Chess books?
 

Any recommendations for the novice player. I don't need something so basic as describing the setup of the board, who goes first, the movement of the pieces, but I play poorly and would like to learn a little more about the game.

Re: Chess books?
 

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess


There are also a lot of sites where you can watch chess greats play each other move by move. I've learned a great deal from watching those.

Re: Chess books?
 

Everyman Chess has a serious called Starting Out with plenty of titles

Re: Chess books?
 

I'll let others answer about books, but I would recommend a computer program like Chessmaster 2000 (or whatever the latest Chessmaster is called). The software includes tutorials from top players. Very good for learning intermediate and advanced strategy. You can also play the computer at various computer skill levels.

Re: Chess books?
 

ok u want a book,just buy :
reasses your chess by silman
. probably one of the best beginner book ever written.

then u can by : my system by nimzovitch

after u know those 2 by heart(and believe me,there is so much stuff to learn there u will need to read them more then once) just by for opening purpose so u wont get lost in 100 variations but will know the general idea in evry opening : pawn structure chess by andrew soltis.

with those 3 books u will be a easily strong chess player and for last by a endgame book,probably :
endgamne strategy by mikhayl shereshevsky

but in reasses your chess they suggest books anyway


good (hard...)read:)

ps: btw ,trust me by those ......!!!!!
i know what im talking about,i quit chess for poker o0.....

Re: Chess books?
 

I was competetive player in my U-18 days.
I believe tactics is almost everything in chess and you should focus 90% of your study time on it. Probably the best idea is to get some software with tactical excersises (software is fun because you just make moves and the computer prepares test for you/remembers what you already solved etc).

I think "my system" should be skipped (haha I know its a heresy for old timers). Books like that focus on things which are not that important in that game.

So basically my reccomendations are :
-software with tactical excersises
-collection of games of good players
-some BASIC books about openings


EDIT : "Endgame strategy" by Shereshevsky is simply amazing book. Its probably the most useful/best writen strategy book ever. I am not sure if its in print now (I lost my copy long time ago and I would love to buy it too).

Re: Chess books?
 

punter,i dont know what level u reach in your yougner years but i did pretty well b4:)....
if u read pawn structure chess,then you ll never need an opening chess book(since all the variation u learn in any "regular opening chess book" library sell change each 6 month, and can even be obsolete...),as for tactics,yes it s usefull but in reasses your chess is a most...and any book they suggest is probably almost the best there is(tactics included).
collection of good player is worthless if u dont even have an idea why they play any move if u dont have a position concept in chess(wich my system offers..)
anyway OP,u have suggestion u choose:)...

and one of the biggest similarities with chess and poker......position,position,position is very important!!!!

proof of it...any good player(wich u will learn while u gte better)will gladly give a pwn for superior agressif position in chess

an example u will learn....giving a pawn to control the 7th rank with a rook etc...u need more then tactics ,trust me...:)

Re: Chess books?
 

[ QUOTE ]
punter,i dont know what level u reach in your yougner years but i did pretty well b4:)....


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I stopped at 2300 ELO so nothing special.

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if u read pawn structure chess,then you ll never need an opening chess book(since all the variation u learn in any "regular opening chess book" library sell change each 6 month, and can even be obsolete...),

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This is simply wrong. Chess is not that simple and opening preparation (and I mean learning/preparing conrete moves not ideas) is very important once you reach certain level.

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(tactics included).


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Its not enough. You need to do 1000's of excercises to ahve any clue and without you will suck no matter how good "strategical understanding" you have.

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an example u will learn....giving a pawn to control the 7th rank with a rook etc...u need more then tactics ,trust me...:)

[/ QUOTE ]

Dont repeat "trust me" you act as you posses some secret knowledge which is not given to other readers of this thread which to be honest sound pretty stupid [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] (no insult please).

Re: Chess books?
 

