to complex combinations.
Hey Everyone,
I would like to begin by describing myself and my chess background.
I have been playing chess casually for maybe 2 years, I am 29 years old. I recently decided I would like to get much better and be able to possibly join a club and maybe get rated at some point. So I started reading online as much as I could and then I bought some books and a nice chess set with the ranks and files listed along the side. The problem I seem to be having is that the books I bought start out as an actual book, that is to say you read what the author hopes you will learn from the book. Then it goes into games and moves and I get lost I read 3-4 pages and I can't seem to focus on what is being said. I even set up the board with the positions being discussed in the book, but the books seem to switch gears so fast that I can't keep up with reading and moving all the pieces around. I then signed up for a chess.com membership and a membership to various other sites. I guess what I need to know is how do I go about learning how to study correctly?
I play games vs the computer - which I lose horribly most of the time. I play online and have won some games but I still lose a ton. If I had to rate myself I would say sadly that I am right under 1150 and this may be stretching it a bit. When I try to analyze my games I get lost again, I downloaded houdini so I could look at my games but I get lost in all the possible variations and then I don't know how to continue how to use this information or how to improve...
What I am hoping is that perhaps the users of this site might have some insight on how I can begin to study and get better, I have spent around 300 dollars on books and I can't use them correctly.
I am open to all suggestions and hope that my low skill level will not bring down the wrath of flamers.
Thank you all for your time, and have a great day!