Paul Morphy and chess books

Maybe we are all reading too many books. Paul Morphy, the greated player in the 19th century only had five books until the year 1857. They are: chess studies, La Regence, The chess tournament by staunton, Chess player handbook by staunton, treatise on the game of chess.

Originally posted by hutson
Maybe we are all reading too many books. Paul Morphy, the greated player in the 19th century only had five books until the year 1857. They are: chess studies, La Regence, The chess tournament by staunton, Chess player handbook by staunton, treatise on the game of chess.

There were almost no chess books back then!

I reccomend - THE LIFE AND GAMES OF MIKHAIL TAL

Just about all you need to know to become a good chessplayer is contained in "The Game of Chess" by Siegbert Tarrasch. It is currently available in a new edition in algebraic notation.

You'll probably also need to obtain an opening tome like MCO-14 or NCO, because a lot of Tarrasch's opening analysis is out of date.

Supplement the above with a tactics practice book like "Sharpen Your Tactics" by Anatoly Lein, et. al.

Originally posted by gaychessplayer
Just about all you need to know to become a good chessplayer is contained in "The Game of Chess" by Siegbert Tarrasch. It is currently available in a new edition in algebraic notation.

You'll probably also need to obtain an opening tome like MCO-14 or NCO, because a lot of Tarrasch's opening analysis is out of date.

Supplement the above with a tactics practice book like "Sharpen Your Tactics" by Anatoly Lein, et. al.

I loved "The Game of Chess" by Siegbert Tarrasch. I did think he was a little bit too dogmatic about building a center etc... but it is a great book.

I don't know what happened to my copy and I haven’t been able to find a great quote by him that is in the end of the introduction. Can you quote it on here if you have the book?

To paraphrase it says something along the lines of ~Not everyone can tell a joke or paint a picture, but in chess you must be creative and there in lies chess' particular charm.~ [/less eloquently written]

It’s been years since I’ve seen the quote but that’s close enough to find it in the book.

Thanks

On Morphy... I don't think the difference between me and Morphy ends with the fact that I own 10 times the amount of books he did. He was a genius. Sadly if he lived today he would be ripping us off with a book titled "Think like me"