Best chess books according to redditors
We found 749 Reddit comments discussing the best chess books. We ranked the 354 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 749 Reddit comments discussing the best chess books. We ranked the 354 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
I play chess. My USCF rating is currently 2123... And I thought the sphere chess looked absolutely retarded at first too.
>Nah, I feel you should start from openings.
You shouldn't. Opening theory is quite dense and heavily influenced by computer analysis. You benefit more from trying to understand what you are trying to achieve, rather than trying to simply memorize some openings.
Logical Chess: Move by Move is a great book for anyone that has mastered the basics but is looking to learn more. You will pick up some opening knowledge along the way, learn how openings give rise to specific kinds of middle-games. And you will come across some endgames (although endgame basics are absent).
If you wish to seriously improve there are 3 parts:
There is quite a lot of chess literature. If you enjoy chess and wish to study and improve there are plenty of ways to do that. If competing in tournaments interests you check out the United States Chess Federation if you are in the states. If you are abroad, check out FIDE. And of course there are online options such as chess.com, the Internet Chess Club, etc...
Sorry... bit of an enthusiast :)
You can improve quickly. Well...it depends upon what you think "Quick" is. Try doing what i tell you, i mean hell, you think you haven't improved for months, so what harm is there in doing what I say?
Step 1. Study all of this information first I don't care if you feel that you know it, or if you DO know it. Look at it long and hard. Read every word and go through the examples, process all of it, be honest with yourself if any of the tactics surprise you or were not immediately apparent to you. (Some won't be)
[http://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics--definitions-and-examples]
Step 2. Do 5-10 (no more than that) Chess puzzles on Chesstempo.com (with a free account). Do this every day.
[Warning Do NOT guess what move is correct. Do the "standard" puzzles, because they are not timed. Calculate the entire sequence of moves until you think you've got it correct. Don't move unless you have a clear tactical sequence in mind and have fully thought out your opponent's replies and your moves.
Step 3. Study this entire page. I highly recommend buying Jeremy Silman's "amateur's mind." I will give a link to the book, this webpage is basically an overview of it. Study this webpage very thoroughly and it should open your eyes to the positional considerations that you should be making when assessing a position and coming up with a plan.
Website: [http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/chess/planning.html]
Jeremy Silman's Book: [http://www.amazon.com/Amateurs-Mind-Turning-Misconceptions-Mastery/dp/1890085022/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1418959354&sr=8-3&keywords=silman]
Step 4. This is just general information I'd look over to understand what you're really dealing with as far as chess is concerned. You don't need to memorize all of this, but it should point you in the right direction.
Typical Pawn Structures and the themes associated with those structures: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawn_structure]
A general guide to endgames: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_endgame#General_considerations]
A few openings are on Wikipedia, mainly popular mainlines, don't waste too much time trying to memorize them, but don't ignore them, people really downplay opening studying: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_opening#Open_games:_1.e4_e5] if you click the names of the openings, like "Ruy Lopez" and "scotch" there are entire pages dedicated to them. I'd learn at least the basic idea and a few moves. at your level deviations will happen quite quickly, but you need to learn the idea and what you're trying to accomplish.
Finally one final tip from myself. Go to www.chessgames.com and go through a game without moving the "next arrow" just look at the notation and when you run out of the ability to hold it in your mind, be it 2 moves or 6 or 10 moves. Push the arrows and update the position, then, try to go from there in your head and keep going. This exercise will dramatically increase your vision.--- Another way to do this would be to have an annotated chess book and try to read all the moves between the diagrammed positions, and really stretch your mind. you have to puuuushh to the point where you really can't hold the position any more and try a few more moves still. then go and correct it. This exercise helps TONS. it's very stressful and difficult to do, so you won't want to do it, but the hard-work is rewarded quickly. only 1 or 2 weeks of this daily training at ...10-20 minute intervals and your visualization will improve dramatically.
Ok, cutting and pasting my own post from early in the year. (Sorry about the formatting.) I originally composed this for a friend who claimed he was ready to work on chess for 20 hours/week. I don't think he's kept it up.
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Here's what I recently emailed someone in the same situation as you - well, his goal was year-end.
If you STUDY chess for 15-20 hours/week for a year, you should be 2000 strength by the end of the year, and 2200 (I expect - much better than me) by the end of next year. Studying is the same as for math and music - it does not include leisure time like playing blitz.
You can break down your chess study into five buckets:
Tactics (start now and continue forever)
Endings (start in April and continue)
Playing/competing (start in February / start reading in July)
Strategy/middlegame planning (start in August and continue)
Openings (start in November and continue)
I think you need to begin them in that order - overlapping, of course.
[1] Tactics - do these books in order. DO the problems, however long it takes - don't look up an answer until you have a solid solution. If the books offer clues on the page (e.g. this page is all pins and skewers), go through and black them out with a marker in advance.
[2] Endings
[3] Playing/competing Play slow games, at time controls of Game/60 to Game/120, preferably against stronger players. Keep score, then analyze and annotate those games in depth, without using a computer. Then go over the games and your analysis with a stronger player, e.g. bring it to Sunday chess club.
I should really stress this - chess is about playing, not just studying. You need to find a variety of strong players, not just computers, and play against them. You might also consider playing correspondence.
If you play in tournaments during this time, DO NOT THINK ABOUT YOUR RATING. Also, NEVER offer or accept a draw, EVEN if the option is losing. During the next two years, your only goal is to learn and improve. Learning comes from playing on.
After a few months of playing and analyzing slow games, read these books:
By "read" I mean go through them slowly, doing every exercise, thinking about every comment to every game. It's hard work.
[4] Strategy/planning
[5] http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Chess-Opening-Repertoire/dp/1901983897 [How to Build Your Chess Opening Repertoire]
Of course someone else could construct an equally valid study plan with hundreds of entirely different books, but ... the ones I've chosen are excellent, and I strongly believe that they are sufficient.
I don't mention computers very much. I think they can be most useful as sparring partners for learning your basic endings and (eventually) openings. But don't let your study center around computers or opening databases or internet blitz.
And of course ... don't let it stop being fun. :-) Maybe that's where some blitz comes in. Otherwise, what's the point?
I might suggest some reading material that may help out your chess thinking process.
Silman's The Amateur's Mind and How to Reassess your Chess are both great for any beginner to moderate strength player, as they focus on understandable concepts and fixing common problems in many people's game.
I don't know your level, but if you're a novice (as it sounds like you are) here's my advice:
As for the specific parts of the game, here are my suggestions. in order of importance:
Endgames: Learn to your level, then practice them on Chesstempo/friend/computer.
Tactics: It's tactics all the way down!
Openings: Play with the same openings. Don't spend too long on each, but maybe watch a few videos to get the ideas behind them.
Thought process:
That's all I got for now. Good luck!
Your best bets, as a beginner, is to improve your tactical skills and make sure that you don't freely give away pieces. Read this and then use this. I assume you already know the relative values of the pieces (if not, just use the standard valuations). Make sure that after each move, no piece can be taken by a piece with a lesser value (unless you would gain more value in return by use of a different tactic).
If you want a chess book, then I would recommend Irving Chernev's Logical Chess, Move By Move.
Finally, learn your basic endgames (under Basic Checkmates) and opening principles. The former will partly train your visualization skills, and partly give you an edge in the endgame. The latter allows you to ignore the memorization of openings and to continue with an edge when your opponent plays a questionable move.
Doing all this will get you up to at least a 1400 rating (with 800 being an average beginner, and 1600 being a club player).
repost : "The birth of the Chess Queen" by Marilyn Yalom gives a great history of how the traditional male vizier role was usurped by a female during the middle ages through to the 1400(?) because of a prevalence of female monarchs. http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Chess-Queen-A-History/dp/0060090650
i highly recommend this book for beginners: [Logical Chess Move By Move by Irving Chernev] (https://www.amazon.com/Logical-Chess-Every-Explained-Algebraic/dp/0713484640)
Here's an excerpt after the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3:
At this point you will note that black must defend his e-pawn before going about his business.
There are several ways to protect the pawn. He must evaluate and choose from these possibilities:
f6, Qf6, Qe7, Bd6, d6, and Nc6
How does black decide on the right move? Must he analyze countless combinations and try to visualize every sort of attack and defense for the next 10 or 15 moves? Let me hasten to assure you that a master does not waste valuable time on futile speculation. Instead, he makes use of a potent secret weapon - positional judgement. Applying it enables him to eliminate from consideration inferior moves, to which the average player devotes much thought. He hardly glances at moves that are obviously violations of principle!
