Best Chess Books to Read First

FJP3 wrote: "... I'll recommend one I came across recently: How to Win at Chess: A Complete Course  by I. A. Horowitz. Old, yes, but it goes over 'everything' - openings with some theory behind them, middlegame strategy and tactics, and nice coverage on basic endgames. ..."

I'm glad that somebody other than me likes that book. I'd read about 70% of it before life pestered me with other things.

does anyone know any site who gives pdf archives of these books?

I think a Horowitz reprint can still be purchased, but the material has not been converted to algebraic.

Has anyone read/used Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar? Would you recommend it for tactics and pattern recognition practice?

Play Winning Chess - Seiriwan

Winning Chess Tactics - Seiriwan

Winning Chess Strategies - Seiriwan

Complete Endgame Course - Silman (might be slightly off with the title)

The Inner Game of Chess - Soltis

Do not touch a single opening book until you've completed those 5, cover to cover.  The first 3 should be read in the order listed.  The last 2 can probably be read in conjunction or either one first and then the other.

No, just because the books are older does not make them free.  You have to pay whether it be paperback or e-Book.

I have fond memories from my Reinfeld-reading days, but I do not think he was so good at explaining openings, and, in any event, that stuff was written about six decades ago.

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/3706.pdf

Some alternative attitudes:

"... This book is the first volume in a series of manuals designed for players who are building the foundations of their chess knowledge. The reader will receive the necessary basic knowledge in six areas of the game - tactcs, positional play, strategy, the calculation of variations, the opening and the endgame. ... To make the book entertaining and varied, I have mixed up these different areas, ..." - GM Artur Yusupov

"... For beginning players, [Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms] will offer an opportunity to start out on the right foot and really get a feel for what is happening on the board. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf

I am relatively new to chess strategy and chess books, but I am very much enjoying "Bobby Fisher teaches chess." I have also looked at "Logical Chess" and that book will probably be the next one I grab up. There are so many books out there, it can be a bit overwhelming to a newer player such as myself. Best Wishes.....

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond....

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

1. I would first read the old 1921 World Champion Jose Capablanca's book, Chess Fundamentals to ensure you understand all the components of chess and what things can/should be studied. Its 122 pages and gives an overview that leaves no holes and is often found legally free online with a search.
2. Tactics: spend more time on this than all the other categories combined. Use any books on tactics that divide them into categories or tactics trainers like those at chess.com and chesstempo.com. Make sure to learn the names of the tactics used and be able to quickly demonstrate them: that makes pattern recognition and recall from your brain faster. A couple interesting books are Arthur van de Oudeweetering’s Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition which focuses on 12 typical patterns and Dan Heisman’s Back to Basics Tactics that not only explores 10 different tactics but explains them and looks at how to think about your next move.
3. A book on opening principles like the old How to Open a Chess Game by GM Larry Evans and 6 other GM's, stressing space, time, and force and showing how to think ahead and use a few openings.  You can then look through some individual openings, online or through opening survey books, and choose a small repertoire to try out, usually not needing to know much beyond the first 6 memorized moves in variations but knowing what to do after learning the ideas behind the openings.
4. Any basic endgame book. I like Jesus de la Villa's 100 Endgames You Must Know best because instead of giving you lists of moves, it works from patterns to recognize. A more structured book in terms of how much endgame knowledge you should have based on your rating is Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame Course from Beginner to Master.
5. Strategy and Planning.  As a quick-start, read Fred Wilson's Simple Attacking Plans and/or Michael Song's and Razvan Preotu's more expansive The Chess Attackers Handbook.  Both list different ways of attacking, Wilson 4 and Song 14, and then use games to illustrate how to put them to use.  Unless you have tons of time, read Wilson first.  More detailed is Vucovic's classic, The Art of Attack in Chess which explores why some attacks work and others dont.  This can follow Wilson and/or Song and improve your play. After absorbing them, I love Jeremy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess and its use of Imbalances (backward pawn, open file, etc.). The 658 page 4th Edition is potentially so filled with great information that it can be confusing or hard to get through and it takes multiple reads to really understand. The about 200 page 1st Edition is clearer and was mandatory reading by the high school chess team I coached.  I also required them to read Chapter 14, "Overprotection" in Nimzowitsches My System (considered the Bible of modern chess: the whole book is great) and to read Chapter 2, "Strategies and Tactics of Attacks on the King" in Keres' and Kotov's The Art of the Middle Game - perhaps the best 50 pages of chess instruction ever written (again, the whole book is great).
6. If you’re having trouble with mental discipline and commit blunders more often than you think you should, study Dan Heisman’s Improving Chess Thinker where he notes that “often…the true secret to improvement lies not in studying chess material but in learning a more powerful method of thinking.”

