Dvoretsky Books

from what i learned from my coach, and general internet searches and forums, Dvoretsky books are a must-have... The problem is which ones to have?

you got the endgame manual, analytical manual, School of chess excellence series and school of future champions series.

i am a begginer, but i dont really care if some of the books are hard to understand. Also i'd like to add that the main comparison here should be between the School of chess excellence and School of future champions series.

Thank you ...

Thanks for information on Dvoretsky Books, I will, myself, check into these as well.

Great you do that, also if you're interested in chess manuals (for beginners like me) and games collections you should consider buying Tarrasch books, for example "the game of chess" and "300 chess games"

You need Dvortsky's end game manual.  It is a must have.

If you are a beginner do not even think about trying to read Dvoretsky's stuff. It is really aimed at 2000+ players and perhaps even higher.

He has three series that are all basically the same same with some minor editing. The newest last two are produced by Olm's --I get confused as too which is the newest.

For a beginner I think you can't go wrong with Silman's Endgame course. Much easier to understand and you will not make heads or tails out of Dvoretsky unless you understand the principles Silman walks you through.

I also like his How to Re-access Your Chess as a manual though Lasker's Manual of Chess is another good toll for U1600 players. 

Reading books well above your strength will not help. Chess requires a building block foundation and you need to first develop that core knowledge before attacking the more advanced books

OK i agree with the principle, but that leaves us with the question, what books should i buy starting 1200 untill i reach 1700-2000 rating, including all topics: endgame, strategy, tactics and opening theory?

For a beginner I recommend Ruben Fine's : Understanding the Chess Openings , Euwe's book  Judgement and Planning in chess,  and  Kere's book : Practical Chess Endings  ,  these 3 will be all you need until you are no longer a beginner ! 

If you are going to study endgames I suggest Silman's endgame manuals before Dvoretsky. I found Dvoretsky difficult and slow going, but not impossible, as a class A player. I think it is aimed at players with a good foundation already (Expert/Master), which Silman will provide. I have not acquired his other books but they are on my list. Silman's "Complete Endgame Course" will take you from absolute beginner to at least Expert level if followed in order. Each section is aimed at providing the essential knowledge which a player of a particular rating class should have.

Ok so i can see lots of positive opinions of silman's endgame manual, and i noticed that most of his books are for amateurs and beginners, i need some ideas for tactical play, strategies, planning, middle game...etc. i already have Chris Ward's "Opening play" book which i dont know weather it's good enough or not. By the way dont think of me as an absolute beginner, i'm unrated but it would probably be around 1450.

Actually if you say you are just a beginner then you should do a lot of tactics training.  Books on tactics for beginners and juniors.  Also search Dan Heisman.  He's got a lot of free stuff but this place doesn't allow for links.  Just look out for "cafe" with Dan somewhere.  But most important for you is tactics. Lots of tactics.  Nothing but tactics.  Are you getting my meaning now tovarish.

For Intermediate players I have several books I like such as

Improve Your Chess Now-Tisdall

Middlegame Vol 1 and 2 Euwe and Kramer

Zurich 1953 by Bronstein

ECO has a Middlegame book on Tactics

Fischer 60 Memorable Games

Also Lars Bo Hansen has several books which are excellent for 1800-2200

Ayman-Elmasry> i'm unrated but it would probably be around 1450.

You're an advanced beginner. I speculate your OTB rating could be as high as 1000 based on the one game you played here and won (but with several tactical mistakes).

Ayman-Elmasry>  i already have Chris Ward's "Opening play" book which i dont know weather it's good enough or not.

Ward's "Improve Your Opening Play" is good and comparable to Fine's "Ideas Behind the Chess Openings". I prefer Ward's book because it's more modern and concise but they're both excellent books. They, unlike most opening books, stress controlling the center, developing your pieces, and thematic pawn breaks more than... theoretical variations that don't tend to matter so much at your level.

Another good and CHEAP book on opening principles is Edmar Mednis' "How To Make Good Opening Moves".  This book really really helped me and is wonderfully written.  The only downside is that it has some major typos especially in the last few chapters but it is out of print and is very cheap on Amazon.  I wish Mednis had written more books.  He seemed like a great teacher.  He does have an endgame book I am going to dive into as well (but not until I know a little more about the Endgames!!)

For tactics I also really liked Dan Heisman's "Back to Basics-Tactics" (don't let the word basic steer you away) and Susan Polgars's "Chess Tactics for Champions"

Silman's Endgame book is great as well!  

For a basic primer on strategy the book "Best Lessons of a Chess Coach" by Sunil Weeramantry is awesome and Chernev's "Logical Chess:  Move by Move"  is great as well. Chernev can get repetitive but it is very instructive and his love for the game is absolutely contagious!

OK TACTICS... i get it  ... now which books on TACTICS

(and strategy, opening, endgame...etc. )

I third what's already been suggested for tactics:

tommygdrums> For tactics I also really liked Dan Heisman's "Back to Basics-Tactics" (don't let the word basic steer you away) and Susan Polgars's "Chess Tactics for Champions"

The 7 tactics books which (together) contain 97% of the ~2,000 basic tactics patterns:

• Chess Tactics for Students - John Bain
• The Chess Tactics Workbook - Al Woolum
• Winning Chess Strategy for Kids - Jeff Coakley
• Back to Basic: Tactics - Dan Heisman
• The Winning Way - Bruce andolfini
• Winning Chess Traps - Irving Chernev
• Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess - Bobby Fischer and Margulies

Need more mating patterns? Throw in "The Art of the Checkmate" by Renaud and Kahn

This is a book list by Dan Heisman.

I would add Beginning Chess by Bruce Pandolfini.  Which you should really start reading first more than anything else.  And then Winning chess tactics for juniors by Hays.

hmmm... ok i think i'm starting to have a final list of must have books here... thanks to all of your generously detailed knowledge of books, i salute you all.

BUT... i was thinking more of a series kinda thing, you know, like Winning Chess-Yasser Seirawan... or the Silman 5 books...or the Dvoretsky series (which we concluded to be out of the question)

So what do you think?

i also learned that Annotated games by top players like karpov, or old masters  like tarrasch can be quite the experience and very useful for beginner-intermediate players... any thoughts on the issue?

I loved Frank Marshall's book My Fifty Years in Chess and I also really liked Capablanca's Best Chess Endings (contains complete games not just the endings) by Chernev for annotated games collections.

Power Chess by Paul Keres is another great annotated games collection and it is cheap.  I am currently going through Tarracsh's 300 Games of Chess and it is really good but there are a lot of filler games that he barely bothered to annotate.

Ayman-Elmasry> i was thinking more of a series kinda thing,

You're limiting yourself--no author's written the best book in every area.

If you want one series that's easy to obtain, targetted for beginners, and covers all aspects of play then Seirawan's series is probably your best choice.