Here is what might go through his mind as he selects the right move:
2. ... f6: Terrible! My f-pawn occupies a square that should be reserved for the knight and it also blocks the queen's path along the diagonal. And I've moved a pawn when I should be developing pieces.<br /> <br />2. ... Qf6: Bad, since my knight belongs at f6, not the queen. Also, I'm wasting the power of my strongest piece to defend a pawn.2. ... Qe7: This shuts the f8 bishop in, while my queen is doing the job which a lesser piece could handle.<br /> <br />2. ... Bd6: I've developed a piece, but the d-pawn is obstructed, and my c8 bishop may be buried alive2. ... d6: Not bad, since it gives the c8 bishop an outlet. But wait - it limits the range of the f8 bishop, and again i've moved a pawn when I should be putting pieces to work.<br /> <br />2. ... Nc6: Eureka! this must be best, as I have developed a piece to its most suitable square and protected the e pawn at the same timePawn Structure Chess by Soltis is a classic
I believe it was Philidor who said "Pawns are the soul of chess," and that is definitely true. As for knowing how they work, that's a bit tricky.
There are a lot of books out there on pawn structure chess (such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/Pawn-Structure-Chess-Andrew-Soltis/dp/1849940703)
But in my opinion, I think you have to understand the pieces very well before you should start tackling pawn movements. For instance, does the position call for to rip open the center by trading pawns (in situations where you are ahead in development or have bishops vs knights), or should I lock up the center and not trade the pawns off there (in a situation of knights vs bishops)? Or on another level, does this pawn move negate the possibility for him to get a defender to this square B that would defend square A?
But back to the pieces. I think a solid understanding on bishops vs knights games, developmental advantages, knowing when to pawn storm, etc. will allow you someone to better understand when pawn moves may be beneficial or harmful to their position. A good book for learning this kind of info is Reassess Your Chess by IM Jeremy Silman. It's not solely about pawns, but you learn a lot of indirect knowledge about pawns through reading it that allows for the understanding of certain pawn moves. After that I would possibly move to pawn specific books if you want to further your knowledge.
TL;DR - make sure you understand the pieces/positions and you can derive if a pawn move might be beneficial or harmful
For me, I think it comes down to a few main ideas:
So, to summarize - learn basic checkmates, look for opportunities to achieve winning positions on all areas of the board, and practice tactics. Easy, right? I'll get back to you in another 10 years after I get better at it, haha.
The Chernev book is awesome, one of my favourites.
In a similar vein Nunn's Understanding Chess Move by Move is brilliant.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Chess-Move-John-Nunn/dp/1901983412
Also CT-ART 4.0 (android and iOS) is cheap and imo the gold standard for thematic tactics training :).
Other books I own and like.
Fundamental Chess Openings (covers a lot of ground explaining the goals of each without reams of variations).
Laskers manual of chess (oldie but goodie - get the new edition).
Positional Decision Making in Chess Gelfand).
Try not to buy too many books until you've read and got what you can from each, also revisit them once in a while because as you improve you'll find stuff you didn't see/understand first time around.
Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!
Here are your smile-ified links:
The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games
Understanding Chess Move by Move
Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953
Tal-Botvinnik 1960
Alekhine My Best Games of Chess, 1908-1937
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^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly&nbsp;bot
I hope the responses you get put you on the right track. But there are books on this topic such as this excellent one which is 650+ pages. I only say this to point out that anything you read here is only scratching the surface. It just depends how deeply you want to learn.
The general consensus for novice chess players is to do a few things:
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So let's look at each of those items quickly.
Playing as much as possible.
If you can't play OTB, you still have a billion options. Here are some online options:
Don't have wifi and still need a game? There are plenty of apps for your phone/tablet:
Analyzing your games.
This is crucial. When you are done with your games, go over them and analyze the moves yourself. Where did you/your opponent go wrong? What did you do right? Did you miss tactics or mates? Did your opponent play an opening you were unfamiliar with? Did you reach an uncomfortable endgame and not know how to proceed? If your opponent played the same moves again in a different game, what would you do differently? Answering questions like these on your own will help you in future games.
After your initial analysis, you can then show it to a stronger player (you can submit your games to this subreddit to get criticisms, if you provide your initial analysis along with the PGN) and/or using a program to run a deeper analysis for you. Lichess provides free computer analysis on their site and I also made a quickie SCID/Stockfish tutorial a while back if you want more control over the depth of analysis.
Studying tactics.
"Tactics is almost undoubtedly the most productive single area that beginners and intermediates can study to improve their game - the more practice, the better." -- Dan Heisman (PDF)
There are a ton of places to study tactics online and you should make use of them.
Chess Tempo seems to be the gold standard when it comes to online tactics training. I would start with their standard set (Which means that time isn't a factor. You can stare at a board forever until you find the tactic, and the time won't affect your rating.) at first, but eventually play the other sets as well. I do a mix of each of them every day. Don't make it homework though, or you'll burn out, and chess will feel like a chore.
Don't forget to make use of their endgame trainer. After the first 20, you can only do 2 per day, and I recommend making it a top priority. Studying endgames, even for just a few minutes per day, will be very beneficial to your play.
Chess.com also has a tactics trainer, and for free users you get 5 tactics per day. At the very least, do the 5 chess.com tactics and the Chess Tempo endgames. You can find time for this every day, I assure you.
As a side note, this isn't really tactics but lots of people like this Lichess Coordinates Trainer for learning the names of the squares. If you do this once a day, for both black & white, it will take you about 1 minute. Easy.
Developing your pieces in the opening.
Read Dan Heisman's Beginner Guidelines, which I copied into this thread. At this stage, you don't need to study opening lines. However, whenever you read a point in the opening that you are unfamiliar with, you should look it up in an opening book, database, or online to find the common moves in that position. This will help you spot errors in your play and will set you up for success when you play that line in the future.
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There are a ton of other resources that you should look into.
For videos, I would recommend these channels:
As for books, the ones that seem to be promoted for you level the most are:
There are a bunch of great chess columns out there, but I suggest starting with ChessCafe.com, and specifically Dan Heisman's Novice Nook.
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Well fuck. I thought I was just typing out something quick, but I turned it into a novel. Sorry about that.
Time to eat some pumpkin bread and watch Sunday Night Football!
Logical Chess Move by Move is a great one. I recommend buying a premium membership on chesstempo for custom problem sets and to find where you're tactically weak. Not blundering pieces at your level should be your biggest concern and chesstempo is great for that.
Ray Cheng's book Practical Chess Exercises is exactly what you want. I'll just paste an excerpt from my copy (basically most of the introduction):
> Each exercise consists of a diagrammed chess position, and your task is to find the best move. For each position you are told only which side is to move; there is no further set-up. For example, you will not find a caption under the diagram such as “White to mate in 3,” or “How can Black exploit the undefended rook on a1?” The intention is to furnish only the information that you would have during a real game, when no such hints are expected or permitted. Indeed, any kind of training tends to be more effective to the extent that it simulates the conditions of actual competition. That is one of the core principles of this book. For similar reasons, the exercise positions are not grouped by theme or labeled by level of difficulty. Again, the idea is that in a real game, no one is going to whisper in your ear “Hey, you have a killer knight fork,” or “You’d better spend a little extra time on this move, because it rates four stars in difficulty.”
>
> Most chess puzzle books consist entirely of tactical exercises, but there is a downside to this. Knowing at the outset that there is a tactic to be found dilutes the value of the exercise. Indeed, it encourages the reader to adopt an abridged thought process—jumping right into calculating outrageous sacrifices, for instance, without being led toward the solution by skillfully reading the clues in the position. Just as often, this reader might prematurely stop calculating once a plausible tactic has been found (and affirmed by the solution in the back of the book), without bothering to double-check whether it really works. For that reason I included a number of positions where there is a tempting tactical try that fails for some reason, and the best move is something else entirely. In real life, many (and perhaps most) tactical possibilities turn out to be flawed, and thus the habit of double-checking them is well worth cultivating. Likewise, I included positions in which it is your opponent who has the tactical threat; your job is then to identify the threat and take any appropriate defensive measures.
> Many of the exercises in this book cover tactical themes, while others need not have a tactical resolution at all. There are exercises built upon positional ideas, such as outposts, weak squares, pawn structure, superior minor piece, and positional sacrifices. Other exercises are concerned with basic theoretical endgames that every chess player should know, or they feature interesting endgame positions that have occurred in practice. Many of them will illustrate important endgame concepts, including the active king, opposition, rooks behind passed pawns, and the outside passed pawn. As far as openings go, you will not be tested for your specific knowledge of theoretical “book” moves. You will, however, need to handle opening positions based on fundamental principles, such as those concerning the center, development, and castling. Of course, there will also be opening tactics and blunders to contend with.