"(and I mean learning/preparing conrete moves not ideas) is very important once you reach certain level."

yo man that statement requieres an opponent of at least 1900 easy.....if that guy were facing that strong of opponent i would agree with u,but if he was,he wouldnt of ask wich book he would need to read...opening ideas are way more important then specifc opening moves in the 1400-1900 range common!!!!!!
unless he plays some crazy king gambit or poisened pwn variation for black in sicilian wich i serioulsy doubt...

yeah yeah tactics...i mean this aint blitz,but in real game u win games with positional advantage, especially in endgames,how many time i suffer some -+ trought a game with a little lack of opening preperation , mid game and end game comes and ure back because the guy just knows tactics..zzzzzz

for last,the trust me was for:....yeah im right just tell me better books to send him on the right path..
the book i said ARE in the best categories to learn the right way...prove me wrong....

and your comment about:"-some BASIC books about openings"

u still have no suggestion..and pwn structure is so good since once u know this book(if u red it??),it all comes down to the same (around 10?)scheme of what plan u need to attain in the opening to have a good game...

ps:i just hope your not considering ICC rating in blizt as a real elo:)....probably not but just making sure:)...

psss: u want to buy a tactics books OP..just buy the art of chess combination by eugene znosko borovsky...should be enough...

Re: Chess books?
 

[ QUOTE ]
yeah yeah tactics...i mean this aint blitz,but in real game u win games with positional advantage

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I dont believe its the case. Almost every game is decided by tactical superiority of one player (at least below GM level). I cant proof that as I dont have any statistical data (and it would be difficult to analyze this anyway). Its just my opinion as a chess fan (I still watch major tournaments regularly and play sometimes but only on the net).

[ QUOTE ]
for last,the trust me was for:....yeah im right just tell me better books to send him on the right path..
the book i said ARE in the best categories to learn the right way...prove me wrong....

[/ QUOTE ]

I think any book with tactical excersises is better choice for a beginner than any other book mentioned but I agree that the books you listed are very best from their categories (with the exception of "My System", also I dont have opinion about pawn structure chess as I didnt read that book).

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u still have no suggestion..and pwn structure is so good since once u know this book(if u red it??),it all comes down to the same (around 10?)scheme of what plan u need to attain in the opening to have a good game

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I dont believe in "understanding" in the openings. You gotta play games, see games and learn some moves by heart. There is no otehr way around. Its of course only my opinion (but not only mine).
To book I would add book by Alex Yermolinsky which I think are great, especially "The road to chess improvment" which I think is really great (unfortunately not taht basic).

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i just hope your not considering ICC rating in blizt as a real elo:)....probably not but just making sure:)...

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No I dont... (and my ICC rating is pretty pathetic these days.. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ).

Re: Chess books?
 

I'll third or 4th Silman's book. Other than that, pick up a good tactics book or cd (Intensive Course Tactics through ChessBase is pretty good), pick up a good endgame book (avoid books by Nunn or Dvoretsky/Yusupov at this time), and I'd also recommend Bronsteins "Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953," which has many excellently annotated games that in conjunction with learning tactics and the endgame will expose you to openings without delving into too much theory.

Another idea is to buy a book of annotated games and play through them- 60 Memorable by Fischer is a classic, and collections by Reti, Capablanca, or Alekhine are good for beginners since the games tended to not be as complicated back then. Also I think chesscafe.com is a good site overall and has very good articles at times.

I would recommend studying tactics and endgames first since it doesn't really matter if you are +/= out of the opening if you don't know how to exploit it.

Re: Chess books?
 

I'll point you in a different direction. Lasker's Manual of Chess. An old time book and you can just skip the beginning section that briefly covers the movement of the pieces. Lasker once claimed he could take a person who had never played chess and turn them into a solid player in one month's time. Some might scoff at such a claim....but the old guy was World Champion for 27 years. His manual will get you up to speed on opening concepts without bogging you down in concrete variations (for now) and he will also ground you in middle game and end game concepts both strategic and tactical.

Other reasonable beginner/intermediate books would be
"The Art of Chess Combination" by Znowsky-Borowsky (sp?)
"A guide to chess endings" by Euwe and Hooper
"The Game of Chess" by Tarrasch (good strategic primer but more classical)
"My System" by Nimzovitch (strategic primer more hypermodern)

We could go into annotated tournament books and games collections next but we'll save that for another time.
Those handful of books and a little effort on your part
will get you up to strong intermediate level (rating of approximately 1600-1900)

Re: Chess books?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Any recommendations for the novice player. I don't need something so basic as describing the setup of the board, who goes first, the movement of the pieces, but I play poorly and would like to learn a little more about the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

How often and where do you play?

