what is a good chess book for a beginner ? (sub 1000)

If you are under 1000(or even upto 1500), then avoid chess books. Dont fall into the habit of collecting chess books. You will gain little from it and waste money and time in it. Instead, watch YouTube chess channels. I recommend GJ_Chess.

Anyway, mainly, practice tactics daily.

"... Batsford's new edition of Logical Chess: Move by Move, written in 1957 by Irving Chernev, ... is definitely for beginners and players who are just starting to learn about development, weak squares, the centre, standard attacking ideas, and the like. In many ways, it would a wonderful 'first' book (or first 'serious' book, after the ones which teach the rules and elementary mates, for example), and a nice gift for a young player just taking up chess. ..." - IM John Watson (1999)

http://theweekinchess.com/john-watson-reviews/assorted-recent-books

Kaufman is a weak kangaroo.

kindaspongey, are you coded in C++ or in Java, Python maybe?

"... Did we not contain conscious brains ourselves, how would we know that other brains are conscious? Truth be told, you can really only know that you are conscious and it seems polite to give other people the benefit of the doubt. ..." - CGP Grey

Books are becoming more obsolete now!  I'd recommend the course here on chess.com or chesskids.

Nice. Im still learning how you work. One of these days Im gonna pass a weird parameter into one of your methods and that uncatched exception will blow your motherboard!!!!

Unfortunately, buttchic666, you were so busy attempting wit, you missed the point of my recommendation of a non-chess book and instead, once again fell flat with another time waster for us all. Since apparently you missed the point, most likely by not reading the comment in its entirety, the gist of it is: you (figuratively speaking) are better off reading a non-chess book (such as one of my favorites) and using the many tools available on chess.com instead. Hopefully this clears up things for you. If you have trouble in the future understanding comments, feel free to reach out and I will try to provide a more “common” understanding. No worries!

Play Winning Chess by Seirawan or How To Win at Chess by Daniel  King

I think Soviet Primer Chess (SPC) is more of a tactics teaching book whereas Complete Chess Course (3C) is more of a strategy/planning teaching book. I prefer 3C because it first introduces nine common bad moves in opening. Then, it moves on to middle game by breaking down into "play as White"" (offensive theme), "play as Black" (defensive theme), how to attack and maintain advantage, and how to fight back. Finally, it briefly introduces 1.e4 openings and 1.d4 openings.

The best thing about this book is the author use ALL openings as examples in previous chapters. So by the time readers reach book 7 & 8 (e4 & d4 openings) these opening main lines are familiar to them. And, the order of these openings introduction is very logical.

For example in book 7, 1.e4, the first opening introduced is the Center game:

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6
" White’s game is discredited from the very start by his premature development of the queen. This enables Black to seize the initiative at move 3 by counterattacking against the white queen. Not recommended for White "

Next is Danish Gambit

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3

" This dashing attempt to seize the attack by sacrificing two pawns can yield White a very powerful attack if Black does not defend carefully. However, as you will see, Black has several satisfactory defenses. Consequently, the Danish should be ventured only against weak opponents. "

So, beginners like me can easily see that after 2...exd4, if I play as White, I should not play 3.Qxd4. Instead, I should play 3.c3

Thanks

There is another Soviet chess book called Soviet Middle Technique, which I did not own yet because I am still reading Complete Chess Course (3C). However, based on the contents (one may say that don't judge the book by it cover ) I feel that this book is a good supplement to Soviet Chess Primer because it focus on planning and combination. It is also cheap ($19 for 400+ pages => 4 cent a page, cheaper than printing at my college ). So, I will buy it as a supplement to my 3C book because it lacks of combination teaching

Last but not least, download CHESSIFY app to SCAN the BOARD! This app recognize board in book, computer screen, and even the picture of board the you download from the website.

There was a 2008 book (Dangerous Weapons 1 e4 e5)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627091711/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen109.pdf

that suggested the Center Game.

https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/SovietMiddlegameTechnique-excerpt.pdf

New Ideas In Chess by Evans is a good book.  You can pick up good ideas there.