>
> The exercises in this book appear in random order, not only by theme, but also by level of difficulty. After all, being able to judge how much time and energy to devote to a particular position is a valuable skill during actual competition. The exercises range from very simple to very difficult, with most falling into the middle categories. For the sake of reference I have labeled the solutions (but not the exercise positions themselves, of course) with up to four stars to indicate their approximate difficulty.
>
> Because they are not accompanied by artificial hints, working through these exercises will instill a more complete and realistic move selection process. They present opportunities to utilize and strengthen your tactical vision, positional understanding, theoretical knowledge, and intuitive judgment in an integrated and holistic manner. In addition, they will enhance your ability to anticipate your opponent’s ideas, calculate variations, and evaluate the resulting positions accurately.
I personally have found the problems to be interesting and of high quality :)
The pawn structure is talking to you. It's telling you exactly where the pieces belong. Just listen, if necessary calculate, and make it so.
Each pawn structure dictates a different plan, so it is often difficult to generalize what to do in the absence of tactics for "all cases." You can start to generalize when you see big overarching patterns and techniques, but this is the stuff of decades of study.
A well heralded book on this is [Pawn Structure Chess] (http://www.amazon.com/Pawn-Structure-Chess-Andrew-Soltis/dp/1849940703) by Andy Soltis.
Edit:
An example is pawn rams. Eg 1.d4 d5. You have only 3 plans that work. Flank on the c file, flank on e file, or bite down on the center (c3, e3, Nf3, Bb2) and once the center is secure play for complete wing attacks/pawn storms (as you may know, wing attacks are best stopped by attacks in the center, hence the intense defense of the center).
Consequently, Nc3/Nc6 before moving the c pawn is very bad in most d pawn games because it's slows or eliminates two of the three plans, so you MUST play for an e pawn break.
This strategic info won't help you much in most Sicilian games.
Concentrate on your endgame and middlegame
You will be amazed how important the endgame is. From reading [Jeremy Silman's Endgame course] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silmans-Complete-Endgame-Course-Beginner/dp/1890085103) I can see that even if you go down by 4 points of material that you can still salvage a draw. I suggest that you don't spend long on openings: For white I just play a white system (botvinnik system in the english) and I have 3 openings for black which counter the most common moves by white. Concentrate on middlegame and endgame since they are most of the battle!
edit reason: accidental post
The best book on strategy I've ever read is called "How to reassess your chess" link.
There are some really key things to be aware of.
Anyway, even if you don't play chess, I highly recommend that book. It will make you better at games in general.
Bronstein, Zurich 1953. Easily one of the top five chess books ever written.
> watching high rated games does nothing just like watching olympics doesn't make you faster runner or better at javelin
I disagree, depending on what "watching" means in this context. I believe actively working through well annotated master games can be very instructive. See for example the oft recommended Logical Chess: Move By Move: Every Move Explained.
The key difference between chess and athletics here is that you can watch actively, constantly coming up with your own candidate moves and calculations while "watching". Passively watching chess like you would watch running won't do much for you.
I posted this in the past to the same question:
Well there's a massive picture book type thing called A Photographic History of English Football which should be recommended more often than it is. It's one of those Guinness Book of Records sized books that might have trouble fitting on a shelf but it covers every aspect of the history of the English game (and thus the history of football itself). The pictures are extremely good too, especially the ones from the 1900s.
For a more in-depth study of football across the world, Simon Kuper's Football Against the Enemy is definitely one of my favourites though it's a little outdated now. However, Kuper travels round Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas interviewing key personnel in some of the bigger Clubs in the area and tells their history. His chapter on Dynamo Kiev and their Cold War era function as a funnel between East and West is worth the price of the book alone in my opinion.
In terms of autobiographies, I have always recommended Sir Bobby Robson's Farewell but not Goodbye as he tells the story of his journey from working in a coal mine in North East England to playing for his country and eventually nurturing the talents of some of the most important people in football now on and off the pitch. Most of all his personality shines through and the man is a hero to me and many others.
If you want a more technical autobiography then Rinus Michel's Teambuilding is the go to standard. Not strictly an autobiography and more a technical book but he intersperses it with his own experiences and you really get the feeling of how the greatest coach in the history of the game came to believe the things that he did.
If you like quirky but thought provoking books then Football and Chess might pique your interest. I'm a great believer in the vast similarities between chess and football on a tactical level and the author shared the same sentiment. Not the best written book in the world but it's gets your noggin ticking over and makes you reassess your ideas on the game which is always the best thing a book can really do for you.
Also as a fan of Italian football and culture, Gianluca Vialli/Marcotti's book The Italian Job is one of my favourite football books ever and extremely thought provoking on the differences in the football cultures in England and Italy and how both can learn from each other.
On the psychological side, I've recently read Inside the Mind of a Manager which was interesting. I can't say that I agreed with all of the conclusions and think the quotes were a little cherry picked but it's a good read for people who want to know more about what the modern manager actually does for a living and the people interviewed for the book are some of the best maangers alive today.
Lastly, if you really want to look at the business side of the game and how it is changing then I would recommend Ferran Soriano's book GOAL! The Ball doesn't go in by chance. Soriano is Man City's current CEO and former Barca CEO so he's certainly been there and done it on the business front and many of his ideas ion that book are beginning to be realised now. He recently did a lecture about it which skimmed over the ideas but the book delves into it deeper and tells stories from his time at Barca.
If you want more of a narrative and less of a business lecture then former Crystal Palace Chairman Simon Jordan's book, Be Careful What You Wish For is an excellent read. Be aware that Jordan is obviously bitter about his time at Palace and tries to settle some old scores here but outside of that it's a semi interesting look at his time at the Club and the problems he faced in implementing his business strategies.
You've got to get yourself some good books and devour them. I have unconventional advice, but if whatever you've been doing isn't working, give it a shot.
My beginners routine
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You need a consistent motif; so, if you want to play 1.e4 try to stick to that. For black choose 2 defenses: one against 1.e4 and one against 1.d4
What you need to do here is learn the first few moves of the opening just so you can get yourself inside that structure... maybe the first 5 moves or so. And you're going to feel lost I promise you, but just do it, ok. When you win/lose, whatever, a part of your analysis is going to be to go to www.chessgames.com >set the year to >=2000 or 1980 something like that>set the openings to the opening you played or enter the ECO code>click search and you can watch Grandmasters play your opening. This will give you a good idea of what kind of moves are made and where you play on the board. You may even be able to extract some plans out of it.
https://www.amazon.com/Fundamental-Chess-Endings-Karsten-M%C3%BCller/dp/1901983536
This is the book that Carlsen had in his too weak too slow video.
Its actually really good, better than Silman's book.
Modern Chess Strategy by Ludek Pachman is fantastic for gaining a basic understanding of many general positional themes in chess. Many illustrative games relevant to each theme with great insight and analysis provided by Pachman. It is in descriptive notation, but that's not too hard to learn.
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Chess-Strategy-Ludek-Pachman/dp/0486202909
When people first learn chess, they only learn the basic rules of the game. There is little positional or tactical understanding... (As it should be) There are many ways to get better at chess but all of them require work.
Some great players like Capablanca, insisted on learning the fundamental endings first. The problem is that, even if you know how to win with an extra pawn, you might not have the positional/tactical understanding to get to that pawn-up ending. So, I have found that you have to do a little bit of everything. I learned some endings, I learned some tactics and combinations, I learned some openings and so on.
I suggest that you study whatever is giving you the MOST problems first. Once you have taken steps to minimize and/or eliminate that problem, other problems will come up. Do the same and invest some time trying to get better in that area. Repeat until you get better. it is a simple concept but hard to do in practice.
Chess has a rich history. It is wonderful that we have access to the games of the past and all of its analysis. I recommend that you do not re-invent the wheel and that you read some books. The following should be helpful:
Also visit quality websites (Some recommendations below but not the only ones by any means...)
"If you know nothing at all about the game of chess other than the rules, there still things that you can do right away to help you win more games. You won't be beating tournament players, but you can rise above your current level by studying the right things. The same principle applies to all levels of players. There are things that you can do immediately to win more games. The key to chess improvement is pattern recognition. Whether you realize it or not, to improve at chess you must reprogram your brain to see things that you did not see before." - From the Introduction on "From Beginner to Chess Expert in 12 Steps"
Always do your best and enjoy the game! Good luck!
If you're a beginner My System probably isn't the book you should be reading. Its aimed at much more advanced players (the r/chess faq puts it in the 1800-2000 rating bracket). Thats not to say you wouldn't learn anything, but there are almost certainly much more fundamental errors in your chess play and a lot of things Nimzowitsch will presume you are already familiar with will go over your head.
As for a good book to help, I'd recommend checking out Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev.