And how much time / inclination do you have for study?

Before recommendations can be made we need to know a little bit more about your circumstances.

I would definitely support reassess your chess (i dont know if it is still available, but i think silman is planning on releasing a new version.).

As for other books, that would depend on answers to the above questions.

If you are not planning on playing against an opponent, then collections of games by player or tournament would be a good idea. As would collections of Tactics.

If you are planning on playing against someone then you will probably want at least one book on openings. If you dont know which openings you want to play, then you could try getting hold of a book on openings from a library or a friend who has chess books(such as the MCO, NCO book)s and playing through the games to see if you feel comfortable with the positions (or that you have some understanding of them).(there will also be computer programs which can show you some openings too) there will be some books that will give you opening repertoires and others that will provide you with details on just one variation.

Good starting opening books will give you explanations behind the moves, but there are a lot of poor opening books out there so you need to do your research.

Another option is if you have a favourite player, copy his openings if appropriate.

I would definitely recommend looking at a couple of websites, such as Silmans chess and Chesscafe.

If you are serious about improving, then you will have to build an opening repertoire where you do understand the positions, and also know key lines (almost by rote in some circumstances).

Tactics will play a really important part too simply because of the mistakes weaker players make and because of the 'seeing ghosts' factor, especially at the lower levels. When i first started playing club chess my only preparation for games was to read chess puzzles in the paper (and they were fairly easy as the problem usually involved sacrificing the queen!!)

with classics like 'my system' i think there is no rush to read it as chess has moved on since it was first published so it my not be all that relevant to any openings or positions that you play...once you have more experience you may feel you might benefit from it, but that is a different matter.

Hope some of this helps.

Re: Chess books?
 

An excellent annotated games collection for a novice would be Chernev's "Logical Chess: Move by Move". He goes through 33 high-level games and explains the purpose behind every single move. I think going through this book would be an excellent (and very entertaining) way of improving your game.

To be a good player you will also need to learn how to play endings, as many games will come down to the ending. Purdy's "On the Endgame" is the most accessible endgame book I've ever come across. It's very informative, very easy to read, and will give you a solid grounding in the endgame. I also highly recommend Chernev's "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings" in which he annotates 100 of Capablanca's best endings (he annoates the whole game, but concentrates on the ending).

Re: Chess books?
 

From my own experiences from novice to tournament player, there is much I'd like to say on this topic, but here are some of my thoughts:

-I found Yasser Seirawan to be a very lucid author. I recommend his beginner's book series which focuses on tactics, openings, strategies, and annotated games.

-I agree with the notion that tactics are by far the most important aspect of the game for untitled levels. Daily tactical drills will help you stay sharp, and will improve your results noticeably. Start with themes such as Forks, Pins, Skewers, and do a set of tactics for each. There are countless software resources and sites that will help you in this area.

-When studying openings, start with something simple like the Two Knights or Four Knights defenses. Later on, you can explore more ambitious semi-closed openings like the more complex Sicilian lines. Right now, just focus on developing a solid opening game, and learn how to stay out of trouble. Don't obsess too much with learning too many separate opening lines and traps.

-Learn basic endgames as this is very important. Learn how to win in simple scenarios such as King & Queen vs. King, King & Rook vs. King, and the various King pawn endings.

-When studying games, I'd recommend sticking to open games at first, such as those played by Morphy. It helps if the player you're studying has a similar opening repretoire to your own.

-Save your games and use software such as Fritz to spot tactical errors, but do not fall into the trap of becoming too dependent on it. Think about the games you study and find other players with whom you can share your thoughts.

-When starting out, play longer time controls than faster ones. You need to develop disciplined thinking patterns, and too many blitz games may encourage bad habits. However, some claim that blitz helps train your tactical skills, and if nothing else, it is rather enjoyable.

-Be patient, improvement in chess comes rather gradually and the road is anything but a short one.

Re: Chess books?
 