"... 'Chess Fundamentals' ... does not deal so minutely as this book will with the things that beginners need to know. ..." - from Capablanca's Primer of Chess
"... For let’s make no mistake, what ground Capablanca covers, he covers well. I enjoyed reading Capablanca’s presentation of even well-worn and standard positions. ...
Still, when compared with other instructional books for beginners and intermediate players, Capablanca’s Chess Fundamentals would not be my first choice. Other books cover the same or similar ground with a less confusing structure and more thoroughness. The following works come to mind as equal or in some ways superior: Lasker’s Common Sense in Chess; Znosko-Borovsky’s series of books; and Edward Lasker’s Chess Strategy. Later works that equal or surpass Chess Fundamentals would include Reuben Fine’s Chess the Easy Way and any number of Horowitz tomes.
Capablanca’s work has historical interest and value, of course, and for that reason alone belongs in any chess lover’s library. But there are better instructional books on the market. Certainly the works of Seirawan, Silman, Pandolfini, Polgar, Alburt, etc. are more accessible, speak a more modern idiom, and utilize advances in chess teaching and general pedagogy, etc. ..." - David Kaufman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20131010102057/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review564.pdf

Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition by Arthur Van de Oudeweetering
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9006.pdf

Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233537/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review585.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-back-to-basics-tactics

I have often seen praise for How to Open a Chess Game, but it should perhaps be mentioned that the book was written about four decades ago, using descriptive notation (1 P-K4 P-K4 2 N-KB3 N-QB3 etc.). Also, the potential reader should perhaps be warned that, apart from Evans, none of the GM authors "was given a specific topic or assignment." Some of that material gets quite a bit into the weeds about what was known back then about this or that specific opening. For a book with more overall organized focus on opening principles, one might want to turn to a book by a single author, such as Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006).
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf

"... Once you identify an opening you really like and wish to learn in more depth, then should you pick up a book on a particular opening or variation. Start with ones that explain the opening variations and are not just meant for advanced players. ..." - Dan Heisman (2001)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf
"... For inexperienced players, I think the model that bases opening discussions on more or less complete games that are fully annotated, though with a main focus on the opening and early middlegame, is the ideal. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2010)
"... Everyman Chess has started a new series aimed at those who want to understand the basics of an opening, i.e., the not-yet-so-strong players. ... I imagine [there] will be a long series based on the premise of bringing the basic ideas of an opening to the reader through plenty of introductory text, game annotations, hints, plans and much more. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2002)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627055734/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen38.pdf

Silman's Complete Endgame Course

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708103149/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review594.pdf

http://theweekinchess.com/john-watson-reviews/theres-an-end-to-it-all

100 Endgames You Must Know
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105702/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review645.pdf
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9026.pdf

Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Simple-Attacking-Plans-77p3731.htm

The Chess Attacker's Handbook
http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/The_Chess_Attacker's_Handbook.pdf

Art of Attack in Chess by Vladimir Vukovic
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708234424/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/aac.pdf

https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-art-of-attack-in-chess

"How to Reassess Your Chess, 4th Edition was designed for players in the 1400 to 2100 range." - IM Jeremy Silman (2010)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708095832/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review769.pdf