OMGoodness! I have an entire bookshelf...It would take a day just to type them all out.
Nice collection you have there though!
List your Chess books!
Sort:
Nov 12, 2008
0
#3
My list.
100 mating positions (and I didn't realise it was a chess book until I got it home) lol
I have a few, but check out jrobi:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=T-rQPYVHKkM
Lucky, lucky man.
Incidentally, how do you embed a video in a forum thread?
ED
"Standard Chess Openings" and "Encyclopedia of Chess Wisdom" both by Eric Schiller. The second book i believe is a must have for any chess player. Kind of like a chess players personal handbook.
TJSaltdog wrote:
I would like to get CJ Purdy's "A Guide To Good Chess" but it's out of print.
Is it really? I think I saw it at Amazon.com the other day. No, it was at another store, http://www.mamut.net/schackbutiken/subdet881.htm
95SEK (swedish crowns) are approximately 12USD these days! They hav 20+ copies in store according to their web site.
Here's most of my collection:
My endgame library includes:
- Dvoretsky Endgame Manual
- Mueller's Fundamental Chess Endings
- Glenn Flear's Practical Endgame Play
- Mueller's How To Play Chess Endgames
- 100 Endgames You Must Know
- Winning chess Endings
- Secrets of Pawn Endings
- Secrets of Rook Endings
- Starting Out: Rook Endings
- Starting out: Pawn Endings
- 100 Endgames You Must Know
- Capablanca's Best Chess Endings
- A Practical Guide to Rook Endings
- Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov
- Pandolfini's Endgame Course
- Pandolfini's Chess Challenges: 111 Winning Endgames
- Basic Chess Endings
- Comprehensive Chess Endings (CD)
Alas, posession of a book does not imply posession of its knowledge.
The gem of my collection are the 20 years(1946-1966) of CJS Purdy's magazine Chess World.
I used to go to his Sydney shop in the 60s and 70s where he still sold back issues of the magazine. The isolation of Australia in those days meant that he wasn't able to compete in northern tournaments, however he entered and won the world's first correspondance chess tournament. He was a great chess scholar and this victory reinforced his ideas.
Each of the monthly editions are packed with games and analysis. Bobby Fischer held him in high regard as a chess instructor. Purdy once said "pawn endings are to chess as putting is to golf."
In 1979 at the age of 73 he died of a heart attack while playing chess over the board. His final words are reputed to have been "I have a win, but it will take some time."
Thanks, Paul. I took the photo with a digital camera. While writing my post, to include the photo, I clicked on the green icon that looks like a little tree.
roundtuit wrote:
My list.
100 mating positions (and I didn't realise it was a chess book until I got it home) lol
Lol
I only have
Bobby Fischer: 101 outrageous chess moves
and
The Complete Chess Course (something or other) which is as thick as a bible and boring as heck
Nov 12, 2008
0
#12
Some others have come and gone, but these are the ones I've kept (or plan to get soon):
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/deepgreene&tag=Chess
For out of print books check www.half.com or www.bookfinder.com. Another place I've had luck finding odd chess books is www.labatechess.com .
