Best Chess Books?

What is the Best openings book?
What is the Best endgame book?
What is the Best middlegame book?

Thanks,

Originally posted by CEE DOG
What is the Best openings book?
What is the Best endgame book?
What is the Best middlegame book?

Thanks,

Prepare yourself for a whole rash of contradictory responses...

Originally posted by JonathanB of London
Prepare yourself for a whole rash of contradictory responses...

its to bad that akizy isn't paying any attention...he has a great collection...and could give some sound advice for him. 🙂

Originally posted by Adorea
its to bad that akizy isn't paying any attention...he has a great collection...and could give some sound advice for him. 🙂

Well indeed. Good advice from one person who knows what they're talking about would be much more useful than asking a random amount of people who will inevitably disagree with each other (even if some/most/all will be right in some way or other)


EDIT:
Not to mention the fact that the concept of a 'best' book in any of these categories is somewhat dubious to say the least.

Originally posted by CEE DOG
What is the Best openings book?
What is the Best endgame book?
What is the Best middlegame book?

Thanks,

Here are my personal favorites in each category:

Best opening book: "Winning with the Modern", by David Norwood. Norwood is an excellent writer, and he explains the important ideas behind the Modern Defense in addition to the crucial variations. Also, unlike many authors of repertoire books, he's honest enough to admit when a certain line is troublesome for Black.

Best endgame book: "Essential Chess Endings Explained Move by Move (Vol.1), by Jeremy Silman. Silman explains every single move for a host of the basic endgames that all aspiring players need to know.

Best middlegame book: "Point Count Chess", by I. A. Horowitz and Geoffrey Mott-Smith. The book is long out-of-print, is hard to find, and is usually expensive on those rare occasions when you do find it. Having said that, the book is worth every penny because it shows you how to evaluate almost any middlegame position and helps you to come up with a reasonable plan.

Best Chess Book: "Logical Chess: Move by Move", by Irving Chernev. This is the only chess book that I would put in the "must read" category for any player rated under 1600. It will teach you how to "think chess!"

Thank you gaychessplayer. That is exactly the kind of info I'm looking for. Much appreciated!
More comments are welcome from others.... I can sift through it and figure out what I want. I just wanted as many opinions as possible.

Originally posted by gaychessplayer
Here are my personal favorites ..."

Ahh... but this is an answer to a very different question.

If you want favourites...

my favourite opening book is John Watson's Play the French (either 2nd or 3rd edition - probably third).

Obviously that will be useless to you if you prefer to learn about the modern.

All the Yasser Seirawan books are good in my opinion and the title will tell you what they are about - "Winning Chess Endings", "Winning Chess Tactics" etc.

An excellent introductory book on openings is “Discovering Chess Openings”
Building opening skills fromm basic understanding.
by John Emms.

This starts from an explanation as to why 1.a4 is not such a good move, how to refute the schoolboys mates...it has a clear explanation of the most important basic principles of opening play etc.

I also think the "Starting Out" series published by Everyman are good value if you have chosen a particular opening you wish to learn more about.

Well, now that we all have a winning format to answer your question. I'll give you a small portion of my library as advice.

Vishy Anand - My best games of chess
awesome for open tactical improvement. A little weak on the endgame
and really lacks any hard middle-game analysis. Weaker players may have
issues with some of the lines as Anand does not go very deep into many
of his variations.

Gary Kasparov - Kasparov on Fischer My Predecessors Part IV
Kasparov literally attacks fischer's play thruought the book. This book
really helps with "flipping" the board. If you read it with any
love of Fischer at all, then you will see Kasparov terrorize his play,
and you will see why Fischer's "Chess attitude" stands in a category all its own.
If you read it as a Kasparov lover, you will enter into the mind of a player
whose poise and chess knowledge is unchallengable. He attacks Fischer's lines
multiple times, showing what is more sound and why.
Just a great set of minds in one book, and if you read it more than once you begin
to feel like you can see from both Fischer's side, and the analytical attacks of the
kabitzer.


Pal Benko, Jeremy Silman, John L. Watson - Pal Benko: My Life, Games, and Compositions:
This book is a power-punch. Not only is it full of puzzles, annotated games, and interviews
by TWO IM's with a GM... It also has Pal Benko's chess autobiography. Its clear while reading
to see how his environment around him changed his "Chess attitude" and how he benefited from
each change. His analysis is very deep with every game. Their is also a HEAVY section on
opening theory from Watson. Another HEAVY section on ending's from Benko (ending expert).
Furthermore the content of the Autobiography is outstanding. It includes pictures of Benko;
with outher GM's, as a youth, and at the board. Inside the book their are also multiple
interviews by Silman about Benko's games and how he attacked each one.

