Please recommend me 1 book

What book would you suggest for someone of my abilities:

• known how to play since I was young
• played a couple tournaments in high school (rating around 900)
• 7 years later I just got back into it and joined a local chess club
• I would guess I'm more in the 1000-1100 range now 
• openings are OK
• develop pieces OK
• mid game and endgame are weak 
• understanding of checkmates is OK

Just to clarify, by "OK" I don't mean I don't need a book that covers these.  I would like something that covers everything.  I struggle the most with getting a good plan once I develop my pieces and I am also bad at endgame, especially when it comes to moving the king around.

Even better than a book and it's free!  10 years of NM Heisman's award winning articles (by the chess journalist association of America-who knew?).

http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/Novice_Nook_Links.htm

thanks!

     baddogno; +1; that otta keep em busy for a while. I printed them all out. It kept me & Staples busy for 6 months.

The Amaterur"s Mind by Jeremy Silman

Great book for developing plans, for all phases of the game

Your first move by Sokolosky. Check abebooks,it is an out of print book.

I've seem Heisman's columns here but didn't know that there were 10 years available at his website.  One I saw "Chess Book and Prerequisites" seems particularly a propos. In the column, he explains why Silman's book, excellent as it is, might not be appropriate for someone new to the study of chess.

A long time ago I had a book titled "Best lessons of a chess coach" by Sunil Weermantry.  

I also enjoyed the books by Yasser Seirawan.

I'd suggest "Everyone's seconf chess book" by Dan Heisman. I's just great foundations for your chess.

Also the "Winning Chess" series by Seirawan is highly recomended (Winning Chess Tactics is great)

Oryou can go for an instructive anthology of games, there you have good stuff:

Chess,the art of logical Thinking, Neil McDonald

50 chess lessons, Steve Giddins

The World most Instructive Amateur's games, Dan Heisman

Logical Chess, move by move. Irving Chernev

A first Book of Morphy, Frisco del Rosario.

Logical Chess Move by Move by Chernev or 50 Chess Lessons by Giddins

That Polgar book with over 5 thousand checkmates called something like Chess in 5678 plus one positions or something along those lines.

notmtwain Stated: One I saw "Chess Book and Prerequisites" seems particularly a propos. In the column, he explains why Silman's book, excellent as it is, might not be appropriate for someone new to the study of chess.

After reading the article I stand by my recommendation of “The Amateur’s Mind” for the following reasons:

1. Mr. Heisman’s column, is his advice for adult beginners, who are still dropping pieces regularly and who do not understand elementary tactics such as pins and forks. To me Longboard does not fit this category.  

2. Mr. Silman at the beginning of his book argues that his book “The Amateur's Mind”  is appropriate for beginning students.  He gives an example of a 6 year old being able to incorporate the concepts into their games.  Some of the examples he uses are by students with a 900 rating, whom he expect to be able to identify the imbalances and formulate a plan based on them.  

3. One of the fundamental things Mr. Silman teaches in “The Amateur’s Mind” is that it is better to look for imbalances and formulate plans around them, and to in act those plans, than to make moves that consist of meaningless threats or simple attacks, as many amateurs do.  I agree with this.

4. Longboard specifically stated that he believes the major weakness of his current game is the inability to develop a good plan.  Until reading “The Amateur’s Mind” I had the same problem.  For me The Amateur’s Mind is the perfect book for learning how to develop a plan based on the position on the board. This is very beneficial once you have completed development.

I would say that I'm very similar to you in that I learned in 4th grade.  Played in a few scholastic tournaments in middle school and early high school, rated in the mid to low 1000s, then I quit playing for years.  I've gotten back into it after a 10+ year layoff so I've looked for a lot that you've described.  Here's what I've been reading.

1) Logical Chess Move by Move by Irving Chernev

2) Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar

3) 1000 Checkmate Combinations by Victor Khenkin

4) Lots of tactics on chesstempo.com

I have The Amatuer's Mind as well but I decided to go with Logical Chess instead.  I've also read a lot of the novice nook articles.  I've read through 8-9 games with Logical Chess and I seriously feel that it has helped me.  

I'm sure there are lots of other books like it but out of my collection the book that's been most useful to me has been the Chess Training Pocket Book by Lev Alburt.
It's a small book but a rather nice collection of positions (300) that cover nearly the entire spectrum of chess and you don't know what you're looking for or what type of position you're getting next which is good. Some positions do not even have an outright winning move but just a positional move that's just better than the others or even just a last hope defensive move. There's a significant lesson in each one.

It's worth it to very consciously work through such a book once, for example with a board and set up each position (which does not take more than 20-30 seconds to do) which is a great way to make the patterns stick in your brain.

http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Easy-Way-Sam-Sloan/dp/0923891501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391438275&sr=8-1&keywords=chess+the+easy+way

Chess the Easy Way  by Reuben Fine is timeless the lines in the openings may be stale but the principles and everything else in his book is rock solid following and practicing the rules and the the material in the book diligently will get you to at least 1760-1800.

Just be warned Fine will not spoon feed you and you'll have to do alot of hard work no pain no gain.

I like My System by Aaron Nimzowich.

I'd strongly recommend A World Champion's Guide to Chess and Chess Tactics for Champions, both by Susan Polgar.

Other books I'd recommend:

• 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations by Fred Reinfeld
• Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman (only covers endgames, but it's really good)
• 1001 Deadly Checkmates by John Nunn
• How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (It's actually better than it might sound. It teaches you checkmate patterns)
• Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev

And remember, books aren't your only resource. Do tactics puzzles as much as you can. Doing tactics will improve your game A LOT. Go check out ideachess.com, they have over 10,000 tactic, strategy and checkmate puzzles.

That is a hard-to-find, but great book that is an english translation from the original Russian text.

I love the Susan Polgar book, I just wish it had about 10 times as many excercises in it. grouping tactics by type helps you enable your tactical vision.