It would take me quite a while to list my books. Maybe I will give it a shot tonight when I get home, or at least post a picture. They currently take up 1 & 1/2 bookcases. Organized like:
Opening books + misc Opening Books
Middlegame & Strategy Endgame Books
Game Collections Tactics, Mating Patterns, Combinations
misc (McKay Fireside books) empty
Game Collections empty
misc + beginner books empty
Some that I can think of off the top of my head
Opening Books:
- Quite a few of the Starting Out series
- MCO-15
- Mastering the Chess Openings 1 & 2 by Watson
- Chigorin Defense by Broznik
- Chess Advantage in Black & White by Kaufman
- Benko Gambit Revealed by McDonald
- Guide to the Modern Benoni by Watson
- Gruenfeld for the Attacking Player
- Mastering the Spanish by King and Ponzetto
- The Complete Spanish
Middlegame & Strategy:
- Dvoretsky's School of Chess Excellence Series
- Dvoretsky's School of Future Champions Series
- Aagard's Excelling at Chess Series
- Think Like a Grandmaster & Play Like a Grandmaster by Kotov
- Aagaard's Attack Manual Vol. 1
- Aagaard's Practical Chess Defense
- The Middlegame By Euwe & Kramer
- Judgement & Planning by Euwe
- Reassess Your Chess by Silman
- Amateur's Mind by Silman
- Valeri Beim's works
- Mihail Marin's works
- Simple Chess by Michael Stean
- Improve Your Chess Now by Tisdall
- Middlegame Planning & Middlegame Combinations by Romanovsky
- My System by Nimzovich
- Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy & Chess Strategy In Action by Watson
- Modern Chess Strategy by Pachman
- Practical Middlegame Techniques by Kopec
- The Art of the Middlegame by Kotov and Keres
- The Middlegame in Chess by Fine
Game Collections:
- Kasparov's Predecessor series & Modern Chess Series
- Botvinnik's games
- Smyslov's games
- Sorcerer's Apprentice by Bronstein
- Zurich '53 by Bronstein
- Road to the Top & Road to Perfection by Keres
- Alekhine's Games
- Akiva Rubinstein vol.1 by Donaldson & Minev
- Paul Morphy: A Modern Perspective by Beim
- Karpov's Best Games
- Spassky 400 games
- Logical Chess Move by Move by Chernev
- Most Instructive Games of Chess by Chernev
- Understanding Chess Move by Move by Nunn
- Learn from the Legends by Marin
- 50 Essential Chess Lessons by Giddins
- Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking by McDonald
- The Art of Planning in Chess by McDonald
- Winning Chess Explained by Zenon Franco
- 100 Best Games of Chess by Soltis
- Mammoth Book of World's Greatest Chess Games
- Chess Secrets: Giants of Strategy by McDonald
- My Best Games by Korchnoi
- Kasparov's Fighting Chess 1 & 2 by Karolyi
- Why Lasker Matters
- Petrosian vs the Elite
- 300 Games by Tarrasch
- Masters of the Chessboard by Reti
- Life & Games of Mikhail Tal
- Tal - Botvinnik 1960
- The Tarrasch Formula by Palatnik
- Art of Chess Analysis by Timman
- Modern Instructive Masterpieces by Stohl
- Frank Marshall by Soltis
- Strategic Chess: Mastering the Closed Game by Mednis
Endgame Books:
- Basic Chess Endings by Fine
- Fundamental Chess Endings by Mueller & Lamprecht
- Silman's Complete Endgame Course
- Practical Chess Endings by Keres
- Essential Chess Endings by Averbakh
- Essential Chess Endings Vol. 1 by Silman
- Essential Chess Endings for the Tournament Player by Howell
- Practical Rook Endings by Minev
- Practical Rook Endings by Mednis
- Survival Guide to Rook Endings by Emms
- How to Play Chess Endgames by Mueller & Pajeken
- Anatoly Karpov: Endgame Virtuoso by Karolyi
- Capablanca's Best Chess Endings by Chernev
- Exploring the Endgame by Griffith
- Starting Out: Rook Endings
- The Final Countdown
- Just the Facts!
- Practical Endgame Play - Mastering the Basics
- Practical Endgame Play - Beyond the Basics
- 100 Endgames you must know
- Improve your Endgame Play
- Mastering the Endgame
- Secrets of Pawn Endings
- Secrets of Rook Endings
- Endgame Tactics by Nunn
- Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics
- Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
- Endgame Virtuoso by Smyslov
- Endgame Strategy by Shereshevsky
- Endgame Preparation & Analyzing the Endgame by Speelman
- Winning Endgame Strategy & Winning Endgame Technique by Beliavsky & Mikhalchishin
- Grandmaster Secrets: Endgame by Soltis
- Endgame Training by Rosen
- Rook vs 2 Minor Pieces by Lund
- Mastering Rook vs Minor Pieces
- Endgame Challenge
- The Endgame by Makarov
- Test Your Endgame Ability
Tactics, Mating Patterns, Combinations, & Sacrifices:
- How to Beat Your Dad at Chess by Chandler
- Chess Tactics for Kids by Chandler
- Chess Tactics by Littlewood
- Understanding Chess Tactics
- The Art of the Checkmate by Renaud & Kahn
- Art of the Attack by Vukovic
- Essential Chess Sacrifices by Lemoir
- How to be a deadly chess tactician by Lemoir
