they're great books, but a diamond membership here is the best expenditure of your money if you're looking to improve.
pick 'h.t.r.y.c' if you're going to buy one.
Chess Books - Best order to read for beginners?
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- Chess Fundamentals, Jose Capablanca
- My System, Aron Nimzowitsch
Chess 101 By Dave
The Burgess book is mostly a primer, with some additional technical information- you can flip in and out of it quite easily
Chess Steps, all of the workbooks (levels 1-6) and the companion Chess Tutor CD’s (only for levels 1-3), are all of what you want … these go up to USCF level 2100, and should last you a very long time.
You don’t need any of the other books you mentioned for “improvement”, but they can read them for fun, interest, or out of curiosity if you get stir-crazy working through analysis and problem-solving, which are what you need to repetitively ad nauseous to get better. Reading books, as I have learned over the years, doesn’t hardly improve any of your skills … it is a large time sink.
Logical Chess is a good book of annotated game for beginners to see how games can unfold from start to finish, and it is entertaining, but don’t expect much improvement from it. Think of it as an entertainment supplement to “real” learning.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess is decent to introduce the basic concepts of chess and gives some problems to solve at the end of each chapter. Best are the chapters covering strategy with the exercises at the end of the chapters, since tactics and endgame exercises are available everywhere online in far greater numbers.
Along with the above, I would add Weapons of Chess by Bruce Pandolfini and Complete Book of Chess Strategy by Silman as beginner-level books which explain the more abstract strategic concepts in chess that may be of some use to know aside from repetitive problem-solving and game analysis.
Regarding the other books you mentioned …
Chess Fundamentals by Capablanca I would say is more for historical interest. You can learn and train much of the same material far more efficiently, but it is considered an all-time chess classic historically.
The Improving Chess Thinker is an easy read, but more for fun and interest, not really for improvement. It doesn’t matter all that much how a stronger player than you thinks … they will think about and see the themes and concepts they are more familiar with, but they will not think about and not see those with which they are not. For instance, what is a 2200 level player’s thinking method going to teach a 1000 level player? …
2200: you need to harmonize your pieces and think of the center, while making sure your king and other pieces are safe.
1000: oh yeah, makes perfect sense
2200: you just let me checkmate you in 3 moves … were you listening to what I was saying?
1000: oh yeah … I must not have seen that mate threat.
2200: okay, well you need to make sure you don’t get mated in 3 moves next time. Let’s re-do.
1000: oh yeah, okay
2200: you just gave up the exchange and a pawn.
1000: oh yeah, I was trying to bolster the center.
2200: you can’t give up that much material. Let’s re-do.
1000: oh yeah
2200: you allowed me to weakened your kingside pawns, and place my minor piece on an advanced outpost in your territory.
1000: oh yeah, I didn’t want to lose another piece, figured this was an even trade.
Etc.
Play Winning Chess series is all right, but again it is more for fun and interest, just a few exercises or drills in some of the books. More of a verbal explanation series, but there are too many books and it would be too time consuming to be of benefit to read all of them for real improvement compared to doing the exercises in the Chess Steps workbooks.
The rest of the books you mentioned are for advanced players.
You don’t need any of the other books you mentioned for “improvement”, but they can read them for fun, interest, or out of curiosity if you get stir-crazy working through analysis and problem-solving, which are what you need to repetitively ad nauseous to get better. Reading books, as I have learned over the years, doesn’t hardly improve any of your skills … it is a large time sink.
Logical Chess is a good book of annotated game for beginners to see how games can unfold from start to finish, and it is entertaining, but don’t expect much improvement from it. Think of it as an entertainment supplement to “real” learning.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess is decent to introduce the basic concepts of chess and gives some problems to solve at the end of each chapter. Best are the chapters covering strategy with the exercises at the end of the chapters, since tactics and endgame exercises are available everywhere online in far greater numbers.
Along with the above, I would add Weapons of Chess by Bruce Pandolfini and Complete Book of Chess Strategy by Silman as beginner-level books which explain the more abstract strategic concepts in chess that may be of some use to know aside from repetitive problem-solving and game analysis.
Regarding the other books you mentioned …
Chess Fundamentals by Capablanca I would say is more for historical interest. You can learn and train much of the same material far more efficiently, but it is considered an all-time chess classic historically.
The Improving Chess Thinker is an easy read, but more for fun and interest, not really for improvement. It doesn’t matter all that much how a stronger player than you thinks … they will think about and see the themes and concepts they are more familiar with, but they will not think about and not see those with which they are not. For instance, what is a 2200 level player’s thinking method going to teach a 1000 level player? …
2200: you need to harmonize your pieces and think of the center, while making sure your king and other pieces are safe.
1000: oh yeah, makes perfect sense
2200: you just let me checkmate you in 3 moves … were you listening to what I was saying?
1000: oh yeah … I must not have seen that mate threat.
2200: okay, well you need to make sure you don’t get mated in 3 moves next time. Let’s re-do.
1000: oh yeah, okay
2200: you just gave up the exchange and a pawn.
1000: oh yeah, I was trying to bolster the center.
2200: you can’t give up that much material. Let’s re-do.
1000: oh yeah
2200: you allowed me to weakened your kingside pawns, and place my minor piece on an advanced outpost in your territory.
1000: oh yeah, I didn’t want to lose another piece, figured this was an even trade.
Etc.
Play Winning Chess series is all right, but again it is more for fun and interest, just a few exercises or drills in some of the books. More of a verbal explanation series, but there are too many books and it would be too time consuming to be of benefit to read all of them for real improvement compared to doing the exercises in the Chess Steps workbooks.
The rest of the books you mentioned are for advanced players.
Start off with
The Mammoth Book of Chess, Graham Burgess
Jan 30, 2022
0
#29
Feb 2, 2022
0
#30
As a reading beginner, and having been a beginner for four decades, I feel I have expertise on this topic. I will limit myself to two suggestions:
- If you are willing to put in the work to embrace at least for the time reading it the outdated notation, Complete Chessplayer by Fred Reinfeld. (My review)
- Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther. I recommend it just as a memoir and have read it at least three times. It includes, as an aside, chess advice that I have printed out and posted here where I am sitting. I am still trying to learn how to apply it... (my review)
Since I doubt anyone else is going to recommend the Gunther book which is an unusable suggestion in this arena, here are the 11 tips which I offer for consideration (and ridicule?):
(p 83 of my edition):
...So that I might improve my game he wrote out a series of hints and precepts; any chess enthusiast will realize how sound they are, and at the risk of boring the non-chess-playing reader I will print them:
1. Always try to maintain control of as many center squares as possible with pawns.
2. Never bring out the queen early.
3. If winning, that is if you are ahead in material, exchange pieces but not pawns, so as to make it easier to queen a pawn.
4. If behind, exchange pawns not pieces.
5. The Kings bishop pawn is a weak pawn and always try to protect the KB square.
6. Never defend a piece by attacking another, since a good move by your opponent will mean that you will have two pieces to defend instead of one.
7. In a Ruy Lopez, if the opponent does not move the rook’s pawn up, castle.
8. There’s a great difference between attacking and just exchanging pieces.
9. Storm your opponent by attack by pawns on the opposite side to the one he’s castled on.
10. Castling on the opposite side to your opponent and attacking when your position is mature will usually win.
11. In queening a pawn, keep the king in front of the pawn while moving.
Has anyone heard about theory of chess openings
Hi
Thanks! I was looking for a gew books