@old-indian saidI've only gone deeply into 30-40 chess books in my lifetime, but IMHO - Susan Polgar's - Chess Tactics for Champions has helped me improve more than anything. To quote GM Anatoly Karpov in the preface: These are not "problems" but practical situations found in actual games. The positions have been chosen or created to have maximum instructive value" A similar positive quote can be found by GM Boris Spassky on the back cover. This book (347 pgs) gives the reader the foundation of the Polgar sisters' success. 🙂
Any thoughts or opinions on the greatest chess book ever written eh?
I am thinking along the lines of books that improved your game the most eh?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/081293671X?tag=sa-b2c-new-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1
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@greenpawn34 saidYech. Reinfeld. The only thing I learned from him is to never ever ever, ever ever ever, never ever NEVER! move your f, g or h-pawns. NEVER!!!! or you'll be backranked-mated.
'Tarrasch's Best Games' by Fred Reinfeld.
@shallow-blue saidisn't that how you get back ranked mated?
Yech. Reinfeld. The only thing I learned from him is to never ever ever, ever ever ever, never ever NEVER! move your f, g or h-pawns. NEVER!!!! or you'll be backranked-mated.
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@lemondrop saidYeah, he can get a bit... obsessive... about those pawns.
isn't that how you get back ranked mated?
@old-indian
The original Secrets of Grandmaster Play by John Nunn and Peter Griffiths was a very eye-opening book for me.
It is composed of Nunn's best games at the time, and Griffiths as a chess instructor helped shape the text to help make Nunn's thought process and ideas more transparent to the average reader.
It was the first book where I read a GM talking about his own mistakes, and what he thought during the game as distinct from what he later thought after deep analysis. Up to that point I had only read GM comments about what they thought after a game, but not during. It was the most honest chess book I had read, and I was simply in awe as I read it.
The book was later republished by Nunn as Secrets of Grandmaster Chess where he made it more biographical, with some other editing changes. In my opinion it is not quite as good as the original, but still an excellent book of annotated games.
The second impactful book for me (more recent) is Grandmaster Chess Strategy by Kaufeld and Kern. It is a collection of GM Ulf Andersson's strategic masterpieces, and it influenced my play so much that I won $1300 in US OTB Chess tournaments in the 6 months after I read it.
I would also add that everything GM Jonathan Rowson has written, and everything GM Lars Bo Hansen has written are worth every penny I paid for them.
I could get carried away about chess books, but I'll stop here!