beginners chess book

hi everyone. im recently new to this site and am currently looking to improve my chess, i have a bit of time on my hands and am thinking about maybe getting a couple of chess books, im not that good but would love to learn, i would like to improve dramatically on my openings and then the whole board as a whole as time progresses, what with 100's of books around i simply do not know which to look at, is there any particualr chess books that anyone would reccomend? or equally steer away from? i would appreciate any thoughts on this. thank you.

New myself, just picked up Chess for Dummies. It is easy to read and has already helped me understand some of the bigger themes of the game.

>I'm involved in teaching chess to young kids in elementary schools and there's a book I use and recommend to them. It's "Winning Chess Strategy for Kids" by Jeff Coakley.
>While it is written in a way to appeal to kids, it is perfectly good for any adult beginner and covers everything you need to know to advance to a moderately good level. I've had many kids (and adults too) advance reasonably quickly to around a 1400-1500 level with this book.
>It doesn't cover openings in much detail, but it gives you a solid grounding in chess.

Originally posted by mr carlsberg
hi everyone. im recently new to this site and am currently looking to improve my chess, i have a bit of time on my hands and am thinking about maybe getting a couple of chess books, im not that good but would love to learn, i would like to improve dramatically on my openings and then the whole board as a whole as time progresses, what with 100's of book ...[text shortened]... ould reccomend? or equally steer away from? i would appreciate any thoughts on this. thank you.

I would heavily recommend the PC software Chessmaster. It will take from a mere beginner to an intermediate if you take the tutorials seriously. and of course, study tactics till your index finger (or whatever finger you use for mouseclicking) bleeds.

There are plenty of online turorials to cover the basics available for free, but if you must buy a book, then I would recommend 3 as a primer for a new player:

1) Chess for Dummies
2) The Simon and Schuster Pocket Book of Chess
3) Play Winning Chess by Seirawan (Best of the three)

For your second Book, I would recommend a nice Tactics primer like:

Winning Chess Tactics by Seirawan

For you third book, there really isn't a better recommendation available for starting to understand basic planning for a beginner than an old classic:

Logical Chess: Move by Move by Chernev-This book is old, but it is very easy to read and to understand.

Book four should be aimed at sharpening your tactics a bit, a light book like the following would be fine:

1) 303 Trick Chess Tactics
2) The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book (but just stick to repeating the beginner and intermediate puzzles for now)

And finally, your fifth book should be an introduction to basic endgames. There are many excellent endgame books out there, such as Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual for more advanced players and Silman's excellent Endgame Course for advnaced beginners and up, but for just basic info starting out I would recommend:

Pandolfini's Endgame Course

If you get those books in order and study them well, you should be able to play a respectable intermediate game

I will second Maxwell's mention of Seriwan's books. His are excellent for beginners, teaching basic concepts in a language that is accesbile to the lay person.

Yes,Seirawan's books are good.
Steer away from Eric Schiller's books.Do not even touch them!
Steer away from Raymond Keene's books as well.Allthough I believe he had a few good ones?

Logical Chess: Move by Move by Chernev.
Most instructive Games by Chernev.

In every poll I've seen (these polls were quiet popular space fillers
in magazines in the 70's and 80's) these two always came in the
top three.

Anything your see by Fred Reinfeld will do no harm.

The others mentioned I cannot speak about as I have not read them.
Heard lot's of good reports about Chess for Dummies.

Play as much OTB as possible.

Keens's few good books are for advanced players.
His book on Nimzovitch, Flank Openings,(now badly dated)
and How I Became a GM. (his best games) which is actually quite good.

actually i am reading an excellent book at the moment, entitled, 'master chess,' it has 21 brilliant lessons from tactical studies through to positional concepts, and the beauty of it is that it was written by club players thus it is not so high brow that you cannot grasp the principles nor so settled on fundamentals that it lacks interest. truly an excellent book, reviewed by paulbuchman and the best instruction you can buy for five ponds, delivered free by amazon - highly recommended!

just like to thank everyone who put their point forward on this i think i will be looking to get "chess for dummies" + Seirawan's for starters. thanks🙂

idiots guide to chess openings is a good book once you got the basics down and even now i think it would help you

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
actually i am reading an excellent book at the moment, entitled, 'master chess,' it has 21 brilliant lessons from tactical studies through to positional concepts, and the beauty of it is that it was written by club players thus it is not so high brow that you cannot grasp the principles nor so settled on fundamentals that it lacks interest. truly an ...[text shortened]... he best instruction you can buy for five ponds, delivered free by amazon - highly recommended!

Master Chess: A Course in 21 Lessons by Kopec, Chandler, Davies, et. al. is one of my favorite chess books. I especially recommend the chapters relating to the endgame.