Some books i am thinking about purchasing
- Chess Exam And Training Guide, Igor Khmelnitsky
- Chess for Fun and Chess for Blood, Edward Lasker
- Creative Chess Strategy, Alfonso Romero
- Chess Mazes, Bruce Albertson
- Chess for Zebras, Jonathan Rowson
- Chess Self-improvement, Zenon Franco
- Chess Praxis, A. Nimzowitsch
- My System 21st Century Edition, A. Nimzowitsch
- Judgment and Planning in Chess, Max Euwe
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Bronstein & Furstenberg
- The art of planning, Neil McDonald
- How to Reassess Your Chess: The Complete Chess Mastery Course (Exp. 3rd Edition), Jeremy Silman
- The Reassess Your Chess Workbook, Jeremy Silman
- The Art of Logical Thinking, Neil McDonald
- Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953, David Bronstein
- Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played, Irving Chernev
- Understanding Chess Move by Move, John Nunn
- 50 Essential Chess Lessons, Steve Giddins
- Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces, Igor Stohl
- Alexander Alekhine's Best Games: Algebraic Edition, A. Alekhine
- Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions, Pal Benko, Jeremy Silman
- Super Nezh, Rashid Nezhmetdinov, Alex Pishkin
- The Middlegame - Book One: Static Features, Max Euwe, H. Kramer, Lou Hays
- The Middlegame - Book Two: Dynamic & Subjective Features, Max Euwe, H. Kramer, Lou Hays
- Art of Attack in Chess, Vladimir Vukovic
- Pawn Structure Chess, Andrew Soltis
- Simple Chess, Michael Stean
- The Amateur's Mind, Jeremy Silman
- Winning Chess Brilliancies, Yasser Seirawan
- Winning Chess Endings, Yasser Seirawan
These are some books that i am thinking about purchasing. Are any of my readers familiar with any of these books? Are they good? Are they bad? Are they the "must have" one's? Or if you have any other suggestions (i am allready familiar with the basics), do not hesitate to let me know, because i want to start a small (personal) chess book library. And hopefully even read them someday ;-)
P.S. I am also very interested in books that can be read without a board.
(Note! This post is subject to editing)
posted by Edwin 'dutchdefence' Meyer @ 7:10 AM
32 Comments
32 Comments:
The Bronstein books are wonderful. His stories and games are very entertaining.
I find Rowson's books are fascinating to read, and 'Chess for Zebras' continues this tradition with a mix of philosophy, psychology and Grandmaster level chess instruction.
McDonald's 'The Art of Logical Thinking' copies the move-by-move analysis format of Nunn's 'Understanding Chess Move by Move'. Nunn does it much better, but with so few books out there like this, for me it's worth having.
I suppose at least some copy of Nimzowitsch's 'My System' should be in every chess player's library. I'd also check out Watson's 'Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy', which shows what parts of 'My System' have survived to modern chess, and what's radically different.
Thanks Chris! Added Nunn's Understanding Chess book. I'll look into Watson's book.
Art of Attack in Chess is what I would consider a "must have" book.
J.A. Topfke
I recently got Art of Attack and do not like it. Dry, cumbersome, and witless. It reads like a translation of a Dostoevski novel. There simply has got to be something better out there for this topic. I have yet to find it,unfortunately. Please let us know if you do.
I enjoyed Art of Logical Thinking very much, you can read about it here, http://hungarianknight.wordpress.com/2006/07/31/chess-the-art-of-logical-thinking/
Zebras and Self-Improvement are pitched at a high level (1800+, IMO). Nimzo is somewhat boring and egotistical, IMO. Bronstein is amazing for 1600-1800 players. I Chernev's annotations are biased and simple platitudes (I avoid him and Silman). Giddins is a simple enjoyable read and not intimidating. McDonald is one of the better authors. UCMBM is fantastic, Nunn is another great author though Nunns newer GCMBM is over my head (for 1900+, IMO). Art of Attack is great if the mating patterns are elementary for you. I recommend Art of Checkmate, which Tim Mcgrew (columnist at ChessCafe.com) called "the best book ever written for amateurs." I tend to agree.
