"... [IM Cyrus Lakdawala] has done a phenomenal job in choosing illustrative games, annotating the games, picking worthwhile questions to ask, and finding the right way to answer them. He has kept the game references to what is absolutely necessary and never more than that. This book is highly recommended for players from 1500 to 2300. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2011)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627104306/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen151.pdf

Also be sure to read the review of Lakdawala's endgame book in the "eat-your-oatmeal" link above posted by Spongey....

I think you are probably not going to gain knowledge through books if you have purchased 45 that make no sense to you. Find a video series and watch it until you get sick of it. Lots of good stuff for sale or free all over. I would like to get an endgame book and a good strategy book or two, but I know I'm not a chess book reader, so I would probably look at it once and never read it. I think you should stop with the books and move on to another way of getting your chess knowledge. 

My impression is that there is a tendency for nonbeginner opening books (and even some beginner opening books) to get into the weeds on specific openings.

A book I've found both understandable and useful is Bronznik's Techniques of Positional Chess: not another treatment of the usual 'big themes' - minority attacks, open files, etc - but rather a collection of 45 simple ideas to be applied as appropriate. E.g., the first technique is for use when B has posted a N on g6: play g3 to deny access to f4 and h4, then follow up with h4-h5 to harass the N or force a K-side weakening. The second includes a similar technique against a Ng7: play g4 to keep it out of f5 or h5. When this situation cropped up (with colours reversed) in an OTB game, I remembered to apply it and got the better game.

 

Try the 'Look inside' facility at Amazon to see what I mean.

 

 

I'm not sure what kinds of books you've got, or how you're approaching them, but when I was young I fell for the awful, unethical thing that the U.S. Chess Federation was doing to young chess players: misleading them in order to help GM's and IM's sell their openings books.

There would be books like "Play Bobby Fischer's Openings and Win," as if the opening won the game for you!  They withheld from their members that tactics and the middlegame were more important than the hoards of opening books they pushed.

As a retired teacher, I'll also point out there's a BIG difference between reading a book and studying a book.  After you've completed each chapter or unit in a chess book, you should ask yourself, "What were the learning goals here that I should know now?"

The same is true after solving a tactics problem: can you identify the tactical motifs you just used? Can you explain why it took so long to see them?  Try to understand what and why!

When I coached a very successful high school chess team, my job was to funnel my players to books that moved them along one step at a time and gave them straightforward things to consider.  For example, I taught them openings that tended to lead to a limited number of middlegame strategies so they wouldn't get confused or spend a lot of clock time trying to figure out what to do like the Bishop's Opening focusing on f4 and a K-side attack or the French, Caro-Kann and Slav Defenses with ...c5 and a Q-side attack.

Also, rules of thumb like this one from Silman's 1st edition of How to Reassess Your Chess:  A Knight on the 3rd or less rank isn't as good as a Bishop, a Knight on the 4th rank is as good as a Bishop, a Knight on the 5th rank is better than a Bishop, a Knight on the 6th rank is devastating.  That is, of course, not always true but it's a good thing to think about when considering posting a Knight on an outpost.

Today, Silman's 4th Ed. is way too long, 600+ pages, for an introductory text though it's worth working your way through.

Today, I would have my high school students studying the following planning and endgame books:

Fred Wilson, Simple Attacking Plans – four straightforward principles (for example: Point all your pieces at your opponent's king), demonstrated with 36 annotated games,

Michael Song and Razvan Preotu, The Chess Attacker’s Handbook, fourteen principles demonstrated by games and with example problems.

Jesus de la Villa, 100 Endgames You Must Know – stresses patterns rather than simple lists of moves.

Jeremy Silman, Silman’s Complete Endgame Course from Beginnner to Master – tells you what you need to know based on your rating.

I would recommend doing lots of tactic problems here or at chesstempo.

I have begun reading and REALLY like Martin Weteschnik's Chess Tactics from Scratch, 2nd Ed. It shows diagrams very often so you don't need a board to follow it. It may be the best tactics book I've ever read because it doesn't just explain, for example, The Pin, it points out the three things required and how you can cause them to occur in a game.  It reminds you to consider empty squares as your target and it even introduces concepts new to me like The Reloader:

Chess Tactics From Scratch

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708091717/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review851.pdf

I have three chess books and never read more then a few chapters of any of them. It didn't take me 45 books to learn my lesson in regards to buying new ones.

spongebob

learn good english .

I wish to thank everyone for participating in this discussion. I learned a thing or two.

 

I wish to specifically thank spongey for his concrete suggestions, some of which I will be implementing over the coming months.

 

I just wish people would not call spongey's messages as spam because his messages are always relevant and he appears to be a very well read and educated person. So please be constructive.

 

 

 

 

I agree, he is quite helpful, kindaspongey's links are relevant on this forum.

Lol The op can come back in a month and with Spongebobs help make a thread

I have over 145 chess books but I don't understand a single one of them

Two possibilities that you dont understand chess books.

1. Technical barrier (chess notations and graphical representations)

2. Language barrier (most books are written in English)

 

Work out by your own. Hope that might help in your problem.

 

I think the op's concern was conceptual rather than technical.

I have like 30 chess books, and i havent even read 20 of them, except the endgame ones of course

Again, the main problem is the lack of discipline. A chess book can be great, but it is for a player easy to buy always new books instead of working seriously with 2 or 3. And you know what? Chess authors will not stress this that much, as they want you to regularly buy new books instead of working seriously with few.
There are a lot of great endgame books, but the best ones are those which you learn cover to cover several times.
Which books force you to work so consequently? The books available in Chessable. I know I am repeating myself, but I really hope that some of you go there to try and see what I mean. I am learning in Chessable since almost one year, and since I began I didn’t miss one day. Why? Surely not because I am a highly disciplined player, but because Chessable reward me (with rubies) for doing his.

Give a try. You will for the first time in your life learn what discipline in training means.

When attacking, try not to exchange pieces; opposite when defending.

Close the center for wing attacks.  In closed positions Knights more valuable than Bishops.

Castle so you can connect Rooks.

 

Develop before attacking unless there's something really obvious.

In a bishop and pawn ending with opposite color Bishops, don't waste your time unless you're at least two pawns up.

Leave your King a flight square.

 

Don't push pawns protecting the King if your opponent still has dangerous pieces on the board.

 

That's about half the chess books in a nutshell

 

Are the books you're trying to read published in your native language?  Just curious.

One more thing.  Don't try to checkmate your opponent in 5 moves (or less).  Anybody with any experience will see through it in about 2 seconds.