What Do You Use?

Hey Guys.

I'm wondering what computer programs or books you use for chesss.

I Use Chessmaster 11. Its Pritty Good. It Has an Endgame Study by Josh Waitzin Which is Extreamly Helpfull. Also A Physological Course Which Helps You Control Yourself When You Have Made A Bulder Etc.

But I'm Wondering If Theres A Computer Program Or Book Which Talks About Openings And Middle Games. Like Speific Moves.

Lay Down Your Ideas. People Would Love To Hear Them.

Buddy, there are 1+ books on the topics you are interested in. What did you have in mind?

I Don't Really Know. I Only Started Played Around 4 Months Ago. I Only Own Chessmaster 11. I Don't Own Any BooksYet.

What do you reccommend?

Deep Rybka 3, it has everything you can imagine about chess, and even more =)

Ok. I'll Look Into That.

Thanks.

The Seriwan series is great. The Idiot's Guide to Chess gets a lot of praise. Working through all the educational material in Chessmaster will also help you as lot!

I personally like Purdy's "Guide to Good Chess" as a first book for someone with a fair amout of playing experience. Purdy's discusion on Opening Principles is all you will need below Master level.

There is an English Chess player called "Keene" he has written over 100 books. I have one of them and so far it is good. I don't reccomend opening books as such but more general books or endgame and middlegame theory at your level of chess.

Winning Chess Series by GM Yasser Seirawan.

This series is top-notch if you're just starting out. Easy to read, clear examples, and loads, and loads, and loads of information! I highly recommend them to anyone. (Read them in order. You can find them on Amazon.com. )

 What order do you mean?  By the date they were published, or is there some other order?

stwils

I mean by their order in the series:

1.Play Winning Chess

2.Winning Chess Tactics

3.Winning Chess Strategies

4.Winning Chess Openings

5.Winning Chess Endings

6.Winning Chess Brilliancies

7.Winning Chess Combinations

(Of the seven, I highly recommend Winning Chess Combinations. Quite probably the number one book I have read so far that has brought my chess performance up.)

"My System" by Aron Nimzowitsch is said to be the only the book that every master has read.

I'm beginning to think a beginning to intermediate player need not buy books anymore because there is so much free material available on-line.  You can download Lasker's Chess Manual free, for example.  You can get Chernev's "Move by Move" book free - with all the annotations.  And there are many others that would help beginning and intermediate players.  Then there are the free tactics sites, like Chess Tempo, free sites with teaching articles, like Chess Cafe,  free teaching videos on You Tube, game collections and interactive instruction sets on tactics, endgames, etc. (even though most don't have annotations or the texts), numerous chess blogs, Chess.com!  I bought a Fritz 10 program for under $15, with shipping, on E-Bay.  I got the free Chess Base Light data base.  I stumbled on a free Chess Base Reader which somehow allows me to open things in Chess Base 9, which I do not have.  There is almost no end to it.  Just keep following the links on the sites you find.  There are so many people out there who take pleasure in helping others who love the game.  It really feels like an international Band of Brothers - and Sisters.

I'm just picking up studying chess after a bunch of years of just occasionaly playing. So far I've bought three Silman books. "The Amateur's Mind", "The Reassess Your Chess Workbook", and "Silman's Complete Endgame Course". All three look like excellent books.

Years ago, when I first studied chess, I was mostly using:

Chess Openings: Theory And Practice by I. A. Horowitz

Chess Fundamentals by Capablanca

Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine

Modern Chess Openings (version 12 I think)

They're a bit dated now but still excellent books. You won't go wrong with any of them.

I was in Barnes and Noble booksellers a few days ago and I saw the latest Chess Fundamentals revised by Nick de Firmian. It still has the error in example 8 talked about inthis thread: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/capablancas-chess-fundamentals-ex8-how-to-draw (for some reason I couldn't insert a link) Anyway, I was eyeing a copy of the latest "Modern Chess Openings" until I saw it was also revised by Nick de Firmian. That didn't give me a warm feeling so I passed it by for a Silman book.

I've also heard a lot of good things about "My System"

I'm only using some old, cheap chess programs for practice. Nothing fancy but they're still better than I am so they work. I plan to get a version of Chessmaster and someday a database program.

That a very good point. I'm also starting to tinker with a couple free database programs. They're not the latest and greatest but, hey, neither am I.

Another book I recommend about the Middlegame is Ludek Pachman's modern Chess Strategy. In in descriptive notation, but it's packed with evrything you need to know about strategy and positional play. I've heard it was much better than My System, and I believe it. Pachman was one of the greatest positional players ever. (I've actually ordered this book my self. Can't wait to read it.)

I  have a number of excellent books on the middlegame including Pachman's and My System by Nimzovich. The two volumes written by Euwe are also excellent : Middlegame Book I and Middlegame Book II , then there is Romanovsky's books : Middlegame Planning and Middlegame Combinations .  Euwe wrote another one called Judgement and Planning in Chess ....

I think the best chess book I've ever laid my hands on has to be "300 chosen games of Alehin (commented by Alekhine himself)" (rough translation). It's an old romanian book from 1950s (I think V.N. Panov is the editor).

I have not read My System, Middlegame I & II, or Modern Chess Strategy.

Could someone who has read all these books explain if there is alot of overlap between the material covered between these books? Also, what order might one logically read them in, beginning with the easiest? When would you read Silman's Reassess Your Chess in comparison with these books?

My System is not for beginners. You should read a few more books before you tackle what's inside that one.

I don't know about Euwe's books because I don't own them, but I think they are easier than Nimzowitsch.

Modern Chess Strategy is probably the easiest of the those books you listed. The basics of strategy first, then more advanced concepts, and finally how to plan attacks and defend and maneuver are near the end. It seems well laid-out, so I think this one is the easiest. I don't know for sure because I don't have it yet.

Another good book I would recommend after you have gained in experience is Art of Attack in Chess by Vladimir Vukovic. The most popular and powerful manual on attack ever written.