Simple Chess

When a newcomer to chess asks what books he should read to improve he is often inundated with all kinds of books, most of which are well above his head and many that he will never end up reading anyway.

If someone who has been playing chess for awhile was to ask me what books I would suggest, my answer would be coloured by my opinion and experience. As being a player who prefers to play correspondance or turn based chess, that too would slat my opinion...so here goes.

I would suggest just 3 books, all of them are thin yet packed with good information and all are very cheap.

My suggestions would be ...Better Chess for Average Players by Tim Harding

                                    ...Better Chess by William Hartston

                                    ...Simple Chess by Michael Stean

These are books that you can actually read and enjoy, even the titles are short and simple. Below is a quote from the introduction of 'Simple Chess' ...

" When faced with any problem too large to cope with as a single entity, common sense tells us to break it down into smaller fragments of manageable proportions. Simple Chess... tries to reduce the problem still further by recommending various positional goals which you can work towards, other things (i.e., material, development, security of king position) being equal... Simple Chess will provide... some elementary objectives which if attained should eventually decide the game... Essentially, Simple Chess aims to give you some of the basic ideas for forming a long-term campaign."

I also recommend 'Simple Chess by Michael Stean' for players rated from 1200-1900. This book is a must read for 'Strategical Thinking' and a plan on how to proceed when the phase of the game is in a 'Static mode'