Jerry Silman - Silman's Complete Engame Course: From Beginner to Master
Well, this is kind of a "duh". The Silman Ending book is the starting point. Playing chess
without it is kind of like spelling without a dictionary.

Matthew Sadler - Queens Gambit Declined
This is obviously very very objective. I love the QGD and run into it often on RHP.
However this is not why I list this book. I list it because Sadler (a young GM) attacks
this opening so forcefully. I havn't seen any other chess writer cover modern theory
nor the thematic ideas together in one book as accutely as Sadler does. If you look to be
a player with modern openings and mechanics in mind, this book is for you. It's probably the best single opening
thematic piece I've read. Although Sadler does leave out the Cambridge Spring's Defense...A major foul.

Anatoly Karpov Mikhail Podgets - Karpov's Caro Kann: Advance and Gambit Systems
if you meen to utilize the Caro Kann, you must read Karpov's excellent resource.
Karpov is my #1 resource for any positional idea. His chess is always deeply strategic
and therefore he is the author at the forefront of the Caro-Kann for me. This
book (and its brother book on the Panov Attack) provided quite a deep head-change for my chess.
Karpov is deeply insightful, however without Mikhail it would be altogether, mechanical.

Konstantin Sakaev, Semko Semkov, Alexander Khalifman - Latest Trends in the Semi-slav: Anti-meran (Current Theory and Practice Series)
This is a rather new read for me. However What I've taken from it has left a very
lasting impression. It is the most modernly writ Semi-Slav book I have yet to come accross.
Its authors have clearly tested the theory with Computer's very deeply.
The book carries references from all circles including The Week In Chess, ICC, and Chesspublishing.
While not the first to make reference to internet resources, it is one of the best from a
analytical point of view. It covers this opening's modern lines and even addressess
more classical variations such as Be2 and Bd3. If you play the Semi-Slav I reccommend it 100%

bump...

please someone tell me that all that typing wasn't in vain. 🙁

Anything by Fred Reinfeld you will find very helpful

For the middle game there is a book by Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov called the art of the middle game,(very excellent book) well for me it has been.

Originally posted by CEE DOG
What is the Best openings book?
What is the Best endgame book?
What is the Best middlegame book?

Thanks,

I see you're a 1.e4 player by nature.
You might want to try Mastering the chess openings - Vol. 1 by John Watson.
It explains why key moves are made by both sides in most of the common KP openings, such as the Sicilian, Ruy Lopez, Italian Game, Petroff, French, King's Gambit etc.
Here's a review:
http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_rb/Mastering_the_Chess_Openings_Volume_1.html

two middlegame books i recommend are:
1) tha art of attack is a classic "must-read," and
2) the middle game by euwe and kramer is a classic in my opinion.

best books? hmm...this depends a lot on the rating of the reader...and on his preferences...
If I do not play (NEVER) Pirc and I do not like it, I would not appreciate a book on this opening...
On the other side...if I am a master or a beginner, I would have a different view on the same book...
I like Silman's style and I did not like Nimzovich(My System)-do not jump on me because of this opinion...anyway, I have read only about 7-8 chess books so my opinion somehow doesn't count...
But I am planning to read many more 😉

Originally posted by CEE DOG
What is the Best openings book?
What is the Best endgame book?
What is the Best middlegame book?

Thanks,

I'm not even going to attempt to try to give you a "best chess book" list, for a couple of reasons. First, I'm a patzer. Second, I tend to agree with JonathanB that that's a very difficult question to answer. (It depends on lots of factors - Your skill level, your interests, and your chess strengths and weaknesses.)

But I would recommend that before you decide on which books to get, you read two of Dan Heisman's Novice Nook columns, if you haven't already done so.

Novice Nook "Chess Books and Prerequisites"
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf

and Novice Nook "An Improvement Plan"
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman19.pdf

Please keep in mind that these two articles are six or seven years old, so the information is a little dated. But the articles are still very good. Also, Dan readily admits that he can't keep up with all the chess books on the market. He doesn't pretend to know everything about all chess books, and he also admits that the choice of chess books is often just a matter of opinion.

Also, if you don't mind doing a little more web surfing, you might hit Dan's Recommended Chess Books page and the chess book reviews by ChessCafe, Jeremy Silman, and Chessville.

http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Events_Books/General_Book_Guide.htm

http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/reviews.htm

http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews/book_reviews.html

http://www.chessville.com/reviews/reviews_index.htm

You SHOULD consider the book recommendations that the other RHP guys make, but I think it can also be beneficial to consider the opinions of chess instructors like Dan and the mainstream book reviewers.