- Combinative Motifs by Blokh
- Imagination in Chess
- The Art of Sacrifice in Chess by Spielmann
- The Art of Chess Combination by Znosko-Borovsky
- Chess Tactics for Advanced Players by Averbakh
- Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman
- Forcing Chess Moves by Hertan
- Mastering Tactical Ideas by Minev
- Looking for Trouble by Heisman
- Attack with Mikhail Tal
- Sharpen Your Tactics
- How to Calculate Chess Tactics by Beim
- Combination Challenge
- Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors
- 365 Ways to Checkmate
- 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate
- 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations
- Find the Winning Move
- Force the Checkmate
- Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations (Russian)
- Chess by Lazlo Polgar
- Chess Cafe Puzzle Book
- The Magic of Chess Tactics
Misc:
- Seirawan Winning Chess Series
- Lev Alburt's series
- Chess Exam & Chess Exam: Tactics by Khmelnitsky
- How to Think in Chess
- Practical Chess Exercises by Ray Cheng
- GM-RAM
- 7 Deadly Chess Sins & Chess For Zebras by Rowson
- Modern Chess Analysis by Smith
- Pawn Power in Chess by Kmoch
- Winning Pawn Structures by Baburin
- Understanding Pawn Play in Chess & Dynamic Pawn Play in Chess by Marovic
- Secrets of Positional Chess by Marovic
- Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis
- Rethinking the Chess Pieces by Soltis
- The Inner Game of Chess by Soltis
- How to Choose a Chess Move by Soltis
- Secrets of Chess Transformations
- Decision Making at the Chessboard
- Secrets of Chess Intuition
- King Power In Chess by Mednis
- Turning Advantage into Victory in Chess by Soltis
- Art of Defense in Chess by Soltis
- How to Defend in Chess by Crouch
- Art of Positional Play by Reshevsky
- Survival Guide to Competitive Chess by Emms
- Everyone's Second Chess Book by Heisman
- Secrets of Practical Chess by Nunn
- Chess Visualization Course
- Chess Fundamentals by Capablanca
- Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess by Wolff
There are plenty of others in each category that I can't recall off the top of my head. Hopefully I will get through them all in this lifetime or a child, grandchild, or some other kid interested in chess will. At the rate I keep adding to the collection though, even though I have slowed down quite a bit in the past year, I will probably never get through all of them. I started collecting them a few years ago, before I actually took the plunge and started to seriously study chess. I knew I would eventually jump off that precipice so I was gathering books I knew were highly regarded so I would have them at a future point when they might not be in print.
Edit: Updated pretty much everything except the Openings books in the list above. That covers the vast majority of them now.
my name is hondoham... and i am a chess book addict.
i'll be back later with a list.
i'm not as sick as gumpty, snits, likesforests, and especially eriks though. if i had a collection like erik's i would have to split it up into five parts and put them in boxes to keep them below the radar on the homefront.
p.s. hey forests i notice "King's Gambit" has snuck into the mix there.
hondoham wrote:
my name is hondoham... and i am a chess book addict.
i'll be back later with a list.
i'm not as sick as gumpty, snits, likesforests, and especially eriks though. if i had a collection like erik's i would have to split it up into five parts and put them in boxes to keep them below the radar on the homefront.
p.s. hey forests i notice "King's Gambit" has snuck into the mix there.
I won't post a picture of mine then. :)
Nov 12, 2008
0
#16
too many to list. my favorite: idiot's guide to chess, patrick wolff. if you're over 1400 there's probably no reason to read it. but it's more than a book for brand new players. great writing style. starts with the real basic stuff and builds up to more complicated. great if you're anywhere around 1200 or under.
@ gumpty
I enjoyed #15, #37 and #44
These are the books that I have studied cover to cover:
1) The art of chess combination - Eugene Znosko-Borovsky.
(studied completely thrice and have lost it!)
2) The art of sacrifice in chess - Rudolph Spielmann.
(studied completely twice and left it with a friend!)
...
yeah that's about it.
Has anyone got, or have any opinions on a tactics book called: "Tal's winning chess combinations" ?
Have you got a chess book collection? just one or two? or many hundreds?
i have 63 at the moment and here they are, some good some bad, some AMAZING, but i love them all, i don't think i will ever get rid of any of them, they mean a lot to me!
Here is link to 2 photos of the above List :-)
http://www.chess.com/photos/view_album/gumpty/my-chess-books