Endgame study is good, but I've seen a lot of beginners argue that being good at the endgame doesn't matter so much if the game is practically lost before you get there. Because of that I suggest you start with learning opening principles (control the centre, develop pieces, castling, don't move one piece too many times etc). There's plenty of stuff out there on this; if you really enjoy JBs videos then he talks about common opening mistakes a fair bit in his early "Climbing the Ratings Ladder" series, notably the under 1000 and 1000-1200 videos.
Note I don't recommend studying openings too much at this point, just the opening principles / ideas. Once you're familiar with those, move on to becoming comfortable with some standard endgames ( King+Queen vs King, King + Rook vs King, King + Pawn vs King)
As for watching John's game videos, I argue that if you're enjoying them then it doesn't matter too much if it's not the most efficient use of your time. Chess is about having fun, there's not much point to playing if you don't enjoy it.
Make sure you're focusing on his thought process and reasoning behind making the move rather than what the move actually is. Take time to pause the video in critical situations and think about what move you would make (similar to what Mato Jelic does in his videos) and then resume and see if you're right, or if he plays a different move again focus on his though process and reasoning behind it (i.e. why did you decide not to play that move whilst he did).
The most important thing when you're a beginner is to play lots and analyse your games. Once you know the opening principles and basic endgames, you should be spending most of your time playing and analysing your games (WITHOUT a computer).
No it doesn't. It has historical parrallels. The book, "Birth of the chess queen" by Marilyn Yalom http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Chess-Queen-A-History/dp/0060090650 detaisl how the previosly Indian vizier role converted to the queen due to mimic the number of Eurpoean historical queens in power at the time.
"Birth of the Chess Queen examines the five centuries between the chess queen's timid emergence in the early days of the Holy Roman Empire to her elevation during the reign of Isabel of Castile. Marilyn Yalom, inspired by a handful of surviving medieval chess queens, traces their origin and spread from Spain, Italy, and Germany to France, England, Scandinavia, and Russia. In a lively and engaging historical investigation, Yalom draws parallels between the rise of the chess queen and the ascent of female sovereigns in Europe, presenting a layered, fascinating history of medieval courts and internal struggles for power."
I'm asking for Ludek Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy as my first chess theory book. I guess I wanted a cool chess clock too, but I figured the book is simpler for others to find and get. I also had Lev Alburt's opening books in mind.
When I was first learning, Logical Chess Move by Move was a huge eye opener for me. It explains every single move in the game in detail while going through full games. You get introduced to opening ideas, middle game planning, and endgame technique. The book is a very effective primer on a lot of key chess principles and it really teaches the beginner the importance of a single move since you get to read all of the ideas that go into every move.
When I was a low intermediate level player (I'd guess around 1300-1400), I read Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess and that had a huge impact on my playing level once I start to assimilate the knowledge. His coverage of the thought processes for middle game planning, move selection, and looking at material imbalances really opened my eyes to how I should be thinking about positions.
I've read probably 15-30 books in part or entirely over the years. Those two stand out the most to me. Beyond those instructional books, I think books of games collections are good to go through. My favorite were How Karpov Wins by Edmar Mednis (I am a Karpov fan) and Bronstein's Zurich 1953 book (one of the most highly regarded books of all time). Alekhine's Best Games was also a fun read, but it used old style notation I believe, which was a chore for me to learn and go through at the time.
Other special nods from me:
>Is FICS still the best place to play?
For free places, definitely. If you don't mind paying, either ICC or Playchess will give you more/better opponents with better behavior, but I still play on FICS quite a bit even with an ICC account. Other free ones, such as Chesscube, I have found really annoying flash heavy interfaces that cause browser problems and very rude players that would rather let the 20 minutes on the clock expire hoping you will accept a draw than resign gracefully.
>Is Babas Chess the best interface?
Definitely.
>What's a good chess engine to analyze games? I have old version of Fritz, Fritz 8 I believe and I think Chessmaster 10.
The best two free engines are Houdini 1.5 (Houdini 2 is not free, but only like a 50 ELO gain so for your purposes no different) and Komodo. Komodo is almost as strong yet only single core right now, and I have found the analysis more useful personally as often Houdini will suggest lines I would never even consider playing.
>Anything else you think would be helpful?
I'd recommend playing slow games to start with, at least 30 30. I would also recommend a book like Logical Chess Move by Move. You can play through the games pretty quickly, don't bother analyzing things. Should help you get back into the feel for the game, I know doing something like that after not playing for a while helps me.
The exact book you want is this one: Logical Chess: Move by Move. I can't recommend it enough for someone your level.
To get your ranking, just play a few online games. The online ranking you get will (roughly) match your USCF ranking... Regardless of your ranking, that book will be perfect for you.
I'm also a beginner, and this book has been absolutely perfect so far. It's not bogged down with advanced detail and theory, and it does a great job of getting across the fundamental ideas from historical GM games.
http://www.amazon.com/Logical-Chess-Every-Explained-Algebraic/dp/0713484640
Tell him to bring out a chess board, or open up an analysis board, and play each move along with the author. It really helps the lessons sink in easier.
Don't worry about openings for now. You can have perfect opening knowledge and still get killed by weak players with a basic grasp of tactics and an ability to find threats. Those areas are the starting point.
To that end, assuming you know the rules already, and can read chess notation, start with a VERY simple book on tactics. Go through "Simple Checkmates" by A. J. Gilliam (Amazon link) seriously at least seven times--preferably about 10 to 20 times--until you can instantly see the right move in each diagram.
Learning chess is all about building up your knowledge of basic patterns, and I've yet to find a book that gives such a good grounding in the most fundamental and important of these basic patterns.
More advanced (but still cheap) books that are good for learning to see patters in chess would be 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate, by Fred Reinfeld (ignore any books of his that don't consist of just diagrams, though) and the excellent Chess Training Pocket Book: 300 Most Important Positions, by Lev Alburt.
I found Winning Chess Strategies, by Yasser Seirawan helpful as an introduction to strategy when I first started out, but some people think his writing style is more suitable for kids.
How to Reassess Your Chess: The Complete Chess-Mastery Course, by Jeremy Silman or The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery, also by Silman are big touchstones for chess learners in the late-beginner phase. A less-known author that I highly recommend is C. J. S. Purdy. He wrote quite a while ago, but he's incredibly insightful in teaching amateurs to break bad chess habits and generally understand how to think in chess. Here's an Amazon search result for his books. (By the way, I don't necessarily endorse Amazon as the best place to buy chess books, but the links are convenient.)
Main thing is, get the basics down. Build up the basic patterns. Go over the simpler diagrams over and over until you know them cold. Then move on to strategy, more advanced tactics and endgames, then worry about openings.
amateurs mind is very good
also you should probably get CT-ART for tactics, since all games starting out will be won though tactics
I really like this one : Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master
https://www.amazon.com/Silmans-Complete-Endgame-Course-Beginner/dp/1890085103
Silmans Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master is often recommended here
I gave you some advice for each book at each level. Of course all of these books can be switched around and if you want to read Dvoretsky (A very advanced author) at your level you're welcome to. Although a 1300 rating on lichess.org is still at a beginner level so I suggest you start from that section.
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Beginner:
Play Winning Chess By: Yasser Seirawan
Logical Chess Move by Move By: Irving Chernev
How to Reasses Your Chess By: Jeremy Silman
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Intermediate:
Practical Chess Exercises By: Ray cheng
The Art of Defense in Chess By: Andrew Soltis
Pawn Structure Chess By: Andrew Soltis
---
Master:
Fundamental Chess Endings By: Karsten-Müller and Frank Lamprecht.
Art of Attack in Chess By: Vladimir Vukovic
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual By: Mark Dvoretsky
In no particular order:
The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games
Understanding Chess Move by Move
Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953
Tal-Botvinnik 1960
Alekhine My Best Games of Chess, 1908-1937
Botvinnik Best Games trilogy
Wow, thanks! I’m always a little worried about how often I spam your handle across Reddit whenever anyone makes a chess history reference. I do it in real life too about your YouTube channel. Phenomenal material. Your work is top quality incredibly appreciated.
Edit: direct link to the book referenced here https://www.amazon.com/Birth-Chess-Queen-Marilyn-Yalom/dp/0060090650
Silman is notorious for making numerous claims on how simple chess can be. Just create some imbalances and win!
"How to Reassess Your Chess" is at best a mediocre book, based on a dubious hypothesis, and laid out in a far from satisfactory way.
Instead of Silman, read Ludek Pachman: Modern Chess Strategy, the book Silman cribbed from and watered-down. It is still out there, selling for much less money, and delivering 10 times the chess acumen.
