Help me put my chess books in order!

Hi everyone,

I'm an improving adult player, currently stuck around 1200 USCF. I've gained some bad chess habits, mostly due to lack of coaching and practice, and I want to "relearn" the game. I acquired a shelf full of books over the past couple of years, and want to get more serious about reading them. Unfortunately, chess coaches in my area are few and far between, so I'll be going through them mostly unguided. I have two questions:

1. In what order should I study the following books in order to get the most out of them? I put them into what I think is a logical progression, but let me know what you think!

2. Are there any glaring omissions from this list (either topics or specific books)?

Thanks for any insight you all might be able to provide!

Note: I know opinions on authors are quite wide-ranging, but please be as objective as possible, and try to stick to the list provided.

Principles:

The Soviet Chess Primer by Ilya Maizelis

The Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman

How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman

The Shereshevsky Method to Improve in Chess by Mikhail Shereshevsky

Endgames:

Silman’s Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman

100 Endgames You Must Know by Jesus de la Villa

Puzzles/Pattern Recognition:

Chess Pattern Recognition for Beginners by Arthur van de Oudeweetering

The Woodpecker Method by Axel Smith, Hans Tikkanen

Opening Repertoire:

My First Chess Opening Repertoire for White by Vincent Moret

My First Chess Opening Repertoire for Black by Vincent Moret

Attack/Tactics:

Art of Attack in Chess by Vladimir Vukovic

Forcing Chess Moves by Charles Hertan

The Chess Attacker's Handbook by Michael Song, Razvan Preotu

Attacking Strategies for Club Players by Mikhail Prusikin

Chess for Hawks by Cyrus Lakdawala

Middlegame Strategy:

Your Chess Battle Plan by Neil McDonald

Chess Strategy for Club Players by Herman Grooten

Winning Chess Middlegames by Ivan Sokolov

Mastering Chess Middlegames by Alexander Panchenko

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...

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

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

I've never been able to read a chess book cover-to-cover without jumping around to other chess books. Some cover certain topics better than others and they all tend to overlap somewhat. That said, your Principles and Endgames sections have the books listed in the order that I would start reading them. I can't speak to the other sections as I have not read the books you list there.

Regarding omissions, I'd recommend Michael Stean's Simple Chess; that would probably go in either the principles or middlegames section. I prefer to use apps for tactics puzzles instead of books, and I recommend CT-ART 4.0. You have to pay something like $13 for the full version, but even the free version has a ton of useful, well-curated tactics puzzles.

why is puzzles and tactics different categories?

They're closely related, but I classify puzzle books as collections of positions with clear solutions and little analysis, and tactical books as having more extended and in-depth analysis of games.

You overdo this. You should not study more than 3 chess books per year.

'Chess books should be used as we use glasses: to assist the sight, although some players make use of them as if they thought they conferred sight' - Capablanca

You should study no more than 20 chess books in your life.
https://rafaelleitao.com/chess-books-grandmaster/

In descending order:

1. 100 Endgames You Must Know by Jesus de la Villa
2. The Soviet Chess Primer by Ilya Maizelis
3. Winning Chess Middlegames by Ivan Sokolov
4. Art of Attack in Chess by Vladimir Vukovic
5. The Shereshevsky Method to Improve in Chess by Mikhail Shereshevsky
6. Mastering Chess Middlegames by Alexander Panchenko
7. The Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman
8. How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman
9. Silman’s Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman
10. Chess Pattern Recognition for Beginners by Arthur van de Oudeweetering
11. The Woodpecker Method by Axel Smith, Hans Tikkanen
12. My First Chess Opening Repertoire for White by Vincent Moret
13. My First Chess Opening Repertoire for Black by Vincent Moret
14. Forcing Chess Moves by Charles Hertan
15. The Chess Attacker's Handbook by Michael Song, Razvan Preotu
16. Attacking Strategies for Club Players by Mikhail Prusikin
17. Chess for Hawks by Cyrus Lakdawala
18. Your Chess Battle Plan by Neil McDonald
19. Chess Strategy for Club Players by Herman Grooten

Saying one should not study more than 20 chess books in their life is hogwash!

You need to read multiple books each on Endings, Strategy, Tactics, Psychology, Thinking, Openings. With the last one, you need to constantly keep up to date with theory of the openings you play.

And as far as the OP's list, The Chess Attacker's Handbook should move to number 5 in the Attacking list. It is very dense and complicated.

I, like most advanced Chess players, read multiple books at once.

Typically, I am reading 4 to 6 books at a time. Usually one or two Opening books, a game collection book, a middle game or endgame book or two, and a problem book.

I just finished Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy two days ago. What I am reading now are:

1) Winning With the Stonewall Dutch (Read about a third of it before and was too complicated at the time and switched to the Kings Indian for 10 years. Went back to the Stonewall a couple of years ago and going through this in full now)

2) Usually I am reading a recent French Defense book to keep up with theory. Of late though, mostly just been using my collection for correspondence games on ICCF. Am planning to get The French Defense Revisited. I have skimmed it once at a chess tournament. Could use some new blood against the Tarrasch, which it recommends the Guimard, which is one of only 2 mainstream lines of the French I haven't played, the Burn being the other.

3) Just started Chess Strategy in Action (Watson's follow up to Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy)

4) Korchnoi Year by Year Volume 1 - 1945 to 1968. - Only 9 games in thus far.

5) The Complete Chess Swindler - currently on Chapter 10

6) 2020 Puzzle Quest - through 157 of 500 problems.

I haven't come across all of the books you mention but I can give advice on several of them.

Do you already own all these books or are they books that you are considering buying?

Read Silman’s Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman up to your current class or no more than one class above where you are currently at. Knowing the basic stuff really well is more important than half knowing more advanced endgame stuff.

Then focus mostly on tactics. Either doing puzzles from a book or from an online trainer is okay in my opinion. There are people who will advocate one much more strongly than the other.

Amateur's Mind is a good book for your level that teaches a bit of everything. Reassess your Chess is more advanced and contains some challenges that are aimed at 2200 level players.

100 Endgames You Must Know is possible to do at 1200 but not easy. I would just dip in and out of whichever bits you are interested in until you are higher rated and ready to study endgames very seriously.

Best Lessons of a Chess Coach is a good book which is absent from the list. It is written by Hikaru's stepfather who is a FIDE master with a lot of coaching experience.

I also very much recommend Khmelnitsky's Chess Exam and Training Guide.

There are plenty of good coaches who do training over Skype/Zoom/Email/WhatsApp/chess.com classroom.

I think online coaching is more common than training in the same room these days.

Most important of all is to analyze your lost games, identify your weaknesses and work on those things. Usually tactics will be the biggest thing. Probably 90% of games at 1200 level are won and lost by a tactic.