Why have a coach when you can have a book ?

My oldest brother whos rated 2010 once told me that until  I reach 2000 myself I don't need a coach just a couple of really good books and I kinda think this to be true cause Im just getting a coach but before now all I did was read books and my rating would very slowly but surely end up a little higher after each tournament so I'm wondering is a coach really neede for anyone below 1800 aslong as they have a good book ?

I'd probably say not. Good people to play against and bat ideas off is more important.

It's not needed, but it can help grasp ideas quicker and focus on what's important to make progress.

I think getting a coach is a waste of money, but whatever blows your skirt up is ok with me.  I'd rather not have somebody tell me how to play.  I like discovering things on my own.  If that means I progress slower, so what, I'll save a few pennies and enjoy myself anyway.

We're all snowflakes when it comes to

a) Learning complicated and nuanced material.
b) Applying what we learned correctly when needed.
c) Getting burned enough from our failures to want to correct ourselves and not make the same mistakes again.

I've heard naturally talented players (who have proven themselves in OTB tourneys) toss variations of this "oh, you don't need coaches this early, you don't need books" line all the time ... and this is no different than a 14-year old PhD at math exclaiming "I can't believe you guys don't understand this .. it is so simple!".  

They just don't "get" difficulties/roadblocks because they'd never make a ton of the mistakes the VAST MAJORITY of improving players make.

I don't think this is arrogance, it just seems very alien to them that other people would "struggle" with things that are lucid and simple to them.

With that being said, if you can dig into books and do self-study and constantly be on a growth curve in a competitive field (OTB tournaments, live chess at a slow time control etc.) WITHOUT hitting a plateau, you don't need no stinking coaches :)

If Mr.Plateau bites you in the rear at some point ( 1400 for some, 1600 for others and perhaps 1800 for the OP's elder brother), get a coach! :)

Even if you are growing stronger on your own, as hicetnunc indicated: getting help makes hitting your goals easier or atleast more efficient.

I think that a big advantage of having a good coach is that you can ask questions when you don't understand something and get an answer.  I've yet to have a book answer my questions.

Why books? Roman has made a dvd upon everything you can think of, and on YT there are videos about everything.

I think the value of (good, classic) books is that the player is forced to struggle some in order to "get it." With a coach, there's usually more hand-holding, so the potential improvement is not always as great.

But, at the higher levels (2200+, maybe a little lower), once a player has the fundamentals down, a good coach can help A LOT.

So I guess I agree with the OP's brother.

I should add that I definitely improve more from books than from coaching or videos (videos: again, hand-holding).

Getting a coach will make it easier to improve

The weaker you are the easier it is for any method to lead to improvement. When I was active before my 8 year hiatus from chess, I made fairly decent gains (about 3-400 points) from books and regular play alone (a mix of blitz and standard time controls).

The books I focused mainly on were tactics based. I also studied some positional material, but all of it fairly elementary stuff (Best Lessons of a Chess Coach, Stein's Simple Chess, etc). I neglected the endgame.

Now that I'm active again, I still prefer books but like to supplement them with the videos here and Chess Mentor as well.

I think the farther your improvement (or the higher your rating, to put it differently), the more value a chess coach would become; under 2000 OTB, and I don't personally see the need as you can accomplish this yourself - if you have the time and dedication to put into it.

Above 2000 and some amount coaching may be almost a necessity to continue making study progress.

Thanks evryone alot of strong points this struck out to me cause it's basically what my brother thinks but another question is does anyone know of someone who has reach 2000 without a coach ? other than famous people like Fischer Morphy etc...

Fischer worked on chess 14 hours a day, but he had coaching too.

Coaching from who ?

A really hairy guy.

Coaching from whom?

A really hairy guy.

Bobby Fischer never had a chess coach, he only recieved coaching in swimming.

You're wrong. I'm hoping you are not being willfully ignorant, so just in case, you might want to read Brady's recent Fischer biography, where he covers in detail the long-term coaching Fischer received first from Carmine Negro and later from Jack Collins, who taught a generation of America's best players and was mentioned in his obituary in the New York Times as the top American chess teacher of the twentieth century.

Or maybe you don't care about what actually happened and prefer to keep believing a myth.

Why go to school or a college if you can have a book? Hope you got the analogy.