1. Joined
    23 Jan '20
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    2296
    27 Jan '20 21:05
    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?
  2. Joined
    23 Jan '20
    Moves
    2296
    27 Jan '20 21:16
    At my age improvement is slow or not at all eh?
    I can still love a book though 😉

    “The art of defense in chess”
    By Andrew Soltis 1975
  3. e4
    Joined
    06 May '08
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    42492
    27 Jan '20 21:27
    'Tarrasch's Best Games' by Fred Reinfeld.
  4. Standard membermchill
    Cryptic
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    27 Jan '20 22:201 edit
    @old-indian said
    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?
    I'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. 🙂

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/081293671X?tag=sa-b2c-new-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1
  5. santa cruz, ca.
    Joined
    19 Jul '13
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    376505
    28 Jan '20 00:47
    my fav chess book is 'My System' by Nimzowitch
    but I'm only rated 1400
    so what do I know
  6. Joined
    18 Jan '07
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    12363
    28 Jan '20 17:33
    @greenpawn34 said
    'Tarrasch's Best Games' by Fred Reinfeld.
    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.
  7. santa cruz, ca.
    Joined
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    28 Jan '20 18:20
    @shallow-blue said
    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.
    isn't that how you get back ranked mated?
  8. Joined
    23 Jan '20
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    2296
    28 Jan '20 18:52
    lol eh?
    thats what i thought too eh?
  9. Joined
    18 Jan '07
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    12363
    28 Jan '20 23:24
    @lemondrop said
    isn't that how you get back ranked mated?
    Yeah, he can get a bit... obsessive... about those pawns.
  10. SubscriberPaul Leggett
    Chess Librarian
    The Stacks
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    21 Aug '09
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    113497
    29 Jan '20 00:091 edit
    @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!
  11. Joined
    23 Jan '20
    Moves
    2296
    29 Jan '20 00:52
    My library has a lot of books eh?
    I will look for those books 😉
    They might be too advanced for me eh?
  12. Joined
    17 Apr '11
    Moves
    5
    05 Mar '20 04:47
    for me the top 2 were
    Modern Chess Strategy by Pachman
    Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis

    for games my favorite was Smyslov

    also excellent is Learn From the Grandmasters (ed by Keene)
  13. Joined
    17 Apr '11
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    5
    05 Mar '20 04:49
    Oh yeah, and that Reinfeld book on Tarrasch was indeed good (also his volume on Keres). This was still early on (before he became the ubiquitous pedagogue).
  14. Joined
    12 Jul '08
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    13814
    05 Mar '20 17:48
    I liked Simple Chess.
  15. Joined
    17 Apr '11
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    5
    05 Mar '20 20:50
    Yeah, I'll second Simple Chess. 🙂
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