In Need of a Book/Study Recommendation

if someone would be very very kind, could you take a look at some of my play, and recommend an area of study i should focus on? (i've read some basic strategy/puzzle books, but i want to delve deeper)

or could you just recommend a book for someone wanting to get more into chess? more specifically, learning the openings/strategies, intermediate/advanced mid/endgame strategy, etc.

Originally posted by slickhare
if someone would be very very kind, could you take a look at some of my play, and recommend an area of study i should focus on? (i've read some basic strategy/puzzle books, but i want to delve deeper)

or could you just recommend a book for someone wanting to get more into chess? more specifically, learning the openings/strategies, intermediate/advanced mid/endgame strategy, etc.

Looking at your play I think the Yasser Seirawan's Winning Chess series would be worth your time.

Originally posted by Bedlam
Looking at your play I think the Yasser Seirawan's Winning Chess series would be worth your time.

if you were to recommend 1 or 2 books out of the series what would they be? (as of now i can't afford all 8)

Originally posted by slickhare
if you were to recommend 1 or 2 books out of the series what would they be? (as of now i can't afford all 8)

I think this would depend on what you want to develop in your game. While my ranking does not reflect the improvement of my game, my friends ranked higher are finding it more difficult to win after I started Sierewan's Strategies book.
I now plan to work through Sierewan's Openings to set myself up to be in better shape in the middle so i can reach the endgame which will do nicely since I am now working on the Endgame book simultaneously.

Good luck.

I think there are two books you should try:

Winning chess tactics, and Winning chess endings by Yasser Seirawan.
Read them twice before you get any books about openings ("starting out; the english opening" is very good). Then when you get better you could try "the amatures mind" by Jeremy Silman. (If you do not play in a chessclub then look out for one in your hometown.)

😉 Bikingviking

At some point you should read "How to reassess your chess" by Jeremy Silman. I would say get that before "The amatuers mind"

The biggest thing you will lack as a new player is experience and there is a program that will give you a bit of a shortcut to learning common themes. download the demo at www.personalchesstrainer.com and work on the exercises. I would start with the endgames and move on from there.

I would have been using that all the time now but I stupidly got into over 80 games on here so it's sucking up my study time.

good luck.

Originally posted by slickhare
if someone would be very very kind, could you take a look at some of my play, and recommend an area of study i should focus on? (i've read some basic strategy/puzzle books, but i want to delve deeper)

or could you just recommend a book for someone wanting to get more into chess? more specifically, learning the openings/strategies, intermediate/advanced mid/endgame strategy, etc.

I like "how to reassess your chess" by jeremy Silman (3rd Edition)

I've made the mistake of buying lots of chess books and only reading bits of them and I now know the meaning of the expression: "It's not how many chess books you have it's how many you've read" Still good to own them though for the future!

Do think in terms of "studying" a chess book as they take time to work through.

Maybe also think of chess books as being like a language book and avoid starting with one that is too advanced.

I like the Yasser Seirawan books and find them accessible and concise and would second the reccommendation to start with his tactics and endings books so long as you are already familiar with notation. If not "Play Winning Chess" starts from the begining. I'm also tempted by the Jeremy Silman titles which have been well reccommended in other threads.

"Logical Chess: Move by Move" by Irving Chernev. One of the best books out there in my opinion.

I suggest the following program that worked very well for me. The total cost of these books will be expensive(it took me a while to get enough money for these books). If you want to know what specific areas to improve in and how, I suggest you buy The Chess Exam and Training Guide. The book specifically assess you in different areas and assigns you a rating for each. After that, it gives tips on how to improve on the areas you found weak.

Anyway, the program that I used for about 2 months over the summer(unfortunately I have no time now) consisted of the following books. It made me jup 120 points.


Winning Chess Tactics (Tactics)
Winning Chess Strategies (Strategy)
Winning Chess Endings (Endgame)
Winning Chess Openings (Opening)
Winning Chess Combinations (Tactics/Combinations)
All by Yasser Seirawan

Just Facts! (Endgame)
The King in Jeopardy (Attack and Defense)
by Lev Alburt

The Chess Exam and Training Guide by Igor Khmelnitsky (General)

Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors --(Don't be fooled by the title! Not just for juniors) by Robert Snyder (Game Collection)
Winning Chess Touraments for Juniors by Robert Snyder (General)

Chess Tactics for Beginners by Convekta (Software) (Tactics)
Chess Master 10th Edition by Ubisoft (Software) (General)
This is very costly, but I don't recommend you start studying one book and not the other or you may become inbalanced in terms of skill(I.e., you may be very good in strategy and not as good in tactics). I think it would be better if you waited until you saved enough money at least for the winning chess series, and then bought them. That's just what I think.

THE STUDY PLAN

Once you purchase(try getting them cheaper through ebay, half.com, used and new on amazon, etc.) the above mentioned products, I recommend the following program which really worked for me.

