Masterpieces of Chess Literature

There are thousands of chess books, but most fade quickly with time. Here, I am trying to find modern chess books (last 20 years), mainly on strategy, that would be considered exemplary and timeless.

Here are just two I'm considering:

- Reassess Your Chess by Silman
- Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy by Watson

Which books would you recommend?

Originally posted by exigentsky
There are thousands of chess books, but most fade quickly with time. Here, I am trying to find modern chess books (last 20 years), mainly on strategy, that would be considered exemplary and timeless.

Here are just two I'm considering:

- Reassess Your Chess by Silman
- Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy by Watson

Which books would you recommend?

Art of Attack in Chess - V. Vukovic

all of yasser seirwans books are good including strategy.

my system.

Learux

Originally posted by Learux
my system.

Learux

I would agree with that, but it's much older than 20 years.

The inner game of chess

Originally posted by exigentsky
There are thousands of chess books, but most fade quickly with time. Here, I am trying to find modern chess books (last 20 years), mainly on strategy, that would be considered exemplary and timeless.

I'm interested to see the opinions of the RHPers, so I hope some more people post comments on this one. But I'm curious why you're ruling out anything over 20 years old, especially since you're looking for a strategy book with timeless qualities. Is it because you don't want to deal with descriptive notation?

Originally posted by exigentsky
Reassess Your Chess by Silman
Which books would you recommend?

That one...

I've just got how to reassess your chess & have just ordered the art of attack in chess so that should keep me busy!

Originally posted by exigentsky
There are thousands of chess books, but most fade quickly with time. Here, I am trying to find modern chess books (last 20 years), mainly on strategy, that would be considered exemplary and timeless.

Here are just two I'm considering:

- Reassess Your Chess by Silman
- Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy by Watson

Which books would you recommend?

The "timeless" chess books were written much longer than 20 years ago:

Lasker's Manual of Chess, by Em. Lasker
Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces, by Kmoch
Masters of the Chessboard, and Modern Ideas in Chess, by Reti
New York 1924, by Alekhine
My System and Chess Practice, by Nimzovitsch
My Best Games of Chess, vols. I and II, by Alekhine
300 Chess Games, and the Game of Chess, by Tarrasch
360 Brilliant and Instructive Endgames, by Troitsky
William Steinitz: Selected Games, by Devide
Morphy's Games of Chess, by Sergeant
Marshall's Best Games of Chess, by Marshall
Chess Fundamentals, A Primer of Chess, My Chess Career, by Capablanca
Nottingham 1936, by Alekhine

Other classics:

The Immortal Games of Capablanca, by Reinfield
Capablanca's 100 Best Games, by Golombek
Basic Chess Endings, by Fine
Rook Endings, by Smyslov and Levenfich
Zurich 1954, by Bronstein
Capablanca's Best Chess Endings, by Chernev
The Middle Game vols. I, II, by Euwe and Kramer
Complete Chess Strategy vols I-III, by Pachman
Boris Spassk's 100 Best Games, by Cafferty
The Tactics of the Endgame, by Ban
My 60 Best Games, Fischer

I have seirawan "Winning Chess Tactics" and it is a wonderful book. I would assume that "Winning Chess Strategy" by seirawan is just as wonderful.

der schwarze Ritter wrote
Lots of books

Have you managed to read many of those?

Sounds like a great reading list - need to freeze time for a few years just to read half of them though!

Originally posted by TheGambit
Have you managed to read many of those?

Sounds like a great reading list - need to freeze time for a few years just to read half of them though!

I read them and many others (these are the best of the best) while in college, post college, and while between jobs. The ones that bear repeated readings are the Rubinstein book, Capablanca's Best Chess Endings and My 60 Best Games by Fischer.

Originally posted by der schwarze Ritter
The "timeless" chess books were written much longer than 20 years ago:

Lasker's Manual of Chess, by Em. Lasker
Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces, by Kmoch
Masters of the Chessboard, and Modern Ideas in Chess, by Reti
New York 1924, by Alekhine
My System and Chess Practice, by Nimzovitsch
My Best Games of Chess, vols. I and II, by Alekhine ...[text shortened]... Best Games, by Cafferty
The Tactics of the Endgame, by Ban
My 60 Best Games, Fischer

Great list of classics.
However I would drop the following two endgame books, Fine's BCE and Smyslov's Rook Endings because the endgame book, Fundamental Endgame by Dovorsky, and the Van Perlo book, Endgame Tactics are both much better and highly recomended.

The Life and Games of Mikael Tal is definitely worth a read.