Originally posted by SerendipityForget studying openings if you're under 1600. Get a book with tactics exercises and one on elementary endgames.
Get a generic book on openings, choose a solid opening and play it to death. And get a book on the end game, the middle game comes with experience 🙂
While considering tactics, don't overlook checkmate patterns. If you can read descriptive notation (the old English and American style), then Renaud and Kahn, The Art of the Checkmate is excellent. Murray Chandler, How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, which is not just for kids, offers a lighter approach (less instructive in my opinion) to some of the same checkmate patterns. You can also find a digest of these two, and a couple others, organized in a useful way at http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/wulebgr/checklist.htm.
If you ignore all sound advice and opt for studying openings, then get Reuben Fine's classic, The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings.
Originally posted by PawnpowerGet a book on tactics first. I would go for "The ultimate chess puzzle book" by GM John Emms. This will keep you busy for a long, long time and I am sure that you will have lots of pleasure solving them all... If you continue to be in love with chess get:
Considering I have a rating of around 1350, can anyone advise me a good chess book?
A book with anotated games! I can't think of a better one than: Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953 by David Bronstein (Paperback). With these two you will be able to learn a lot and become proficient in the middlegame and opening ideas.
For the endgame Fundamental Chess Endings (Paperback) by Karsten Muller, Frank Lamprecht will more than sufice for your needs (I am not exaggerating, I believe that's the only endgames book any chess player would ever need...
Originally posted by Pawnpower-"Winning Chess Tactics -Yasser Seirawin"
Considering I have a rating of around 1350, can anyone advise me a good chess book?
-Buy a chess engine, and do their endgame studies
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That should shoot you up to about 1500, how to improve from there? I honestly haven't found a quick way to do it, people say to study positional chess, but that seems to be overated at that lvl.
Oh yeah, and study some classical bishop sacrefices that lead to kingside attacks, I am somewhat of a specialist at this, and it has surprised a lot of people, but eventually people catch on and say, "watch out for this guy sacreficing bishops", and it doesn't work so well anymore, but you could use it as a surprise weapon to beat the higher rated players in your club a few times.
Originally posted by WulebgrThis book has been very valuable to me. It divides checkmate patterns into 12 groups, making them easier to study and recognize. I think this book has been one of the most valuable I have. I will keep studying this book until I have these patterns memorized.
...The Art of the Checkmate is excellent.
Please give it a look.
Good luck.
Originally posted by PawnpowerGo to the library, take out and study any books they have on chess tactics. Understand the tactical side of chess before bothering with anything else. Learn positional play and then get hold of some of Yasser Seirawan's books which are so simply written even I can read them. That way you can begin to understand why your opponents move the pieces the way they do. Understand the logic of the moves that are made and only then can you start learning the various phases of the game, like openings, endgames etc.
Considering I have a rating of around 1350, can anyone advise me a good chess book?
For the record, I may be reasonably rated, but I regularly get thrashed by anyone over 1900 because they've got better positional sense and I've still got a lot to learn.
Look at the games you've lost, see how you've been squeezed, learn from them - that's usually positional play. Why did he put a piece in a position that you found hampering your position three moves later? What moves did you make that you later found to be fatally weak? Get to the logic behind the moves of the opponents you lost to and what mistakes you made. Mistakes (as opposed to blunders) are not immediately apparent - you feel the effects later.
The beauty of a site like this is you get to play many times more games than you ever could hope to play over the board (OTB). Play often and use it as a learning experience. If I'd had this opportunity as a kid in the early '70s when we'd play a game a week in the league, I'd be a better player today (maybe).
Play lots, study tactics and look at your mistakes, is my first recommendation. But only if you look at tactics can you understand your mistakes.