Re: Chess books?
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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.
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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.
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