18 May 07
Originally posted by SquelchbelchWell, when I actually started reading chess books I read the HTRYC and I was about a 1400ish player otb. HTRYC helped my plan forming skills tremendously. It also propelled my otb rating to about 1750ish or so when I played in tournaments, which was probably 8 to 12 years ago. I then picked up art of attack at about that rating place so it was easier for me to grasp.
Dude, that's pretty heavy-duty for a 1550-odd player to start!
I can get my head around most of H.T.R.Y.C, but the Yukovic book jumps right in there at +1600 level after just a few pages.
It was like - *BANG!*
😕
Art of attack starts a little high, but don't read it all in one sitting... not even a whole chapter. One thing I would recommend with that book would be break the chapters down into smaller sections and don't move on until after you have grasped the concepts explained in that section.
22 May 07
The first I bought myself was David Pritchard's Begin Chess, followed by Learn Chess by C H O'D Alexander and TJ Beach and Chernev's Logical Chess and I'd recommend all three to beginners. The first I ever read were my Dad's collection of Reinfelds: chess mastery, 1001 sacrifices, 1001 checkmates etc ( learnt descriptive before algebraic!).
I'd recommend all of Seirawan's Winning Chess series, esp Tactics and Strategies. Likewise, Jeremy Silman's two Reassess your Chess books, his Amateur's Mind and his Complete Endgame Course. Working my way through all of them now and I'm already thinking differently about my game positions. Excellent books!