Which books should you read?

Originally posted by deeploser
I'd personally have to recommend How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman. I noticed I got some flack for buying the book at my rating where people said I needed to work on tactics. That's true tactics are very important but a lot of players at my level do nothing but one move threats or trade pieces without knowing which trade is better for their posit ...[text shortened]... ows you which trades are better and how to form a plan so those tactics will be played better.

There's quite a fun book called "The Seven Deadly Chess Sins" by Johnathan Rowson. In it he doesn't talk about specific positional themes, but rather psychological ones. For instance one of the chapters is entitled "Wanting", where he discusses those games where you want to win so much you end up messing it up. At the start of the chapter he gives a position (de Firmian - Hillarp Persson 1996) where one player is rated 200 more than the other, the position just at the time control was:



De Firmian had missed a win just before the time control and should have taken a draw with 43. Kh3 Rh1+ 44. Kg2 Rg1+ etc. As the higher rated player he tryed to avoid the perpetual and this happenned:

43. Kh2?? Nf3+ 44. Kh3 Rh1+ 45. Kg2 Rh2+ 0-1

Now I know I've done that kind of thing when trying to win against "lesser" players...

The book's an entertaining read, and concentrates on aspects of the game that aren't normally considered by most chess authors. I'm sceptical about the idea that the total weight of chess books owned is proportional to rating of the owner of the books, so I assume that they are not going to make me a better player and expect them to give me value beyond that. This is a book that fulfils that criterion.

Tal's account of his world champion match against Botvinnik, Tal Botvinnik 1960, is definitely worth having. I'd recommend both these books to pretty much anyone, with the caveat that if you are rated less than 1,200 you'll need to read them again when you get over that mark.

About Chess Praxis by Aron Nimzowitsch, you can read reviews on amazon.com it's a great book and I plan to read it once I get a little better, or once I finished My System.

Anyway, I know someone on my msn list that is about 2200 rated player. I am about 1280 or whatever. Anyway, you suggested that My System be for 1200 - 1400 players. He told me that I am not ready yet and should be studying tactics.

Now I just dont know what to do.

Any suggestions? Will the book help me?

0-1600

I would add, all of Yasser Seirwans Winning Chess Series books, 7 of them. I've read the first 6, but not the new combination one.

Originally posted by Ian Coetzee
About Chess Praxis by Aron Nimzowitsch, you can read reviews on amazon.com it's a great book and I plan to read it once I get a little better, or once I finished My System.

Anyway, I know someone on my msn list that is about 2200 rated player. I am about 1280 or whatever. Anyway, you suggested that My System be for 1200 - 1400 players. He told me that ...[text shortened]... tudying tactics.

Now I just dont know what to do.

Any suggestions? Will the book help me?

Originally posted by Ian Coetzee
About Chess Praxis by Aron Nimzowitsch, you can read reviews on amazon.com it's a great book and I plan to read it once I get a little better, or once I finished My System.

Anyway, I know someone on my msn list that is about 2200 rated player. I am about 1280 or whatever. Anyway, you suggested that My System be for 1200 - 1400 players. He told me that ...[text shortened]... tudying tactics.

Now I just dont know what to do.

Any suggestions? Will the book help me?

Originally posted by Ian Coetzee
About Chess Praxis by Aron Nimzowitsch, you can read reviews on amazon.com it's a great book and I plan to read it once I get a little better, or once I finished My System.

Anyway, I know someone on my msn list that is about 2200 rated player. I am about 1280 or whatever. Anyway, you suggested that My System be for 1200 - 1400 players. He told me that ...[text shortened]... tudying tactics.

Now I just dont know what to do.

Any suggestions? Will the book help me?

Thanks for the reply.
Well, I will definatly buy it, along with Chess Praxis, very soon. If I find it difficult I will just wait a month or so after I gain some more experiance.

I've been reading allot of reviews and those 2 books seem like a must.

I'm also looking at this book http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Tactics-Yasser-Seirawan/dp/0735606056

Its just sad how they dont make it obvious how good you should be to benifit the most from the books.

Originally posted by Ian Coetzee
Thanks for the reply.
Well, I will definatly buy it, along with Chess Praxis, very soon. If I find it difficult I will just wait a month or so after I gain some more experiance.

I've been reading allot of reviews and those 2 books seem like a must.

I'm also looking at this book http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Tactics-Yasser-Seirawan/dp/0735606 ...[text shortened]... t sad how they dont make it obvious how good you should be to benifit the most from the books.

if your asking about pawn structure with andrew soltis he talks about openings and how to go about the middle game based on the pawn structure. such as the sicilian, caro kann, slav, closed sicilian etc etc. it also talks about how to go about games iwth locked pawns both whites pawns on e4 and d5 and vise versa.

Can anyone reccommend a good book teaching how to defend?

This is my weekest skill and I would love to improve.

Anyone know this book?:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1857442504/qid=1024510574/ref=sr_11_0_1/jeremysilmani-20

First book for the beginner (all of these are great):

Guide to Good Chess by Cecil Purdy
Chess the Easy Way by Reuben Fine
Play Winning Chess by Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman
The Chess Player's Bible by James Eade
Chess Primer by Jose R. Capablanca

Second book: Attacking Chess by Josh Waitzkin

Third book: Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev

Fourth book: Winning Chess Openings by Yasser Seirawan

Fifth book: Understanding Chess Move by Move by John Nunn

Sixth book: Silman's Complete Endgame Course

Supplement all of the above by practicing combinations. I suggest "Sharpen Your Tactics", by Anatoly Lein, et. al.

I've just started playing again after many many years away from Chess and would consider myself a 're-freshed' beginner. I recently purchased Susan Polgar's 'Chess Tactics for Champions', which I've found to be very good and really easy to follow.

It basically presents 50 or so puzzles on topics such as Forks, Pins, Discoveries, Decoys, Pawn Promotion, Mate in 2, 3 or 4 moves etc and gives you the solutions at the end of the chapter.

Granted it's not big on analysis or in depth explanations, but it is a very good cheap and cheerful 're-fresher', which will keep you occupied for some time.

Hope this helps!
Eddie.

For the below 1400 player I would suggest Weapons of Chess by Pandolfini. This book goes over a lot of the basics of the middle game. It discusses good/bad bishops/knights, minority attacks, isolated pawns and d-pawn (positions of strength and weakness) to name a few of the concepts dealt with in detail.
I also have enjoyed Yasser's tactical book as well in the Winning Chess series. It explains the tactical motifs very well. There are many online sites where you can practice these. The chesstactics server and chesstactics.org being the most frequently mentioned, but chesskids.com has some good quizes as well.

Originally posted by Ian Coetzee
Can anyone reccommend a good book teaching how to defend?

This is my weekest skill and I would love to improve.

Anyone know this book?:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1857442504/qid=1024510574/ref=sr_11_0_1/jeremysilmani-20