I've never read that one, so let me know when it is available again.
Do you have a favorite chess book?
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It is a wonderful book. I sold mine a few years ago, thinking I'd remembered enough of it and that another updated version would be around the corner, eventually. I'm still waiting and now kinda missing it again.
Another good browsing book is The Oxford Companion to Chess.
The best I have concerning chess pedagogy is Capablanca's "Last Lectures," which contains, among other things, a great section on managing endgames.
For relaxed enjoyment, I like "The World of Chess" by Saidy and Lessing. It's quite dated having been published right after Fischer became the World Champion (perhaps there's a more up to date edition), but well-written and illustrated.
goldendog wrote:
It is a wonderful book. I sold mine a few years ago, thinking I'd remembered enough of it and that another updated version would be around the corner, eventually. I'm still waiting and now kinda missing it again.
Another good browsing book is The Oxford Companion to Chess.
I was hunting for "The Oxford Companion to Chess", even visiting the London "Chess and Bridge" shop at Euston Road. They didn't have it, even among the used books...
Yeah, I agree with Goldendog, Oxford companion is great.
But my all time favourite will always be Tartakower's 500 master games of chess, not only for the games, I'd often just read the annotions, he had such a way of saying things.... Sadly, my copy disintegrated years ago.
Duelling with rapiers on the edge of a precipice
rooperi wrote:
Yeah, I agree with Goldendog, Oxford companion is great.
But my all time favourite will always be Tartakower's 500 master games of chess, not only for the games, I'd often just read the annotions, he had such a way of saying things.... Sadly, my copy disintegrated years ago.
Duelling with rapiers on the edge of a precipice
Oh, now I understand your attachment to the Vienna game...
rooperi and I have agreed on 500 Master Games before. It's one I won't sell. I've even looked into purchasing the original hard bound, separate volumes I enjoy it so much.
Denker's The Bobby Fischer I knew... is also a fine compendium of interesting anecdotes and games. Principally covers American chess scene in the 1930s-1940s, but also some international players that Denker wanted to talk about.
Favorite chess for me comes down to two:
Logical Chess by Chernev
and/or
Tal/Botvinnik: 1960 by Tal
The Chernev book was the first games collection I ever read and not only was the instruction perfect for a beginner, but Chernev's passion for the game lit a fire in me that is still going super strong after two + years.
The Tal/Botvinnik is just great chess with great annotations and Tal's wonderful flair for writing. Great book!
tips for young players. highly recommended book for anyone u1600. in fact BUY THIS BOOK
Sadler is such an amazing author. it only costs a few bucks too
I have the "500 Master Games" too, and it is a fun nostalgia trip. But the opening theory renders most games there hopelessly outdated. The Four Knights, the Ponziani, and the KG are all openings of the past. Not much use for today's player. I agree though that the book is worth buying for the pure aesthetics of the games.
My favorite book is "Silman's complete endgame course".
I've loved "The Fireside Book of Chess" for decades. "Capablanca's 100 Best Games of Chess" is another favorite. Also I like "The Golden Dozen" by Irving Chernev.
I especially like Bronstein's book about Zurich 1953. He provides a great account of the situations occurring in each game.
Silman's "Reassess your Chess workbook" is also a favorite, as is his "The Amateur's Mind".
Some other of my favorite authors are Yasser Seirawan, Irving Chernev, and Jonathan Rowson.
I have two. My first favorite is "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess". My second favorite is "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess". They are both great chess books and I highly recomend them to beginners.
I like Suba's books on The Hedgehog and Dynamic Chess Strategy.
His enthusiasm amuses me (in a good way).
Lasker's Manual of Chess
Learn from the Legends - Marin
True Lies in Chess (don't remember the name of the spanish GM); fantastic and underrated book
Strategic Play - Dvoretsky
Feb 19, 2010
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#20
I have all but four of the books that have been mentioned in this thread so far, and many are quite good. The notion of favorites has been hard for me to stomach since my kindergarten teacher asked my to name a favorite color more than four decades ago. Even so, there are a few books that I seem to pull off the shelf every week or two, year after year:
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual comes to mind first
(I have Silman's Complete Endgame Course, which I read up to class C the day I bought it, and then beyond in the next couple of weeks. It is a good place to start, but lacks enough instructional material to keep me coming back.)
Lev Alburt, Chess Training Pocket Book
(I'm on the third time through, and have used it as a reference many times in-between systematically working through.)
Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, 5 vols.
(Why settle for those wimpy digested one-volume opening texts?)
Edward Winter, Kings, Commoners, and Knaves
(And everything else Winter writes, as well as H.J.R. Murray, A History of Chess. The Oxford Companion to Chess is useful, too, but a bit sloppy or thin on many particulars.)
And finally, my own self-published A Checklist of Checkmates is so superior in its organization to How to Beat Your Dad at Chess that I really need to find a legitimate publisher with the ability to distribute the text (and earn me a dime or two).
The one I just love and keep coming back to again and again is "The Even More Complete Chess Addict" by Mike Fox and Richard James. It is a collection of chess trivia, such as "the best games ever played", famous people who played chess, longest/shortes games, chess problems etc. A little chess universe, in other words. It is out of print now, but if ever there is a follow up, I'll be sure to get it.