Chess books?

[Alfil]

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.

[villainy]

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)

[dirty banana2007]

[ 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.

[mikem07]

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).

[FatedEquity]

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.

[Shandrax]

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

[JohnG]

[ 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.

[MicroBob]

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.

[davebwell]

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.

[siegfriedandroy]

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.