Books

Hello, I’m really rubbish at chess. Unacceptably so and I want to get better.

What books do people recommend for studying. I’d like to go into a fair amount of detail, openings, strategy and endgame for example. So what are good books for the theory?

I watch Mattoscacco and Chessbrah on YouTube a lot.

Thanks.

Dave

Hi Dave. These are books I found helpful and I consider suitable for beginners. Chess Tactics for Students by Bain. It's a tactics puzzle book. You can get the same online for free but some of us are tired of screens 😁. It contains about 400 puzzles and offers a structured approach. Discovering Chess Openings by John Emms teaches Opening Principles but includes popular concrete lines that you will come across. Logical Chess by Chernev is a collection of GM games selected and annotated to teach principles to beginners. You'll learn strategy, tactics and positional ideas Look for an algebraic edition. How To Win At Chess Quickly is a collection of games selected and annotated by Simon William's, grouped into themes based on common mistakes. The title is because the games are 25 moves or less, most mistakes were in the opening or early middlegame Both books are move-by-move annotations with the game moves explained but light on analysis of variations, hence aimed at beginners.

Oh and for endgames, Silmans Complete Endgame course is good. It is divided into chapters based on rating. Silman recommends studying the chapter up to your rating and maybe the next one and then put it away and work on other areas. I like his pragmatic approach. Continuing with that theme, most beginners dont lose due to lack of opening/middle/endgame knowledge. They lose because they needlessly blunder pawns and pieces, and miss opportunities. Simply improving board vision by regularly solving puzzles will get you to 1000. Recommend John Bartholomews Chess Fundamentals Series on you tube. The first video is on Undefended Pieces. Good luck.

Have you tried Chessable? They provide online interactive books essentially. There's a lot to learn there for free for a great start.

The first piece of advice is to stop playing speed chess.  As long as you're playing games where all you're doing is moving fast, no book will help you improve.  The reason?  Playing fast instill bad habits.  You are not giving yourself enough time to implement what you are trying to learn into your games. 

Thanks everyone.