Your favorite book

Hey all, just wondering what your favorite book(s) are. Currently I'm looking at Exploiting small advantages. Quite enjoyable book 🙂

of the 120ish I own my favorite is easily Calypso Chess

http://www.amazon.com/CALYPSO-CHESS-Dr-Philip-CORBIN/dp/9769529591

Art of Attack in Chess by Vukovic.

My current favorite is Grandmaster Chess Strategy, which is a well-annotated selection of GM Ulf Andersson's strategic masterpieces.

I have learned ideas that I have been able to directly incorporate into my OTB game play. A very well-written, eye-opening book.

http://www.amazon.com/Grandmaster-Chess-Strategy-Anderssons-Masterpieces/dp/9056913468/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454303553&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=gransdmaster+chess+strategy

Silman's Complete Endgame Course is my 2nd.
Starting out: Modern Benoni is my 3rd.
Starting out: The Ruy Lopez is my 4th.
Leningrad system by Stefan Kindermann is my 5th.

I once had a book called the chess player's bedside book.
Among other things it included various game examples one of which was a game where a queen sac led to a king walk across the board diagonally until the checkmate.
I can't find the damn thing now so I suspect it mistakenly went to a charity shop in one of our clear outs.
I've looked under the bed!!
Anyone know the game?
It must be famous and I'd love to see it again

Thanks Paul ! - Good one there. Yes, I probably talk too much.

Please every one out there. Do as Paul (or don't - be a .. dick?). Make a fine motivation for your book suggestions. Please please please. (quote the beatles).

I personally wish the posters here would follow your example. Me included.

I like tactics, my above books contains lots of very very complex things.

Originally posted by SPswindler
of the 120ish I own my favorite is easily Calypso Chess

http://www.amazon.com/CALYPSO-CHESS-Dr-Philip-CORBIN/dp/9769529591

Hi SPswindler,
why is that book of annotated games so special?
tell us a few words please.
convince us to get that book 🙂
thanks!

squirrel0like0nuts
- "Art of Attack in Chess by Vukovic."

I think I've read this one. Pretty good book.

Few books I might invest in - just trying to get my level up and think better than I am lol

Originally posted by BoardReader
squirrel0like0nuts
- "Art of Attack in Chess by Vukovic."

I think I've read this one. Pretty good book.

Few books I might invest in - just trying to get my level up and think better than I am lol

The Art of Attack is a classic. Mikhail Tal's account of his world championship match with Botvinnik is a good read. He worked as a journalist and so is a good writer.

Originally posted by jarrasch
Hi SPswindler,
why is that book of annotated games so special?
tell us a few words please.
convince us to get that book 🙂
thanks!

Ok, the reviewers are a little more eloquent than I but I'll add my personal experience with the book.

Calypso Chess is a rare chess book in the fact that it's very relatable yet has a high quality. Openings selected are constantly seen at our level (Morra Gambit, Urusov Gambit, offbeat Dutch setups etc) that wont make it into a GM book. Its a book about a tactically aggressive FM, which is the level that a lot of adult amateurs strive for.

Whats fun about the annotated games is most of the time he plays in a limited pool (being from Barbados) so you get to see him play against a few strong guys vying for the championship each year and watch rivalries grow. He then plays with those same guys as a team in the Olympiads, so you get to see Corbin as an underdog. (who certainly has his moments)

Different people like different annotation styles, but his annotation style suits me. He doesn't try to constantly fill up pages by playing "teacher" nor does dump a ton of computer lines, he only breaks things up into multiple lines when it gets to critical moments.

It's basically a book about his chess career. It's honest and on point. A good quote I've heard a few times is "the best chess book is the one that gets read" If you've bought a lot of books there's probably some dry ones that never get finished, and its fun to read a book packed with exciting games.

Originally posted by venda
I once had a book called the chess player's bedside book.
Among other things it included various game examples one of which was a game where a queen sac led to a king walk across the board diagonally until the checkmate.
I can't find the damn thing now so I suspect it mistakenly went to a charity shop in one of our clear outs.
I've looked under the bed!!
Anyone know the game?
It must be famous and I'd love to see it again

Greenpawn34 can find this. I would bet on it.

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
My current favorite is Grandmaster Chess Strategy, which is a well-annotated selection of GM Ulf Andersson's strategic masterpieces.

I have learned ideas that I have been able to directly incorporate into my OTB game play. A very well-written, eye-opening book.

http://www.amazon.com/Grandmaster-Chess-Strategy-Anderssons-Masterpieces/dp/9056913468/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454303553&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=gransdmaster+chess+strategy

I don't suppose there were any of his CC games in there were there? I read some annotations online a few years ago that suggested he played more sharply than he liked to OTB.

Originally posted by SPswindler
Ok, the reviewers are a little more eloquent than I but I'll add my personal experience with the book.

Calypso Chess is a rare chess book in the fact that it's very relatable yet has a high quality. Openings selected are constantly seen at our level (Morra Gambit, Urusov Gambit, offbeat Dutch setups etc) that wont make it into a GM book. Its a book abo ...[text shortened]... ly some dry ones that never get finished, and its fun to read a book packed with exciting games.

I quite liked Calypso Chess book too. I had for a couple of years before selling it off cheap at the club before I moved house the year before last. Reading it encouraged me to try a few Elephant Gambit games on here and then OTB.

My two all time favourite books which I did not sell on are: The Chess Mind by Gerald Abrahams. I first had this as a teenager but only came to appreciate it later. The long winded mostly tactical variations that accompany each diagram are a challenge if bedtime reading, but working through them all on a board worth the effort. Many of his arguments about master play I later saw repeated in John Watson's Secrets of chess strategy.

The second book I kept was Grigory Sanakoev's World Champion at the Third attempt. Describing his correspondence chess play in the pre-engine era in a strongly combinational style with gentle witticisms scattered throughout the text, is a joy to read through, and contains much wisdom about the game, strategy, and certainly the fighting nature of a game. Often forgotten, I think, under the notion that there is always a best or sole correct move.

Originally posted by Ragwort

My two all time favourite books which I did not sell on are: The Chess Mind by Gerald Abrahams. I first had this as a teenager but only came to appreciate it later. The long winded mostly tactical variations that accompany each diagram are a challenge if bedtime reading, but working through them all on a board worth the effort. Many of his arguments about master play I later saw repeated in John Watson's Secrets of chess strategy.

Interestingly, this is what our chess friend Greenpawn wrote about it:

Originally posted by greenpawn34


The Chess Mind Phew......

I remember reading that one (or trying to). Heavy metal.

Abrahams Brilliance in Chess is I think his best book.
He goes over everything again he uses in The Chess Mind only this time in
easier to read terms and with excellent examples. A super book.


Because of GP's opinion I ordered just yesterday "Brilliance in Chess"

BoardReader, have your read this one as well?

cheers 🙂
jarrasch

P.S. "The Chess Mind" was discussed also here:

http://www.redhotpawn.com/forum/only-chess/interesting-readings-about-chess-and-mind.105066/page-1

http://www.redhotpawn.com/forum/only-chess/the-chess-mind.67613