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Chess-Strategy-Ludek-Pachman/dp/0486202909/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=S09TM1ZR22BSP6XEV110
FWIW I've been there and know exactly how feel. Unless you do suffer from dyslexia or are mentally retarded (and based on your writing style I doubt that!) by playing and doing regular tactics training you will eventually begin to see improvement in your game. That being said, here are some things to consider:
You say you've read a chess book; which one? Esp. for beginner/intermediate players it's important to read the right books. e.g. a book covering a specific opening wouldn't be helpful. I learnt this the hard way: my bookshelf is full of books that are far too advanced/specific for me! (I'm still a class C player but I've gone from 1100 to 1500 in the last two years). I found the following books helped me to understand how to evaluate and plan, which also helped me to figure what my opponents are up to:
There's also a great video series by IM Lawrence Trent on Chess24 called Planning Unveiled.
Getting destroyed over and over is just a normal part of improving and you should come to terms with it. Analyse your games afterwards. First without an engine and then turn the engine on since it will help you find more accurate moves and expose flaws in your own analysis. Using the engine to find tactics you and/or your opponent missed is especially instructive and I do it all the time.
Just my 2c.
Lichess has a coordinates trainer where you're just given a square on the board in algebraic notation, and you find it as quickly as you can. The notation is easier to grasp once you're not taking a few seconds carefully counting through the files and then counting through the ranks to hunt for each square. Other than that, it's just practice. The more you see it, the easier it will be to read. Lichess also has some basic tactics training. Their puzzles are good too because after you've found the solution, it's easy to study the problem further on an analysis board and see why your first guess was wrong by playing it and seeing what the computer would do next.
On YouTube, IM John Bartholomew's videos are very helpful, especially the "Chess Fundamentals" series and "Climbing the Rating Ladder." ChessNetwork has a good series for beginners also.
A good book for beginners is Logical Chess: Move By Move by Irving Chernev. Chernev annotates 33 games to explain what the purpose of each move was. Chernev wrote before masters were able to double check all their analysis with computers, so there is the occasional questionable judgement, and some people think he puts too much emphasis on general rules you should follow without enough on nuances and exceptions to those rules. However, it is probably still the best book of this kind that is truly aimed at beginners, and it will be helpful if it at least drives home the idea that every move ought to serve a purpose.
Openings: The Scandanavian will be fine for the rest of your chess career. Learn c5 if you feel like it, not because you think its 'better'.
Midgame: Tactics will be the first thing to help you improve your chess. I think its a good idea to add a little positional study in there, but focus on the tactics.
Endgame: This is a helpful thing to study. However, I don't have any good book recommendations for you on this one. Hopefully it is something someone else can help you with.
Christmas recommendations:
Gold membership on Chess Tempo for tactics.
Also the book Logical Chess Move by Move for some positional study.
Here's the standard unoriginal suggestion:
The Mammoth Book
It's such a canonical book that in chess circles, it gets its own abbreviation, HTRYC. I'd check your local library first, though, because it's so popular that they're bound to have a copy of it.
It's a good book for learning basic strategy, but I recommend you pair it up with this book so you can look for the themes without the crutch of context.
This book, "Practical Chess Exercises", has a mixture of tactical and positional solutions, all mixed together: it's up to you to assess each position and determine what the best move is; it doesn't say "hey there are/aren't any tactics in this problem". So it is not 100% what you are looking for, but it may be helpful.
I am currently going through this book by Ray Cheng-
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Chess-Exercises-Lessons-Strategy/dp/1587368013
I agree with this review segment -
What is it? It's 600 problems, six to a page, with solutions sketched (not detailed) on the facing page (which you need to keep covered with a sheet of note paper sized to fit the book). The problems are not the usual themed and rated tactics collection; they are a completely randomized assortment of REAL LIFE positions, many drawn from amateur games. They range from easy to hard, tactical to positional, opening to endgame, and attack to defense. But what is so great about the collection is that you are given not a single hint as to type, theme, or difficulty (until you look at the solution, wherein all is revealed). This simulates tournament play conditions exactly.
Where do you presently stand in terms of an opening repertoire?
I have a Chess.com tactics rating ~1750 and I continue to find improvement in my play by only knowing some basic responses against against 1.d4 (KID and Nimzo) and 1. e4 (Caro Kann and Sicilian), then just trying to play logically when I'm out of book (which can be as little 5-7 moves).
I've kind of made it a policy of my own to stay away from opening theory as I recall spending several hours in CPT thinking I can crush afterward, only to be sobered by my lack of understanding toward the positions that arose in a real game.
Until I'm getting absolutely crushed in the opening, I think I'll do my best to avoid opening preparation altogether and focus on tactics, endings, and positional ideas (thinking Practical Chess Exercises).
I'd recommend the same as the FAQ, namely this book.
If you're aiming to compete, try doing all of the following if you can:
&nbsp;
1- Find a chess teacher. A rating above 2000 is preferred
&nbsp;
2- Get Chess books that teach the basics of tactics, strategy, and endgame.
&nbsp;
3- Make an account on Chesstempo.com and start solving tactics
&nbsp;
4- Play many rapid games online. Chess.com allows you to play for free
&nbsp;
5-For book recommendations : Endgame/
Middlegame
-As for opening, you really need a mentor to guide you in choosing the best opening for you. If you want to learn some opening, this is a good basic book
I'm on the same road. I'm not really good, but I'm working on it.
Read books such as Reassess Your Chess. Watch/listen to some great commentary at [Killegar Chess on YouTube](
http://www.youtube.com/user/SeanGGodley). Play different people frequently (online chess is great for this).
i think this is what you are looking for: The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions Into Chess Mastery
i have that book but haven't read yet. it is highly recommended. i will be able to make more accurate comments about the book after i read.
Chess is a hard game! If you are a serious player, I recommend buying and studying The Amateur's Mind. You need to break down the game and understand the abilities and weaknesses of each piece. Silman helps explains these concepts by exposing the faulty logic in his students' analysis. (Hence, The Amateur's Mind!) It's an amazing book, and I really suggest you try it out!
https://www.amazon.com/Amateurs-Mind-Turning-Misconceptions-Mastery/dp/1890085022/
Jeremy Silman is a good chess author. I own...
The Complete Book of Chess Strategy
The Amateurs Mind
How to Reassess your Chess
Silmans Complete Endgame Course
...all are recommended
First of all, never say 'opening tactics' again. I think you mean 'openings', 'opening principles' or 'opening strategy'. Strategy and tactics are a different thing, and in chess the difference is huge.
Endgames can be beautifully complicated even when they might appear simple at first. Chesstempo.com has an endgame trainer that is useful. You can also learn a lot from books (example) and youtube (example).
Playing a lot is essential to improvement. But so is analysing your games, studying material and tactics training.
Yeah, I've got my head around it now. I'm not finding it TOO difficult but definitely slows my reading down a bit. The funny thing is that the book still uses normal notation as we know it when referring to specific squares (f2 square, c3 square etc), so it is surprising that it uses a different format when referring to moves.
Aside from that I'm really enjoying the book so far https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Chess-Strategy-Ludek-Pachman/dp/0486202909
I've only read a couple chess books, but I found both of them very helpful as a beginning player. I find Jeremy Silman very good at explaining strategy, tactics, and openings in a way that's easy to comprehend. I got Modern Chess Strategy, by Ludek Pachman, from my grandfather's library. This book is much more dense, but it breaks down chess strategy very well and is organized better than Silman's in my opinion (Opening, Midgame (Tactics + Strategy), Piece by piece strengths + weaknesses, Endgame, Mental game, etc.).
Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking: From the First Move to the Last by Neil McDonald.
I liken it to Chernev's Logical Chess Move By Move: Every Move Explained but more up to date, covering games by Kasparov, Karpov, Kramnik, et al.
My favorite 2 books:
I think both of these books are really good at mastering the moves that you should be making to reach a good position. I don't consider them too advanced, but they assume you know things like reading algebraic notation, basic tactics and motifs.
Also agree with others that a good tactics book will provide with serious improvement in your game. But if you want to understand how to get a position that will provide tactical opportunities, these two books are great.
Besides everything that is being said, analyzing annotated games from the masters is usually very useful and entertaining. This book is great if you want to do that.
You're in for a lot of fun kbphoto, welcome to chess.
For an adult beginner I'd recommend two things to start off with:
Both these together will get you off to a flying start and then later on you can take a look at some more resources listed in the FAQ in the sidebar.
Good luck!
Probably Logical Chess
Here are some things that many people do to improve:
I hope all this helps, and welcome to the chess world!
Yeah, sure.
It depends on a few things. How seriously do you want to take it, and what are your goals. If you want to just casually learn about the game and kind of play it from time to time, that's greatly different from someone that wants to try and get really good etc.
