Please help me to choose a book.

Hi guys!

So after some research I came to the following books for a starter like me (started end of September and currently only 600 ELO). I can afford only two books for now, which one would you drop from the basket?

Of course, I am also complementing with this platform lessons and puzzles.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Tags: 

Logical Chess : Move By Move: Every Move Explained 

Play Winning Chess

Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess

@1
"which one would you drop from the basket?"
++ All of them. Instead:
Chess Fundamentals - Capablanca, available for free: copyright expired
My System - Nimzovich, available for free: copyright expired
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess - Fischer

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Send me one of your games and I'll be happy to analyze the game for free on my YouTube channel on Sunday livestream from 1-2PM PST.  Ask me questions in real time!  

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@Zigla_Nauthiz -

All three books would be excellent choices.  In general, I would recommend they be studied in the following order...

1. Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess by Bruce Pandolfini

2. Logical Chess : Move By Move: Every Move Explained by Irving Chernev 

3. Play Winning Chess by Yasser Seirawan

You may reverse the order of #2 and #3 if you prefer.  But certainly Pandolfini's book should come first...

All three books are recommended in my blog article...

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

Good luck to you!

I would drop the one by Chernev.

I agree My System by Aron Nimzowitsch is a must-read for every beginner. But I assume you've already read that one.

Bobby Fischer teaches chess is also good for practice.

The books by Jovanka Houshka on the Caro-Kann, or those by Artur Yusupov are also pretty great.

It's funny, I would actually drop the Pandolfini book, myself. However, RussBell has compiled large lists of books, so perhaps that's the opinion you should defer to.

My recommendation to the OP was in response to the books he had asked about, and also take into consideration the OP's rating which in the present case is essentially at the beginner-novice level.   In these regards "Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess" is absolutely appropriate as an introductory book for the beginner-novice player.  In fact it would be an excellent choice.  I would also include "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" and "Logical Chess Move By Move" by Irving Chernev" in the category of appropriate first chess books.  "Play Winning Chess" by Yasser Seirawan would be a recommended follow-on to the aforementioned books, as it is intended as an introduction to the positional-strategic concepts of chess.

As for "My System" by Aron Nimzowitsch, it is certainly an instructive book.  However much of its content and presentation is too advanced for those at a beginner-novice level.  The point is that not every "good" chess book is appropriate for lower rated players. 

As an analogy, if one is beginning the study of mathematics, choosing a book on algebra or calculus would not be appropriate as an initial introduction to the subject, when one hasn't yet mastered arithmetic.  So be aware of whether the books you choose are appropriate for your current knowledge and skill level.

You are rated 1900-rapid and 1600-daily.  You don't need a beginner's book on chess.  "My System" would be more appropriate for someone at your level.

"Play Winning Chess" is a good introduction to the game, but it starts literally at the beginning (i.e. with how the pieces move).  If you have been playing for a couple months, you will fly through it pretty quickly.

"Logical Chess Move by Move" is good to get an understanding of a basic thought process.  The annotations are not entirely correct, but it is good enough to help get you started on the right foot in terms of thinking about your moves.

"Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess" is basically a primer on how to think about the opening.  It is not bad, but of the 3 you mention is the least likely to help you improve at the moment.

I would add "Chess Tactics for Students" and "Winning Chess Tactics" to your cart.  If you need to drop anything, drop Pandolfini's book for now.

I would also recommend picking up the "Checkmate Manuel" on Chessable.

I see someone recommended "Chess Fundamentals" and "My System".  "Chess Fundamentals" is fine, but I like "The Soviet Chess Primer" and "Lasker's Manuel of Chess" better.  The material is largely the same, but Capablanca's writing style is a bit dry.  I cannot recommend "My System" to a beginner.  It is a bit like being told to pick up a book on advanced theoretical physics when you need to learn to add.  Not only will it not help you right now, it will likely make your head hurt and have you running away from the game before you ever get to see the beauty in it.  It is a good book, with a lot of good stuff in it, but save that one for later on.

I mean as a recommendation to OP, or as a recommendation to my younger self when I was ~1000. I'm just saying, Pandolfini's book just isn't how I learned best, which is why I would have discarded it. But other people learn differently, and Pandolfini is a well established writer who has been valuable for a lot of players. So, as I said, maybe your recommendation is better than what mine would have been.

Agreed, but the book is intentionally written for a complete beginner.  So someone who has played a dozen or so games of chess will find it a bit rudimentary.  Nothing wrong with that, and I highly recommend the whole series, but I just wanted the OP to realize that he will likely move through that book very quickly.

Agreed.  I only pointed out that the annotations were not entirely correct as you will often here masters disagree on this book for that reason.  Personally, I find the annotations are good enough to get someone started and they can adjust when they get stronger.

It isn't confined to the opening, but most of the book walks you through how moves are picked, and it literally starts from move 1 with an interesting writing style.  I have the book and like it, but in terms of books to help a beginner improve, it will have the least "bang for the buck".

You missed the clarifying statement.  If he is on a limited budget and could only get 1-2 of those books, Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess is the book I would drop as it would have the least improvement value of the books listed for the OP right now.  It is not that I'm telling him to drop that book, but if he must drop one, that would be the one.

That recommendation was simply a preference over "Chess Fundamentals".  As I stated, they cover the same basic material, but the writing style differs.  Personally, I like "Lasker's Manual of Chess" better, but I also enjoyed "The Soviet Chess Primer".  "Chess Fundamentals" was very dry - lots of good information, but not an engaging writing style.  Another alternative is the Reuben Fine series, which also covers the same material.