(This is all very subjective and just my opinion!)
I also wrote a blog post on this very subject just now.
Take care EM!
I have a new appreciation for "Chess Mazes" since doing some of them for free at ChessCafe. They are definitely worthwhile for building up your board vision and memory, rather like various La Maza drills. I think it's a book worth having.
Yeah! "Chess Mazes" looked like a very cool book to me as well when it comes to vision drills. Nice to hear a positive comment about it.
Are you still doing PCT?
Yes i am.
skip 'my system'. buy art of attack.
Well, in that case, i think i'll take both ;-)
Edwin, Jeremy Silman's "How to reassess your chess, workbook" can, for 90%, be read without a board. And it is EXCELLENT!
such a great list! most or all of these are good.
stohl's books is great.
romeros book is wonderfull ( GM Seirawan told me on one of our personal conversations or many walks here in seattle: "THAT is a very good book!")
chernevs most instructive is a favorite of mine. ive been slowly annotating the games (long hand) WITHOUT REFERENCING the notes as yet, so learn better by placing what i miss into resolution.
ive made pgn files of all of these, as well as have zurich, my system, nunn understandCMBM etc, but these three really float my boat.
the chernev most instructive games are the cats meow, for me. all that does NOT go under the rubric of tactics is in this book, i.e. outposts, control of key files, middle to endgame transitions.
once i migrate the data from my old notebook, i can send you pgn files of most of these, or to anyone else here that needs it.
good to see you again, david
Majnu,
So the workbook can be seen as a stand alone book? You don't need "How to reasses your chess" per se?
And tf,
PGN files would be cool...
Edwin, the Workbook can be perfectly used without How To Reassess Your Chess (HTRYC).
HTRYC gives more in detail all about "Silmans Thinking Technique", but the Workbook's first charpter gives a summary of Silmans system.
I read HTRYC first, and bought the workbook later. I can recommend both books. But if you look for books that can be used without a chess set, the workbook is the one!
I took it on my vacation and spend hours reading and doing the exercises from the diagrams. I think it's a good and instructive book for players with ratings from 1600 up to 1900 more or less.
The Bronstein books are fun and you get a sense of his love of chess. There are not heavily annotated but when he says something it's a bigger idea. Less is more in this instance. You might enjoy 200 open games which is 200 of bronsteins open games of all types. There is a story with every game but not much annotation.
Also master of the chessboard by Reti is an excellent book. I own and like some of the Macdonald books but find myself returning to the read this book by Reti which is more about the ideas of chess as illustrated by games of the Masters.
So many books so little time
thank you dutch. i really appreciated your kindness to take a moment to comment, and your care--about all the spam being put deep into my previous posts.
my goodness. i thought that i had this feature, but i dont. i just now enabled word verification. in the likely event that this is the cause, i have already removed my post, and saved it as a draft. so many comments, always similar.
of course, as a mature computing person, i know about spam, but didnt know a computor could do that here. but what you say makes sense. thank you.
i had :) THOUGHT that this was just a real psycho person, fixated on me. its funny, but pls don't laugh. its happened to me many times in life, so i just thought i had become someones idea' fixee.
good news, yasser seirawan wrote me about eight times in the last day and a half. i hadnt heard from him in two months, but didnt want to press him. but i had to write him about a stock we both own, and discuss, and he promptly told me his entire notebook and passport were stolen on his way to the turin olympiad. mig in daily dirt, i now see, posted the same, but i didnt know! talk about a hastle, speaking off weird stuff!
what do we discuss? hezballa, bush, europe, illusion of american abundance, freedom, the works. what a gift to have him back.
some great chess players are petulant narcisistic egomaniacs, and others are gentlemen (or ladies) of the highest calibre who have leverage chess into a tool of correctness in learning the world, delving into self improvment, forging the broader mind, creative inquiry, and embracing broader communities of knowledge and society in morals and education both, which i deeply appreciate. its a lot to say, but so true.
i think it is clear we all just loved this post of yours, it really gets the juices flowing. keep up the good work, fine young man. thank you again.
this is such a great group here, that is a priviledge to able to particpate.
warmly, dk
Well, i am not the information highway technician here so i could be wrong as to how these spammers go about. But as far as i know, if you do not make us of any of the spam preventing Blogger solutions provided with your blog, you'll be subject to exactly those spam messages. I have yet to come across a noob blogger who wasn't aware of Bloggers spam preventions, who wasn't bombarded with 'em. Take care!