With 25 years of chess experience as a player and trainer I am going to recommend two books:

http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Fundamentals...1517&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Chess-Algeb...1561&sr=1-1

Re: Chess books?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Any recommendations for the novice player. I don't need something so basic as describing the setup of the board, who goes first, the movement of the pieces, but I play poorly and would like to learn a little more about the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Logical chess move by move, by Chernev, algebraic edition. Easily the best book you could read at this stage of your development.

Then concentrate on endgame and tactics.

Re: Chess books?
 

punter and montrealcorp's discussion seems to be advocating far more advanced stuff than is appropriate for the OP who is a novice player.

I think some of the annotated tourney games and game collections is going to be beyond the OP.

Even something like Combination Challenge and Reinfeld's 1001 great chess combinations and sacrifices (or whatever it's called) is going to be too tricky for him to grasp at this point.

Something like Fischer teaching chess or even Lasker's manual or Seirwan.

I also liked Pandolfini's ABC's of Chess for a novice-ish/player. Stuff like that.

Also all the different computer stuff out there that people are mentioning.

As someone mentioned, it really does depend on how much time OP is interested in putting into this, etc.

Re: Chess books?
 

I'll try to provide more information about myself and my ambitions.

I am 36 years old and am about 1/2 a paper away from earning a PhD in economics from Texas A&M University. I live in off campus housing that is primarily graduate/professional students and highly ambitious upperclassmen. Several of us get together a few times a week and play chess several hours. Out of 10 of us that play regularly, 8 are easily much better than I am. I have made progress against most of them and can occasionally beat all of them. The best of the group, I have won against twice in maybe 80 matches. The sixth best of the group maybe 9 out of 70-80 matches. They have shown me some opening moves, defenses, etc but I have no formal knowledge of names of different techniques, etc.

If you told me you watched me play and I executed the XXXX defense perfectly my response would be what is the XXXX defense? More than likely I had no idea what the defense was, the player I was up against had nailed me with the same play repeatedly and I sat up some night trying to figure out how to exploit his tendency and by dumbluck reinvented the wheel.

My ambition is to get good enough by the end of this upcoming school year that the money I make off this group at the poker table doesn't get completely recycled and then some when we play chess. For the next year, I will have plenty of time to study. I should complete writing my dissertation by the end of August and defend it in September. I am teaching one three hour course to a 140 student section in the Fall and have an unknown teaching assignment in the Spring. The Fall course I have taught 6 times previously and have thorough notes, powerpoint slides, and supplemental materials already completed. I have no ambition to be a grand master. I just want to be more than competent and to be proficient enough with the game and its terminology to speak intelligently with others who can offer strategy advise.

Re: Chess books?
 

f. finally a good thread. i like the russian dude [censored] cant remember his name...........LOGICAL CHESS is good. basic and good. despite its basicity, it is good. but wtf do i know, i am half as good as the best.

Re: Chess books?
 

Chernev is good for a guy at your level - Irving chernev really gets his love for the game over to the reader in his books.

"The 62 Most Instructive Games of Chess ever Played" is real inspiring

Re: Chess books?
 

[ QUOTE ]

Logical chess move by move, by Chernev, algebraic edition. Easily the best book you could read at this stage of your development.


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True. Inspiring and a great place to start.

Then, if you are bright and motivated, read 'Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy' - Watson. This is an absolutely fantastic overview of modern chess strategy. There is no better strategy guide.

And if that has you hooked, then 'The Road to Chess Improvement' Yermolinsky is another insightful and beautiful book.

Don't waste time on random endgame or opening books. Remember chess is art, so find an author/ artist who inspires you.

Re: Chess books?
 

Tactics are very important.

http://www.chesstactics.org/ is one of the best sites I have seen. Lots of good stuff if you have the time.

Re: Chess books?
 

One book that'll gain you at least 200 points: Sharpen Your Tactics by Anatoly Lein.

Re: Chess books?
 

geez guys. books that will 'improve his game 200 points' doesn't sound at all appropriate for this novice player who doesn't even have a rating and perhaps hasn't even read any books with any chess notation yet.
Not positive though not having dug through a lot of the books mentioned either in a long time or ever.

But I'm pretty darned sure that some of the books recommended are too advanced for the OP's purposes.

Curtains will hopefully respond to this thread. I'm going to PM him.