I guess, what does get into chess mean to you? ;)
I'll give a more detailed writeup after that, haha.
edit: Some starter info I guess!
There can be more details etc but that's basically it.
Have you read "Logical Chess: Move By Move" - Irving Chernev? It might help you! It deals a lot with the other aspect of the game, strategy (and openings etc)... Well worth a read!
http://www.amazon.com/Logical-Chess-Every-Explained-Batsford/dp/0713484640
I know you asked for videos but there is a classic book called Logical Chess Move by Move that touts its 'every single move explained' approach. Might be up your alley if you are interested in a book.
Not the book you're after, but I think Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking: From the First Move to the Last is a good book for you. It goes through 30 games (grouped by opening) by annotating every move, so you don't have to read through long sequences of moves without help.
Logical Chess: Move By Move: Every Move Explained is similar and probably good too (Chernev is cool) but I haven't read it.
Question for you or anyone: What is the best chess puzzle app? I'm a huge fan of Ray Cheng's book. Any phone app equivalent?
Ah I'm glad you asked!
My next project coming up is actually to create a site for analyses like this, aimed towards teaching others, like yourself, how to think tactically. Unfortunately there aren't many resources available for “a beginners approach to tactics”, per se, which is a shame; as the initial learning curve can definitely be steep and intimidating.. but, I'll share with you the process I used to learn about tactics and hopefully I can give you some ideas on how to learn to think tactically!
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Once you learn a tactic, pay attention to how that tactic fares against other teams' tactics (ie. 4-3-3 v 4-3-3; 4-3-3 v 4-4-2; etc.).
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Some really interesting reading materials and resources:
Inverting The Pyramid : This book is what I call my “soccer bible”. It gives an incredible scope into how soccer has changed throughout its existence, and while it only lightly covers modern tactics, as it was written in 2008, it explores the intricacies of various tactics, why they are used, and how to identify them. Its long, and very detailed so it may be a tough read but if you can get through it you will be gold.
Football and Chess I mentioned in another comment how soccer is analogous to chess, as this book taught me. A good starting point as it is a very accessible book to any reader.
Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning A fantastic read by itself, but with many parallels between Berhalter and Pep, this book can help understand some of Crew SC's tactics.
Zonalmarking.net : The “Tactics in the 2000’s” section is almost an extension to the aforementioned book; it outlines the current trends in football really well. The author of the site also does very detailed statistical and analytical recaps of matches.
Spielverlagerung.com (bonus content if you speak German- the German side of their site .de has even more info): The “Tactical Theory” section is a good place to start - While they are rather advanced articles, they do a good job at defining some of the key concepts in modern football. The writers are all very knowledgeable about tactics, and do in depth game analyses regularly.
The Number 6 Role : His last post sadly was 2 years ago, but his pieces are fantastic. Of course I'm biased, but Sean’s analysis of Frank de Boer’s Ajax team is incredible, and I would completely recommend a read as Berhalter employs similar offensive tactics (defensively totally different, but the situational pressing application is fascinating).
Think Football : Site focused on providing a wide range of info, content has declined in recent years as the site has sort of turned into a news site with brief articles, but it provides a bit more insight into world football happenings than say sky sports or fox sports; Good intro material.
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I hope this helps, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions as I’m happy to help you learn! Also I have begun writing a rather lengthy piece that will expand on the 6 points highlighted above, it’s far too long to post here but I will be sure to let you know when I have it up on my site. For now you have a reference sheet you can save and hopefully I set you up with a good place to start!
This might interest you then. It's a fascinating read and elaborates on exactly what you've mentioned.
Personally I came from a competitive fps and mmorpg background.
This book is rather underrated. This book serves more of a guide to overall improvement rather than specific chess knowledge. It also covers aspects most books don't talk about but all experience chess players know.
The best advice is to review your games after you play them and to play longer time controls. At least > 10-15 mins. I improved 200 elo just by recognizing how I made the mistake and how to punish these kinds of mistakes.
Most of this sub says do tactics and you miraculously get better but usually fail the mention how to study tactics properly. What you should do is study by theme of tactics and start with easier problems. This sub likes chess tempo but I personally prefer CT-ART or actual tactics books. The benefit of actual tactic books/software is that they are specifically curated by a stronger player to highlight themes. Technically you can do this with chess tempo but it is less obvious on how to do it.
After you have a feel for the game and have a majority of basic patterns in your brain you should study some positional chess and some thematic opening middle and basic endgames. There are many resources for this. I went from 1300-1700 by doing this.
Currently I sit around 1800-1900 uscf. I'm working through the yusupov series and balancing with pump up your rating.
Side note:
Don't get stuck in two common traps. There is the elo trap and the opening trap. Too many players get stuck in the notion that I have to learn something specific to get from one elo to another. There is nothing specific about it. I only added rating before as a general benchmark. You can virtually improve any aspect of your chess to improve your elo. It much more important to focus on the process than the result.
The opening trap is when player study too deeply in one opening and neglect studying other aspects of chess and at some point give up on an opening and jump ship to another one and the cycle resets. There are too many books with titles like "Crushing white with X opening" "Win with the Y opening". Opening books are useful to get general ideas for a position. However if you have good understanding of positional chess you can also come to the same conclusions. Its much better to understand positional chess than to study a particular opening.
If you want to pm me on a study plan you can do so. I don't have time to teach chess these days but I can help you formulate a study plan and next steps.
THE classic on pawn structures is http://www.amazon.com/My-System-21st-Century-Edition/dp/1880673851
On a related note, does anyone know what's up with the base book and Amazon Kindle? I find references that it's available on Kindle, but it's not on the store: How to Reassess Your Chess
The availability of chess books on Kindle is weird. This one for black is.
but this one for white isn't.
The Chessmaster program is indeed awesome. Fritz is better for serious play, or so I've been told, but there is all sorts of helpful stuff on Chessmaster for beginning/intermediate players.
My personal favorite chess book is Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman. You won't find any "White to move and mate in 3" business. You won't find a bunch of sparsely annotated GM games, either. Instead, it gets into good depth on the tactics and strategy of the middle game. I really suggest it, it offers very useful methods of understanding the foundations of chess, recognizing imbalances, creating plans to exploit those imbalances, that kind of stuff. Fair warning, though, beginners might find it useful but I've found you need to have your feet a little wet to get the most out of the book.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman yet. I've linked to the previous edition, which is much cheaper (since you mentioned you didn't want to spend a lot more money). I found this book tremendously helpful in figuring out what to be thinking about when faced with a position on the board that doesn't have an obvious tactic or hanging piece.
Essentially, if you really want to get better at planning, there is simply no substitute for playing and analysing several games (as others have said). Chess is exceedingly difficult and requires significant effort; there's no way around it.
How to Reassess Your Chess - If you can only read one book this is the one to read. Third edition is insanely cheap, but if you want to fork over the extra 20 get the 4th edition.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Reassess-Your-Chess-Chess-Mastery/dp/1890085006/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1483020174&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=how+to+reassess+your+chess
Chess and the Art of War is a fun read. Easy and precise.
https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Art-War-Ancient-Wisdom/dp/0785832815
From my personal experience I have always found chess books to be boring in the very least. I have only read 1 or 2 books that have managed to keep me interested and one of them is Silman's Complete Endgame Course.
I thought this book was good for a few reasons.
In regards to immediately practical advice:
If you're having trouble with game situations and nerves, I would suggest playing out positions with a friend. For example, if you are learning how to mate with a Queen and King vs King, you can set up a position over the board and play with a friend. This way you can practice and there is no pressure because you can take back incorrect moves. (Or if finding someone to play with is difficult, I recommend playing against an engine. Although that may be intimidating, you can always reduce its strength so that it shouldn't be a problem.)
I hope my advice has been helpful!
First off, your best bet is indeed practicing tactics problems on Chesstempo.com. The great thing about that site is that it will give you problems at your appropriate difficulty, and you can keep solving problems as long as you want (no daily limits like there are on Chess.com). It's just like lifting weights or anything - the more you practice, the stronger you will get.
Meanwhile, a consensus seems to be that the first thing you should study are checkmate patterns and endgames in general. I personally like Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame Course, which goes from beginner-level endgames to far more advanced endgames. And although many discourage simply memorizing opening lines, find some that work for you and memorize a handful. Maybe five or so. More importantly than the memorization is understanding the reasoning behind the moves. For example, are the moves designed to grab a strong presence in the center, or is it specifically geared towards an attack on the opponent's queen-side for example? Don't just memorize openings without understanding why the moves are what they are and what they hope to accomplish. Surprisingly, I think the Wikipedia Chess Opening Theory Wikibook is a fantastic resource for all this.
