kmac27 brought attention to a little gem of a book called Attacking Chess by Josh Waitzkin (remember Searching for Bobby Fischer?) It's a great book for the beginner to middling player. It gives lots of common tactical situations Josh managed from when he was a little kid to a young man. Big diagrams and lots of explanation. You can read it easily without a chess set. One of the few books i've read from cover to cover. (Fireside Library--Simon and Schuster-- 15 bucks paperback new.
that book is a gem it teaches you a lot about how to use tactics and how to attack. i have read some of those books and its inspired me to go for the win weather i lose or not. if you check out some of my last games you'll see how i've done and if you check out some of the games i'm playing now you'll see a couple of good attacks that were successful
Originally posted by chesskid001Jeremy Silman has written a few books that are good.
I was stuck at 1100 for about a year until a few months ago, where I started a system for rapidly improving. Since then, I've gained 100 points, but since I've only been to 4 tournaments since starting (First one up 30 points, second one down 25, 3rd one up 130, 4th one down 34) so it could be just because of 1 good tournament performance. Incase my plan ...[text shortened]... nclude what website you went to, what books you studied, and how much time you spent on each.
"Reassess your Chess"
"The Amateur's Mind" (Or something similar.)
These books are good because that are about forming new habits. A lot of players reach a plateau around the 2100 mark because they are "prisoners of their minds erroneous dogma." Silman's book helps you learn (and also unlearn bad habits) about subtle poisitional elements and definitely gave me a new perspective: I like tactics but I sometimes got uncomfortable in sterile positions and tried to force things.
Relying on tactics can bail you out of trouble but I have found that the most amazing tactics can come from a game that is played according to sound strategic principles.
Joining a chess club and playing against stronger players is an excellent way to improve. I played internet chess a few years ago and was rated online about 1200-1300 (after a year and a half!!). Two years in a club and my rating went to 1800.