1) Develop an opening system. Follow the format outlined in Winning Chess Tournaments for Juniors. All the lines and information is in Winning Chess Openings. Make sure you note the main lines and main variations(don't bog down with details) for white, and good responses to 1.e4 and 1.d4 as black. The goal is not to get fancy dancy openings but just to survive through the opening and get to the middle game.

2)Play OTB tournament games at least every two months, and make sure you notate them. Put a star on games worth analyzing.

3)Analyze the game first by the Method in The Chess Exam and training guide, and then enter it into Chess Master with Blunder Check on.

How to study books:

Here's how I did it.

I made a notebook for each category- endgame, strategy, tactics/combinations, and Attack and Defense. Then, I would set the position being discussed on the board, and any important positions I would create on the computer(you can get free ware or buy the one I use at www.alphaprime.com/chessmaker) and print it out. I paste it into the notebook, writing some of my own notes and some of the book notes. I feel this helps me absorb the information better.

I also recommend working through Yasser Seirawans engame book first, and then moving on to Just the facts!

Oh and get a yahoo! account and play chess there.
Here's what I did
Sunday
Book Study: Strategy(30 min)
1 G/30 game against Chess Master(from here on abreviated as CM)
Analyze and un-analyzed starred games
50 Chess Tactics puzzles on Chess Tactics for Beginner(from here on abrieviated as CTB)

A slash indicated that that should be done every other day. (I.e., tactics/combinations means on one week do tactics, the next week do strategy)

All book studies are 30 minutes
Monday
Book Study: Endgame(30 Min)
1 game on Yahoo! Chess
1 G/20 game against CM
50 Puzzles on CTB
Chess Master Academy for 30 min
Analyze any un-analyzed games
1 Unbeatable Chess Lessons lesson (Here on referred to as UCLL)

Tuesday
Book Study: Tactics/Combinations
1 G/15 Game agaist CM
50 Puzzles on CTB
Work on opening system(Work on memorizing, etc, updating lines)
Analyze any un analyzed games
1 UCLL

Wednesday
Book Study: Chess Exam/King in Jeopardy
1 G/10 Game against CM
50 Puzzles on CTB
Work on Opening System
Look at analyzed games and try to discern a pattern
1 Yahoo game
1 UCLL

Thursday
1 G/15 game agaist CM
Winning Chess Tournament for juniors/Tactics

Sorry, I'm too tired from typing. I'll post the rest tomorrow.(Yawn) I think I'll go to sleep.

Originally posted by chesskid001
I suggest the following program that worked very well for me. The total cost of these books will be expensive(it took me a while to get enough money for these books).

Are you joking?

This is bad advertisement for the books you mentioned, you're rated about 1200...............don't tell me you red all that ten books and still blunder queen to 1150 players.

I mean........I've read your post and was stunned to see that you took time to read the ten books you mentioned and the effort you put in the study, but then was doubly stunned to click your profile curious to see some 1200 improving to 1600-1800 but only saw your rating and some of your games.

Did you really read the ten books and followed your program? (which is good and maybe worth the time to be followed)

And also you should read one book at a time. Not 5

Originally posted by slickhare
if you were to recommend 1 or 2 books out of the series what would they be? (as of now i can't afford all 8)

you need to learn how to annihilate the queen raid.

A good book for this is Winning Chess Openings by Yasser Seirawan. After that I would read Winning Chess Strategys, than after that Winning Chess Tactics.

Originally posted by Ravello
Are you joking?

This is bad advertisement for the books you mentioned, you're rated about 1200...............don't tell me you red all that ten books and still blunder queen to 1150 players.

I mean........I've read your post and was stunned to see that you took time to read the ten books you mentioned and the effort you put in the study, but then was d ...[text shortened]... ten books and followed your program? (which is good and maybe worth the time to be followed)

I played chess kid, and his strategy looks pretty solid to me, I resigned the game in the middle game as I had too many games, but I thought he's better than just about every 1200 player Ive played, and I think hed give you a pretty good game.

Originally posted by Ravello
Are you joking?

This is bad advertisement for the books you mentioned, you're rated about 1200...............don't tell me you red all that ten books and still blunder queen to 1150 players.

I mean........I've read your post and was stunned to see that you took time to read the ten books you mentioned and the effort you put in the study, but then was d ...[text shortened]... ten books and followed your program? (which is good and maybe worth the time to be followed)

I did, and though I suck now, I really was much worse then. I was, and still am dedicated to studying to improve. As I said before, I only studied these for two months, and it helped my rating 100 points- If I had enough time, perhaps I would be higher, perhaps not. Also, on RHP games, I blunder more often than regular games because I generally spend at most 5 seconds per move... It's a bad habit of mine, because I'm willing to spend the time on OTB games. I suggest you not judge the program from my RHP games, which, from now on, I will take more seriously.

I honestly did follow my program and it did honestly work for me inthe short time I used it.