If you're just starting, silman's endgame course is the best book. Silman's endgame course starts from absolute beginner up to ~2000. If you go through silman's endgame manual and dvoretsky's endgame manual, should be the only books you need for endgames until ~2400
Dvoretsky's endgame manual is universally known as the gold standard for what a player needs to know about the endgame. But it's hard to understand, so take time to ease into it.
How to Reasses your Chess by Silman is essentially what you're looking for. It goes over the process of finding imbalances in a position and creating a plan around these imbalances. Examples of typical imbalances would be:
My suggestion would be to go over games by masters in the openings you play. Look for imbalances and take note of how the master uses them to create plans. I would also suggest not changing openings much if at all since plans can differ drastically based on the opening and you don't want to lose any experience you've accrued.
Middlegame: There aren't so many middle-game books, but I liked Ludek Pachman's books. There were originally 3, but when they were translated to English they made it a 2-volume set. There are others like Yusupov or Dvoretsky or Romanovsky, but you could probably pick a couple randomly and get good ones.
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Endgame: Again, there's a lot of variety. I like a very large one done by a German Mueller and Lamprecht.
https://www.amazon.com/Fundamental-Chess-Endings-Karsten-M%C3%BCller/dp/1901983536/ref=sr_1_14?keywords=chess+endgame&qid=1567215435&s=gateway&sr=8-14
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Unfortunately for me I have none of these today. I sold and loaned some books some time ago and I especially miss the endgame book.
Arguably what teaches you what makes a move good or bad at 1300 leve are the tactics puzzles and endgames. The standard for this type of learning is: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1890085138/ and its the standard for good reason. If you don't want a course but more a good book of chess aphorisms and rules of thumb: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936490323 and somewhat harder: https://www.amazon.com/Wisest-Things-About-Chess-Batsford/dp/1906388008. A good book on theory that will have you learn theory as it develops and is fun to read if you like great games is: https://smile.amazon.com/Masters-Chessboard-Richard-Reti-ebook/dp/B006ZQISDY/
https://www.amazon.com/Fundamental-Chess-Endings-Karsten-M%C3%BCller/dp/1901983536/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1525404650&amp;sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Play-Chess-Endgames-Karsten-M%C3%BCller-ebook/dp/B00JKR7DKO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1525404650&amp;sr=8-3
Many mistakes in this game from both sides. White's first mistake is his third move, 3 g3. Black should have countered with e5! gaining the initiative and an opening advantage.
However, if you prefer a more strategical analysis, black was making threats and white was responding. White had the wrong mindset, as he was not combative enough. IM Silman in his instructive book describes this as pushing your agenda. If you don't push a plan onto the board, you will lose, because you are not making winning attempts.
If you want more detailed analysis, please upload your own first. Then, the community can help you by pointing out what's right and wrong in your thought processes.
My point is that if he's truly trying to grasp the basics, the names of all these openings shouldn't matter. Just play basic, solid chess. Follow the opening principles.
Also, you might check out Silman's book [How to Reassess Your Chess] (http://www.amazon.com/How-Reassess-Your-Chess-Fourth/dp/1890085138)
as it may be helpful.
Edit: Oh yeah, that's right. That is the Scandinavian. Thanks.
Go through a good book on endgame and another one on general tactics.
I like these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1901983536/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=66EBRAUAHPIS&amp;coliid=I2A83X6EJLY8H2
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0713484640/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=66EBRAUAHPIS&amp;coliid=I2LJZWM16R3CB9
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1907982302/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=66EBRAUAHPIS&amp;coliid=I1FCMRD6EACKYP
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/9056914723/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=66EBRAUAHPIS&amp;coliid=I8AH7QFI6IYF4
I'd start with the endgame.
May as well start doing Yusupov. Here's the intro series, it's 3 books, just like you wanted. I've always wanted to start these, and starting them at your level would actually be pretty great.
Build Up Your Chess 1: The Fundamentals (Yusupov's Chess School)
Boost Your Chess 1: The Fundamentals (Yusupov's Chess School)
Chess Evolution 1: The Fundamentals (Yusupov's Chess School)
There are then 3 more on level 2, and a final 3 for level 3.
You might try the Yusupov series.
https://www.amazon.com/Build-Up-Your-Chess-Fundamentals/dp/1906552010/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492441854&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=yusupov
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Chess-Move-John-Nunn/dp/1901983412/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1419124644&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=nunn+chess+move+by+move
I think this book beats Chernev since it has more modern games, engine checked and no silly writing for repetitive moves like castles ( everyone who read Chernev's book knows what I mean ).
A fine book that hasn't been mentioned yet: [Understanding Chess Move by Move] (http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Chess-Move-John-Nunn/dp/1901983412/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376777162&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=John+Nunn), John Nunn - Chess is a game of ideas, and this book does a fine job of explaining how top-level chessplayers think. One of his best books...
You can eliminate right off the bat How to Reassess Your Chess as your first Silman book to purchase. The FAQ on Silman's site includes a question on the order to read those three books. Here is his answer:
> The answer depends on your strength. However, let’s say you are 1800 or below. In that case read the 4th edition of How to Reassess Your Chess to page 28, next read all of The Amateur’s Mind, then go back to How to Reassess Your Chess and read the whole thing cover to cover. While reading those two books, spend some time going through Silman’s Complete Endgame Course (only reading as far as your rating level).
If you go to amazon.com's page for How to Reassess Your Chess and click the "Look Inside" link it gives you a preview of the Kindle edition. That preview includes more than the first 28 pages. The Kindle Edition doesn't have page numbers, but if I recall correctly page 28 takes you through "Part One/The Concept of Imbalances".
Given that, you only need to consider purchasing How to Reassess Your Chess after you have finished The Amateur's Mind.
I first heard the story in an archaeology class when we were talking about an ancient chess set we saw in our campus museum, but I have seen it on Wikipedia and its associated sources: https://www.amazon.com/Birth-Chess-Queen-Marilyn-Yalom/dp/0060090650
an article which cites the book: http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/25/books/bk-shahade25
More stuff:
http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/3910
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(chess)#cite_ref-10
Admittedly this is mostly anecdotal on my part, but its the story i've heard and the story I've run with.
this might be a month too late, but i finally remembered the book i was thinking of.
http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Chess-Queen-A-History/dp/0060090650
I like Modern Chess Strategy
I'm a bit embarrassed to have missed that pawn.
I would like to finish reading The Game of Chess simply so that I don't just hop from book to book all the while getting nowhere in particular. However, after that I will definitely study some positional chess. Tarrasch focuses almost purely on tactics in his middle game section. Also, keep in mind that I posted a game that I lost in. I've had plenty of games where I've built successful attacks out of tactics that Tarrasch teaches. I'll defend that book because it helped me grow from where I was, but I agree that I have almost no positional understanding right now.
I already own Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy. Is this sufficient as a positional book, or is Silman's book that much better to warrant buying it?
I am about 1600 USCF, with about 100 chess books. However, most of mine are biographies/historical.
My favorites are:
Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953 by David Bronstein
Soviet Chess, 1917-1991 by Andrew Soltis
Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness by Frank Brady
Aron Nimzowitsch: On the Road to Chess Mastery, 1886-1924 by Per Skjoldager and Jorn Erik Nielsen
Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov (3 volumes) by Garry Kasparov.
I thought that this book was very good.
Logical Chess: Move By Move: Every Move Explained New Algebraic Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0713484640/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_edGRyb4EAXJBJ
When I was a lad my dad never let me win against him at chess. He lent me this book, Logical Chess Move By Move. I set up a chessboard and played through all 40 of the historical games in this book. The book gives a short reason for each move. The results were incredible; suddenly I could hold my own.
I started to take it seriously 2 years ago. I recommend the book Logical Chess .
Once you learn a few openers and basic strategy, you can take out a casual player pretty quickly. Practice on your computer too ICF/ Chess.com. I enjoy watching legendary chess matches on youtube too, especially with move by move narration . ie bobby fischer
Cool, I'll be sure to include this. I already do this as part of my studying.
Right now I am picking games out of http://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Worlds-Greatest-Chess-Games/dp/0762439955
and - after move 10 or so - taking the role of W or B and guessing the moves...I also write down my thinking process.
The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games
i'm currently working through this book
https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Structures-Mauricio-Flores-Rios/dp/1784830003
i really like this because it helps you identify key squares in common pawn structures, and gives some plans on how to attack or defend. it's helping me to not just shuffle pieces around in the middle game
This book is everything you need to know about structures: Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/1784830003/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_kO-LDbBWJ54AB
For openings i like the "starting out" series by everyman but you don't need a book for everything you play. Once you read one or two you'll be able to just look up grandmaster games on chessbase or chessgames.com and learn generally where pieces go. This plus the corresponding structure information from that book will really boost your playing level.