To the OP - Curtains is a pretty well known chess player who now plays poker full-time. He also has a lot of experience teaching chess to kids, novices and intermediate players.
So whatever he recommends then pretty much just do that.


Also - to all the chess aficiandos in this thread:
There was a recent thread in the News, Views, Gossip forum that may be of interest to you.
Two high-stakes poker-players are talking about chess. One of them declares he oould beat ANYBODY if he was given rook odds. They bet $50k on it.
Curtains was 'hired' to prove him wrong.
Reading the whole thread will take you at least an hour I'm guessing. But it's fascinating stuff.

Or you can skip to near the end of the thread and find the article on the US Chess website that Curtains wrote about the whole affair.

Re: Chess books?
 

Maybe the following is off topic so feel free to move it to a more suitable forum.

Watching the ME final table today really bought home to me what an intellectualy unsatisfying game poker is compared to chess, it is only the fact that I can make a bit of money at poker, which none but the very best at chess can, that led me to switch allegiances - the commentary on TV and internet radio on the final Table were just so bland compared to the complexity of what a commentary on e.g.Kramnik vs Anand would have been.

Re: Chess books?
 

I would second the recommendation for Simple Chess by Michael Stein.

A brilliant book. Really good at explaining the basics of strategic thinking to beginners/intermediate players.

Re: Chess books?
 

Well it's not a -book-, but really should supplement any literature you are studying with Dan Heisman's "Novice Nooks" over there at chesscafe.com. Trust me, it's very good, insightful, and concise info. It's Chess's equivalent of the SSNL digest collection.

Re: Chess books?
 

Another good post by MicroBob!!

Now I have to dig up that post. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Also, my link was to free info that OP can digest at the beginner level that will get OP off and running with the big dogs if he puts in the time and effort.

Re: Chess books?
 

[ QUOTE ]
the commentary on TV and internet radio on the final Table were just so bland compared to the complexity of what a commentary on e.g.Kramnik vs Anand would have been.

[/ QUOTE ]

That says more about the commentators and their intent than it does about the game. TV commentary could be good if the intent was there, but it's 99.9% bland, basic, rubbish. Hellmuth seems to be a decent commentator, in comparison to the others I've heard. He at least tries to read the players, using things like board texture, and discussing the impact of new cards on the situation.

I think you have to already be a pretty decent player to understand chess commentary. It's not beginner friendly. Poker commentary seems to be with the intent of aiming it at the absolute beginner without showing them the level of thought that can go into the play of a hand, and attracting suckers into the casinos.

Re: Chess books?
 

yeah Johng- fair comment- Having considered what I posted a bit more, to be fair Poker can be richer than chess- in that personality is much more important,

but poker cannot offer anything equivalent to an endgame study or I dont know of any description of a poker tournament to compare to Zurich53 by Bronstein or fischer's My 60 Memorable games.

Anyway to go back to the original posters question a good basic tactics book or software would improve his results fastest- the chess master software has lots of tutorals built in or go to www.chessbase.com

Re: Chess books?
 

The first is a good book of tactics. The next will be some basic openings book that's a good introduction to openings, then a book about strategy, positional play, a couple of pages about basic endgames (no such "book" out but some web pages may be out there) then a good middle endgame book (between the opening and the endgame, the latter part of the middle game). Amazon is a good place to find the best books.

Finally one gets specific openings books or DVDs about the systems one wants to play (the books will do also but if they don't have DVDs too that include the variations too then it's extra effort to put them on the board, and if they have those then it would be as good as just a DVD).

A chessbase interface with a chess engine like Fritz ( http://www.chessbase.com/shop/ though one can buy it from anywhere)(that also has a reasonable openings book - the fritz book - included so one can study openings, though a bigger one completely worked is better when one is more experienced - it's months [full time] of work to make it good and can't be recommended until one gets really serious. Freechess.org (FICS) is free (like the Winboard and Arena interfaces and engines to them, both that one can use at Freechess.org too) but one gets to play with the chessbase interface too at Playchess.com and it's the best if one is any serious, though there's also the Internet Chess Club (ICC) that one can try (up to two or even several times in the long run) for free.

- one chess newsgroup: rec.games.chess.misc
- www.youtube.com for some videos.