And by the way, thanks my fellow bloggers! For your comments/suggestions to this post so far. Do not hesitate to post more comments/suggestions if you have any.
P.S. i'm probably still a noob blogger myself, but i do know a little more then when i first started ;-)
What about " How not to play chess" by Eugene znosko-Borovsky
Actually my first book
Znoskos Art of Combination hales very well regarded by silman in HTRYC, and i spent a year slowly reading it without a board, carrying as far as i could in my head without a board, and in retrospect, find few classic motifs and famous problems missed by that book.
also, Znosko was a true gentleman scholar, not just a narrow chess player, but a man of the world who lived many things in war, and among different societies and cirmcumstances and severe hardship. similar to chernev, who surely loved learning, but world class in his chess and able to give alekhine a good run on his best day. he exudes charm and culture and beles letres.
thank you montse.
how is PCT comin'?
Are you still alive?
As this comment would suggest, i am still alive ;-) But thank's for your concern. And as for PCT... It is coming a bit slow at the moment. I once again have a hard time getting around to it. You have to understand i work on a public computer, which makes it hard to find a suitable moment to spend some serious study time. Mostly these moments are at night. But then i'm tired. Which again makes it hard to study. And that's just to make a long story short.
Hi Edwin, did you notice that your blog is mentioned in Schaakmagine, the official magazine of the KNSB?
jaargang 113, nr 4 (augustus) blz. 19
For real??? Awesome! Nice to know my efforts are being noticed by the "outside chessworld". This also answers your question. I did not. I am not a subscriber of their magazine. Nore am i a KNSB member (not yet anyway), so i don't get their magazine. But what do they write about my blog? Would you mind scanning the article (if possible) and send it to me by email? Or can you tell me where i can get me a copy of that particular number? Or maybe you can get one for me and mail it to me. I'll make sure to deposit the cost on your bank account. Scouts honour :-)
let us know when this post hits fifty comments, following tempos 50,000 jubilee at CTS. congrats on your link at a 'real chess' magazine!
how goes it now? what are you working on? how do you do it?
my vacation begins in two days, and besides running and chess, will finally get to climb over 3,000 meters this year, only a few hours drive from my house... take care, david
That's funny Boris, you're recommending me not to get Nimzo's book(s) while at the same time Nimzo's book is one of your personal favourites :-)
I appreciate you commenting though ;-) Thanks! I will add you to my sidebar as well. Maybe you'ld like to add me to your as well?
Anyway, i will get Nimzo's book(s) anyway. If only for the fact that they're considered to be true classics.
Hey Edwin,
Do you have any time to study all these books? I think you should first learn as many tactical issues as you can before you start strategy and openings. From my part I recommend you ending book and more tactical books such as 'winning tactics' and 'winning combinations' from Yasser Seirawann. His ending book (ofcourse 'winning endings') is also highly recommended!
Have fun!
Hi Erwin,
Do i have any time to study all those books? Hmm... To tell you the truth, with all the material allready in my possession (training material in particular) i allready need atleast two lifetimes to work through it all :-)
That is why (in the original post) i said "And hopefully even read them someday".
But i guess i can pick up a book every now and then... All the other material is to be worked on on a computer, and i can't sit behind one all day. Although i have gotten close to spending a whole day in front of one :-)
Thank's for visiting! Do not hesitate to do so again ;-)
Did you order any book from your list?
Best Erwin
No not yet. It's more of a "in the future kinda thing" :-)
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