I feel like I'm struggling with the same issue although I'm a couple hundred points higher rated. A good book with plans for various different pawn structures is: Chess Structures A Grandmaster Explains https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Structures-Mauricio-Flores-Rios/dp/1784830003
It's also on chessable now with trainable variations if you're into that.
What I like about this book is it clearly states everything you should get from each chapter and it's presented extremely well. Also it gives more specific plans and their nuances for a lot of situations rather than more general positional ideas. I feel like it's useful for seeing what a good plan should look like even if you manage to find yourself in a more rare position.
Great AMA! Two questions:
I don't know if it is always this cheap, but Pawn Structure Chess is $9.99 (54%off) https://www.amazon.com/Pawn-Structure-Chess-Andrew-Soltis/dp/1849940703/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1499901009&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=pawn+structure+chess
and The Power of Pawns is only $10.85 (46% off). https://www.amazon.com/Power-Pawns-Structure-Fundamentals-Post-beginners/dp/9056916319/ref=pd_sim_14_8?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=9056916319&amp;pd_rd_r=2NB6G793MR4NZ7GA7484&amp;pd_rd_w=wjDyC&amp;pd_rd_wg=6t1lq&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=2NB6G793MR4NZ7GA7484
I would highly recommend Dan Heisman's book "A Guide to Chess Improvement." It is the least chessy "chess book" I've ever read. It is basically a compliation of his Novice Nook column that he wrote for years at Chess Cafe, but in it he lays out a plan for study and improvement, links to more detailed articles from the column and provides lots and lots of resources for how to improve and what areas to study at what time in your development.
Basically you will want to break up your chess time into two areas, studying and playing, you should look to play about 50-60% of your chess time and study the rest. Stay away from Blitz and Rapid until you are 1400-1500 and practicing openings. You want to play slow chess and focus on discipline, thought process, time management and tactics.
Heisman recommends a breakdown like this until you reach 1500 level (based on 10 hours per week):
He also recommends a similar set of homework for the progression from 1500-1700, 1700-1800, and 1900 and beyond but I have not changed up my study schedule yet.
You might also look at a simple program to practice with and record your games on, and to analyze your games against other players with later. I used Lucaschess (Free and excellent) for a long time and then bought Fritz 15 on sale recently.
If you have a club in your area try to go and meet other players. The best way to improve is to play and if you can play and discuss your games with other players in person, you will improve faster than just playing online. Even if you only play online, if you are playing a long game, ask your opponent to discuss the game with you afterwards and try to keep a record of your games, either in a notebook or a chess database software.
Again, I really recommend Heisman's book, as it will really help you prepare you to start improving. And realize, it will take time, 200-300 point improvement in 2 years is pretty good, so if you are an adult beginner, it will probably take 3-5 years of continued study to reach 1800 level, but it is very rewarding.
For me
Get any book by Dan Heisman. Good one to start with is Everyone's Second Chess Book, or A Guide to Chess Improvement. Jeremy Silman is another excellent chess author for amateurs.
I can't buy you any books, but My System by Aron Nimzowitsch is a great book I'm reading in pdf at the moment. I'd highly recommend it for any players around the 1300-1900 USCF range (or even higher)?
Also, if you order any of the ORANGE books by Artur Yusupov in the Chess Evolution/Build Up Your Chess/Boost your chess series, I'm sure he would love it. These are a tad more costly though. The blue ones are harder, and the green ones are hardest (even masters struggle in them) so I think the orange ones would be least frustrating.
I love Chess and noticed you didn't have a ton of chess books on the list, so I thought I'd make a couple recommendations. Good luck!
I heartily recommend Silman's Reassess Your Chess - it focuses on recognizing and imbalances and making plans to create or take advantage of them.
In general, if your opponent reacts during the opening in a way you didn't expect, you should spend some time figuring out why their move was 'wrong' - what imbalance it introduces, and why it is not part of the book.
The best book ever How to Reassess Your Chess. This is the best book to learn or refine your chess. Order the workbook too and when you're done you'll be able to compete at a much higher level.
I recommend reading Jeremy Silman's "The Amateur's Mind". When your opponent makes a move the first question shouldn't be "how should I respond?", it should be "do I have to respond?" (what's the threat and how serious is it?). Chess is a battle of wills, so when one player starts following the other player's plan it's usually a sign that they are not doing so well.
16...a5 is not really threatening anything immediate so I'd either play 17.Qf4 if I were worried about my bishop being trapped or actually I'd probably really play 17.Bf4 (bringing another piece into the attack) since I'd be comfortable responding to 17...h5 with 18.Bxh5 gxh5 19.Bh6, where it looks like our short term piece investment is about to be repaid with interest.
The Amateur's Mind
http://www.amazon.com/Amateurs-Mind-Turning-Misconceptions-Mastery/dp/1890085022/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1412673445&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=Jeremy+Silman
By mastering the tactics I'm assuming you mean learn the strategy? The phrase is ambiguous because 'tactic' has a special meaning within chess.
To be honest, my first exposure with 'real chess' was with one of Jeremy Silman's books, The Amatuer's Mind. I was rated ~1200 at that point, and used to just shuffling my pieces around and hoping my opponent blundered. The Amatuer's Mind taught me about the basics of planning, and that's something I've been learning about ever since.
Annotated game collections are an amazing way to learn.
Start with this
I suggest you get the book the Amateur's Mind and set up the situations on any chess game and work through them. I believe it is the best book for beginners.
https://www.amazon.com/Reassess-Your-Chess-Workbook/dp/1890085057
Pick up one of Jeremy Silman's books, like The Reassess Your Chess Workbook, or perhaps one from Yasser Seirawan - Winning Chess Tactics.
I recently flipped through Spilman's Complete Endgame Course in a book store, and thought it was very well written and easy to digest. The chapters are based on level of difficulty (endgames for expert players, for A-class players, etc), rather than the type of endgame (rook and pawn, king and pawn, etc). Having already read Pandolfini's Endgame Course (a far more difficult read, by comparison), I found this chapter structure to be much better and more conducive to incremental learning.
As for saving yourself the $16.47, look for it in a library or just go to a book store and read it there without purchasing it (if you're in the US, Barnes & Nobles allows this).
A few questions, if you don't mind.
> an hour a day of chesstempo problems
Do you prefer ChessTempo (and similar sites) over a tactics book, e.g. Bain's at low levels or Coakley's blue book for a more intermediate player? Or maybe a combination of the two?
> starting with the fundamentals (Jesus de la Villa's "100 Endgames you must know" covers a very wide audience, and studying it should be about 100 rating points worth in your case)
How would you compare this to Silman's Complete Endgame Course? I have Silman and it has exploded my endgame knowledge.
> an hour a day of working through Jeremy Silman's "The Amateur Mind" or a similar book
At what rating do you think it's worth starting this book? I've read suggestions to not start until 1800, and another that said 1400.
I noticed that you mentioned nothing about endgame studies. You should probably shift your focus more from openings & middle games to middle games & endgames. Buy this if you truly want to improve your game.
Fast time controls like bullet and blitz won't help you get better at playing chess until you can understand the mistakes you're making. They're fun and great for working through openings, however that should be one of your lowest priorities at this stage.
In addition to using the tactics trainer, try to play through some endgames on chesstempo.com.
Here's some suggestions to start with.
Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual: Practical Training for the Ambitious Chessplayer
Great all around.
Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master
Some great endgame work for you.
Can't go wrong with Silman or Dvoretsky. Suggestion looking through their works and seeing what would work for you.
Agree on Silman (link provided). I read Reinfeld first, but this book uses older notation, not the modern algebraic style (think "BxN", rather than "Bxf6"). Silman is a good followup to Reinfeld in my case, but not so much as a first book.
You can try a book that gives you an overview of the basic ideas of most common openings, such as Van der Sterren FCO - http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/FCO-Fundamental-Chess-Openings-p3561.htm
Then you can pick additional pieces of knowledge from annotated game collections such as Chernev's book or Mammoth greatest games of chess - https://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Worlds-Greatest-Chess-Games/dp/0762439955, or look for some instructive contents on YouTube (St Louis Chess Club or Derrek's channel have some good explanatory videos).
But all in all, understanding openings takes time, and the English isn't the easiest pick if you're a beginner, so you must be patient :-)
https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Structures-Mauricio-Flores-Rios/dp/1784830003
Check out Chess Openings for Black, Explained. There's a version for white as well.
I once built a CPT set for this, but it was on a computer that I got rid of. I would be willing to bet that someone has one online somewhere if you look around.