Originally posted by booclarkeAnyone who's new to chess can't go wrong with the Winning Chess series by Yasser Serawain, although these books are a bit overpriced brand new. After you've been playing for a little while, Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman is fantastic. Actually, anything by Silman is fantastic. As far as chess history goes, the Oxford Companion to Chess has some amusing anecdotes and trivia about the game's history.
Hello, I'm relatively new to competitive chess, and was hoping someone had a suggestion for a good book on the history of chess, and general chess strategy. Thanks.
We should have a whole forum dedicated to this topic! If you browse through earlier posts you will find many excellent book suggestions.
I've bought quite a few books recently, mostly from 2nd hand bookshops.
I was very impressed with "The Right Way to Play Chess." by D Brine Prichard. A great book for those who are relatively new to Chess. Very well written; its a Chess 101, that covers all the basics aspects of the game, and introduces many of the more advanced topics.
Of course, I'm still looking for the book that will cure me of making dumb stupid @#*^ing moves. Ain't found one yet!
I'd also add that I think the Winning Chess series or Reassess Your Chess by Silman are better as first chess books (as suggested above). Zurich 1953, or Tal's best games or other classics are better appreciated once you've read a book that makes things easier to understand for the beginner or intermediate player.
Sarah
Silman and Seirawan's books are great for helping you understand chess, but I found that they really didn't improve my play much because of tactical blunders. To fix this, I have picked up several puzzle books to work through repetatively. There are many good ones, but for the money I like 303 tricky chess tactics by Alberston and Wilson. Also, not a bad idea to get Pandolfini's endgame course for an intro to basic endgame ideas.
Usually "Reasses your chess" and "My System" are two top recommendations. Difficult to explain why, but I did not really enjoy neither of them. Probably there are just no common recipes:-) There is the book which I wish I had when I just started to play: "Logical chess move-by-move" by Chernev. Some time ago I bought similar (but a bit more advanced) book by Nunn, "Understanding Chess Move by Move" and it was right for me - basically it is collection of high-quality games, each of them illustrates particular chess theme and Nunn explains literally every move.
Some of my other favorite books:
"Art of Attack in Chess" by Vukovic - classic book for every level (to some point)
"Improve your chess now" by Tisdall - helped a lot my OTB chess
"Fundamental Chess Endings" by Muller and Lamprecht - my ultimate endgame book🙂, equally good for reading and reference
"Winning with French" by Uhlmann - it's just inspiring
And finally unorthodox approach to chess😀
http://www.gmchess.com/articles/skittles.html
Author is famous chess personage in my home city and once was considered among best Soviet blitz players. Very entertaining!
Originally posted by no1marauderSkittles are the casual/non-competitive games.
Sorry to go off topic, but what exactly is skittles? I've read that term but I never saw a definition. I'd recommend chess books, but the ones I learned from are so old they're on stone tablets!
TovMauzer is correct that Logical Chess is a good book for beginners. Nunn's book is a newer book that may be more interesting for some players. I also love Art of Attack in Chess, though perhaps it's best after you've read an easier book on basic strategy or tactics.
It's always hard to recommend which book of tactic puzzles is best, but remember there are several places on the internet where you can dowload many tactical exercises (Though books such as Reinfeld's are often very cheap if you look for them, unlike some other chess books that are often around $20).
Sarah
Try" chess master vs chess amateur" and" road to chess mastery".Each book has 25 games thorougly discussed each devoted to different opening line and does develop the idea behind the openings.
Each game also tackles one particular point on strategic play.Basically as the title suggests it is basically about how to exploit strategical and opening errors made by your oppenent and to prevent you from committing the same.
As for softwares you can go for chessmaster 9000. It is good.
Did this thread come back from the dead? Seems like I've read many of these postings before (in the same words) ...
Anyway, my 2p worth:
If you're just starting out with chess (and en passant is still French to you), then go with "The Right Way to Play Chess" by D. Brine Pritchard.
Euwe and Meiden's "Road to Chess Mastery" and "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur" are also good reads - but don't read too much into them after a while (they're somewhat outdated).
I've heard a lot about the Winning series by Yasser Seirawan, but have never read them. (If someone has read these books, approximately what rating levels would they be appropriate for?)
After a while, Silman's "How to Reassess Your Chess" would be a great help. The Chessbase file for the games from the book are freely downloadable online - so you don't have to set up boards etc.
On my bookshelf - "My System", Nimzowitsch; "The Art of the Middlegame", Kotov, Keres et. al.; "Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy: Advances Since Nimzowitsch", Watson (all on the recommendation of other RHP users). Btw, I'm a ~1420 player - so I don't know how useful these books will be later on. (But I've heard of people who read through "My System" atleast once a year.)
I've also heard good things about "Logical Chess: Move by Move" by Chernev, "Think like a Grandmaster" by Kotov, "Nunn's Chess Openings" by Nunn, "Play: The French" by Watson. You might also want to Google for winners of the Cramer Award - the USCF's award for best Chess Book (among others) for the year.
Cheerio,
Luc