Top ten chess AUTHORS of all time ?

Andre Harding, I like your list of authors and books if you limit it to authors of more than one book.

I am not a fan of Dvoretsky.

 Bronstein said in "Secret Notes" his last book---"That book was a dagger in my heart for decades"---"I was thoroughly ashamed of that book."

He said many of the games were phony and when it came to his own games that were fixed, he used almost no annotations hoping that the public would catch on. But, they didnt and the book became more popular year after year.

To me the book is like professional wrestling ---very entertaining---but phony as a two dollar bill !

fburton:

Zurich 1953 is one of the 5-10 greatest chess books ever written. It has all 210 games of the 1953 Candidates Tournament, annotated by Bronstein, and these annotations are about the most instructive one will ever see. You will learn so much about all phases of the game. It is a must-read.

GlennLadrido:

You don't have to read all of these books to become 2000 (I certainly didn't), but you should read several of them, and supplement them with extensive tactics training and good opening books, plus tournament games and going over your games (it doesn't have to be super deep analysis, just an understanding of what went well and what didn't). If you work seriously, you can reach 2000.

@chessmaster102: You might change your mind about Keene after reading a few articles about him and some of his slipshod works, not to mention plagarism

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Achesshistory.com%2Fwinter&q=keene&btnG=Chess+Notes+search

As for the Top Ten Chess Writers of all time I'm not really qualified to answer because I haven't read anything by Kasparov, Karpov, Anand and many other contemporary great players, but I have read a lot of older classics so here goes anyway, not necessarily in any particular order

Nimzovitch, Tarrasch, Euwe, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Lasker & Fischer, with 3 places reserved for other respondents to fill in with more recent writers.

I like the lists by raul72, NM Splane and Andre_Harding, all 3 are worth considering for anyone beginning or making additions to their chess library. 

@NM Splane: I've read & enjoyed Marshall's book but it was supposedly ghost-written by Reinfeld (can't recall a source for this allegation now) and even if it wasn't I doubt if it's in the same league as game collections by and/or about Capa, Tal, Fischer, Botvinnik, Keres, etc etc.

1. Bronstein

2. Tal

3. Nimzovich

4. Euwe

5. Znosko-Borovsky

I really have a hard time figuring out who else I like as an author. Most chess "authors" are actually horrible writers no matter how useful their analysis and instruction is.

Because Bronstein is a fantastic author who was able to write for a truly wide audience.

Consider this paragraph:

"It's a difficult thing to maintain objectivity when commenting on one's own gaems. Variations running in the commentator's favor are always interesting, so details flow quick and plentiful from the pen; variations which favor one's opponent, however, are often unclear as can be. For one's own mistakes, one seeks (and generally finds) justifications; while the opponent's errors seem so natural as to need no explanation whatever. So even before beginning to commont on my game from round one, I feel compelled to note that Black did not have a decisive advantage until very late in the game, almost the very end. Psychologically, White's loss can be traced to the fact that he missed the turning point of the game, at which it was necessary for him to begin giving serious though to the problem of how to get a draw. As regards teh purely chessic reasons for his loss, these I shall try to illuminate in my notes."

The whole work is like that -- well-written, honest, introspective, and insightful. Or, at least, appearantly so. Even if it is a work of semi-fiction, it is still rings true.

now at least while waiting for my opponents reply (which usually last hours) i can at least browse those e-books i've downloaded a while back.. most of the books you mention are available on e-book for free anyway.. except that some are still not translated in english..

Can't forget about Ex World Champ Max Euwe I learned quite alot when I use to just take a quick look into his work.

TELL ME ABOUT IT I mean when I was reading Starting Out: The Colle System by IM Richard Palliser who's suppose to be a leading expert on the opening and is credited by many as a great writer I was highly uspset since there are errors throughout the entire book notation wise ( Ex. 1.d4/Nf6 2.Nf3/c4????) after that book I never bought anyhting by Richard Palliser 

Interesting comments on Zurich 1953, including from Bronstein himself! If he didn't rate it that highly, I wonder which of his other books he would recommend in its place...

So many chess books are just collections of games. The amount of notation is overwhelming. Not easy reading, but I guess it's necessary for learning specific ideas.

Krogius' Psychology in Chess is a good one. SO, he hasn't written very many chess books, but that one is very important I think. But, who am I? I'm just your average chess player.

John Nunn should be included, the guy was probably the first author to really utilize computers in his anaylysis.

Nunn has always been good value for money, imv.

tpenny:

I actually thought about including Nunn in my list for that very reason, though in the end I didn't, since I don't like his writing style. But, a lot of people do.

For a general book about openings my vote goes to Ludek Pachman.

For the middlegame planning / preparation to endgame I found Euwe's Amateur becomes master really useful.

For the endgames, the two volumes of Alain Villeneuve Les finales (Endgames) are at the same time complete, easy to understand, well-structured (allowing to skip some pages when it becomes too much focused for your present needs), and entertaining (!) - but I do not think there exists an English edition.

 Andy---its a must read if you like chess fiction!

Well... at least NimzoRoy mentioned The World Champion -for like 28 years ... Lasker. Manual of Chess. Enough said.

                                                         Peace --- Bill

A difficult question, here goes, in no particular order:

1. Alekhine 

2. Euwe

3. Capablanca

4. Kasparov

5. Tal

6. Nunn

7. Nimzowitsch

8. Bronstein

9. Korchnoi

10. Keres

Honorable mention: Watson, Gallagher, Geller, Palliser, Silman, Soltis, Botvinnik, Seirawan, Stohl, Avrukh, Shipov, Averbakh, Emms, Sveshnikov, Hartston, Speelman, Lasker, Steinitz, Pachman, Timman, Chernev, Dvoretsky, Rogozenko, Gershon & Nor, Krasenkov, Vaisser, Burgess, Jacobs, Dunne, Tarrasch, Boleslavsky, Bilguer, Donner, Nimzowitsch, Golombek, Khalifman, Fischer, Kotov, Belyavsky, Mednis, Yusupov, Kosten, Reti, Flear, Greet, Gligoric, Fine, Tartakower.

"No soup" for Karpov, Reinfeld, Purdy, Horowitz, Gufeld.

Based on comments here, I started through "The Game of Chess" by Tarrasch. In the sections I've looked at, every sentence is a gem. It makes some subsequent works seem derivative.

How cool, his thoughts are available to me. It is funny though to see different legends with very different opinions on the same topic. Tarrasch is not shy about his opinions.

Reminds me of football where each side sees very, very different games even though it's the same game. However, even that is instructive.