In wich order should I read these books?

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AndyClifton

True.  I must say though that Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy by John Watson, a "mere" IM, is one of my favorites.  Perhaps one of the strengths of that book is not so much the attempt to distill all knowledge into its pages as to suggest all the great things that are still possible in the game.

And (obviously) most everyone would consider you a "really strong" player.  Perhaps what you're really saying is that it would take a super-GM to write a book which you would regard as a gem (lol)...which I imagine is true (I mean, how would I know?). Smile  But I still feel that worthy works can be fashioned for the needs of the great mass of players.

waterpoortkrijger

To be honest I'm a bit lost here. Some say the books are kind of useless, other are recommending them in ALOT of topics here and they also get good reviews. And I've used the search option alot. 

I guess I will have to use my own judgement since there aren't alot of chess 'bibles' around in the sea of books. I will definitely buy silman's endgame course. I also will finish to read Logical Chess because I like it. I still have to do I have to do some research about a good tactics book. The Neishtadt's seems hard to get so I guess I have to make a choice between

- Learn Chess Tactics, Nunn

- Winnig Chess, Chernev/Reinfeld 

- Chess Tactics for Champions, Polgar

In the end, I think I will end up owning alot of books and have to use my own judgement on what the best ones were :P. 

Thanks for all your advice though. Without it I would have bought the books in the OP. 

Bubatz
waterpoortkrijger wrote:

- Learn Chess Tactics, Nunn

- Winnig Chess, Chernev/Reinfeld 

- Chess Tactics for Champions, Polgar


I'd say begin with

- Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman

and then follow up with

- Learn Chess Tactics by John Nunn

Then you have learned enough basic tacics and for further training should rather switch to a "puzzle book" like e.g.

- Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book by John Emms

There's also a puzzle book by Nunn, but his puzzles are demoralizingly hard.

Vease

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Chernev is much better than Logical Chess, even though it may have some of the same failings as described by Nunn. As a (very) basic guide to strategic thinking its very enjoyable and you feel like you may have learnt something at the end of it all. I have to say I found The Amateur's Mind disappointing, given the reviews, really its the same mistakes just rehashed over and over again, it could have been a 3000 word article and made the same points.

I haven't read the 'Winning' series by Seirawan, but they generally seem well received given the target audience, you might like to look at Winning Tactics and Winning Strategy for a start,

AndyClifton

Yeah, Instructive Games was quite good.  I still remember that one of Smyslov's where he just sat on the d5 square with his knight.

Kingpatzer
pfren wrote:

Not necesarily top guns, but really very strong players. Not every stong player is able to write a great chess book- but some are. A mediocre player can write a decent book, but not more than that.


I tend to suspect that isn't true at all. While the better one's understanding of the game, the more nuanced a point one might make, it is the case that for a book to be highly useful for us players under the level of titled players, highly nuanced points aren't really what we need. 

What we need is clear, concise, readible text that makes the points we need to hear in a memorable, enjoyable fashion. I have no doubt that Nunn's analysis in his "Move by Move" book is far superior to Chernev's analysis in "Logical Chess." But I was able to get through all of the games in Chernev's book and I haven't been able to get through all the games in Nunn's book.

So guess which one I got more out of? 

College students need text books written by PhD'ed experts, but grade school kids need relevant information presented in an accessible fashion and most any person with an undergarduate degree has far more knowledge than the grade school kids need.

VLaurenT
waterpoortkrijger wrote:

To be honest I'm a bit lost here. Some say the books are kind of useless, other are recommending them in ALOT of topics here and they also get good reviews. And I've used the search option alot. 

I guess I will have to use my own judgement since there aren't alot of chess 'bibles' around in the sea of books. I will definitely buy silman's endgame course. I also will finish to read Logical Chess because I like it. I still have to do I have to do some research about a good tactics book. The Neishtadt's seems hard to get so I guess I have to make a choice between

- Learn Chess Tactics, Nunn

- Winnig Chess, Chernev/Reinfeld 

- Chess Tactics for Champions, Polgar

In the end, I think I will end up owning alot of books and have to use my own judgement on what the best ones were :P. 

Thanks for all your advice though. Without it I would have bought the books in the OP. 


I won't tell you which book to pick : as you can see, everybody has his own opinion (though you should take into account the chess level of the people giving advice too if your goal is improvement).

However, I would recommend two things :

- whichever book you pick, try to spend some time on the examples, and try to find the answers of any diagram before looking at what the author has to say : this will help both your understanding and memorization,

- if some book seems too complicated or too boring, just leave it aside : fun helps the learning process ; you can always come back later when you have the 'appetite' for its contents.

kco

Funny enough while everyone going on about how to play better chess but forget on how to think during the game of chess, so how about The Improving Chess Thinker by Dan Heisman.

Bubatz
kco wrote:

Funny enough while everyone going on about how to play better chess but forget on how to think during the game of chess, so how about The Improving Chess Thinker by Dan Heisman.


Well, it's the book that helped me most. 

AndyClifton

Then there was this one (my favorite way back when):