I saw another poster recommend an opening book.  I cannot stress this enough:  you do not need an opening book as a beginner!  If you want to stay at the 600-800 level forever, start buying opening books instead of tactics and strategy books.  You will be great at getting to the middlegame only to lose in 1-2 moves once you get to the playable middlegame you wanted.

Your perspective cannot be dismissed out of hand.  I think the issue boils down to one of the style of the book, which is written in a narrative, conversational, question and answer exchange between student and teacher.  This format may not appeal to everyone.  My point however, was that the book does a very good job of teaching the beginner-novice how to think, analyze and evaluate a chess position - emphasizing fundamental principles and guidelines - when playing a game of chess.

The following provides a pdf excerpt of the book, illustrating the format...

  https://www.google.com/books/edition/Pandolfini_s_Ultimate_Guide_to_Chess/xn37a89cjoIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=pandolfini%27s+ultimate+guide+to+chess&printsec=frontcover

@PawnTsunami -

First of all, I tend to agree with most of your comments (or at least, I don't disagree).   Our particular disagreement is over which of the three books to exclude, as per the OP's original question.  In that case you would choose to exclude "Pandolfinini's Ultimate Guide To Chess" (PUGTC).   I disagree with that.  So the question becomes, which book would be a more appropriate choice for exclusion BY THE OP.  If I MUST choose one of the three books FOR THE OP to exclude it would be "Play Winning Chess" (PWC) by Seirawan, for the following reasons...

PUGTC is intended for the beginner-novice (as is PWC), in particular one who is essentially starting out in chess and looking for a VERY FIRST book to guide them in how to play the game correctly.  This is what PUGTC is all about.  It is about first principles.  I infer from the OP's inquiry, i.e., "...books for a starter like me (started end of September and currently only 600 ELO)..." that FIRST PRINCIPLES is his primary concern.  While PWC is also concerned with important principles, the principles focused on are Force, Time, Space and Pawn Structure, which specifically relate to the more positional, i.e., strategic, planning aspects of chess - which is the primary emphasis of the book.   Of course we both would agree (I assume) that these four elements are extremely important and are essential to playing good (i.e., 'Winning') chess.  But the elementary issue of how to choose a chess move in any given position from among the myriad possibilities (irrespective of strategic planning concerns), must come first in the hierarchy of what to learn.  And this is what PUGTC is primarily concerned with.  This is my view and why I believe that PWC can be deferred in preference to PUGTC.  That is, FIRST THINGS FIRST.

An understandable rationale.  I disagree with it, personally, but assuming cost is not an issue, I would encourage the OP to get all 3, along with the other 2 physical books I mentioned and the 1 Chessable course.  That would give him a good amount of material, and likely take about 3-6 months to digest before moving on to other books/courses to continue the improvement.

Sounds reasonable to me!

I don't know what your budget is, but if I were starting out all over again, there is one set of books I would want as a beginner.  It is called "The Chess Course, by Praful Zaveri of India, who is the first Indian to earn the title of FI (FIDE Instructor).  The main book of the series has sold over 100,000 copies and is partly responsible for the rise of so many strong Indian players today.  You can purchase the entire 7 book course for 4,999 rupees on the Chess Base India website, which equates to about $60 US, but of course there will be shipping as the box for the course is quite heavy (the books are all beautiful hardcover editions).  You can also watch a video of them unboxing the set of books on YouTube.  If it is a bit out of your budget, it might be worth studying on Chess.com for a while longer and saving up to buy the course it if appeals to you.  Or you can drop hints, as the holiday season is fast approaching.

If you are like me, you might like to carry a book to study from when you have a few idle moments outside the house.  However, chess.com has a great deal of courses for even beginning and novice players that are absolutely free to you as a Diamond member.  If you have not navigated around the site before, put your cursor on Learn and a menu will appear.  Click on lessons.  Just below you will see All Lessons and Guide.  All lessons has a lot of opening material which can best be absorbed later.  Go to the Guide section and you will see a series of courses.  The first two are very basic, but it can never hurt to review, however if you prefer you can skip them.  I would definitely suggest you should not skip the rest.  The third course is on Opening Principles, and it has 6 lessons within the course.  Do as many lessons as you can each day and try to incorporate what you learn into your games.  I believe you will see rating improvement in no time.  Good luck with whichever path you choose, and message me if you need any help, or even a friendly training game.  Feel free to add me to your friends list.

Thank you everyone! By the end I indeed drop Move by Move since some of you recommended. The main reason by the end was just checking some of the pages before buying it and I found the Ultimate Guide to Chess more appealing to my style. I am also following some other advices like playing "less rapid" games, 15 min is enough for me to think better than in 10. 

I will follow RussBell advice in the order for the first 3:
1) The ultimate guide to chess (I am also complementing this one with Bobby Fischer teaches chess and Chess.com)
2) I will skip Move by Move

3) Play winning chess 

4) If the previous is of my liking, I will follow the series. 

5) For complementing Endgame I think I will go back to Pandolfini with his Endgame book.

But I am still very curious about "The Soviet Chess Primer" and where could I fit it in the short-medium term.

"Pandolfini's Endgame Course" is not bad, but you may also want to check out "Silman's Complete Endgame Course" as an alternative.  Pandolfini's book gives a ton of theoretical endgames at a very high level, where Silman gives more practical endgames and goes a bit deeper.  Another book that is a bit underrated is "Practical Chess Endings" by Paul Keres.

Finally, once you get through whichever of the above, you will want to look into "100 Endgames You Must Know" by Jesus de la Villa (either in book form, or on Chessable).  Those will give you plenty of endgame material until you get to the point where you will get benefit from "Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual".