I recommend starting with these two:
Chernev's Locical Chess: Move by Move
Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess (I have the 3rd ed., which I like)
Best Chess Books For Improving My Game?
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Oct 9, 2017
0
#5
DeirdreSkye wrote:
Chernev's book is for beginners.
It's for more than beginners. Are you, an 1829, putting down a 2095's recommendation? I realize in the age of analysis and precision, there are caveats that should come with this book; here is one of them from NM Dan Hesiman. That doesn't mean it isn't instructive for chessgm003.
Another of Chernev's books that SJFG would probably agree is instructive is The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played. This should be supplemented with a good tactics books with good explanations such as Improve Your Chess Tactics: 700 Practical Lessons & Exercises by Yakov Neishtadt.
Oct 9, 2017
0
#6
Aron Nimzowitsch. My System. - prophylaxis, tempi, opening principles, chasing flank pawns, rook play, pivots, passed pawns, blockade, pawn chains
John Nunn. Understanding Chess Move by Move. - removing the defender
Emanuel Lasker. Lasker's Manual of Chess. - principles of economy, justice, when to attack
Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov. The Art of the Middle Game. - castling opposite sides
Max Euwe. Judgment and Planning in Chess. - sacrifice and commitment
Paul Keres. Practical Chess Endings. - principles in most common endgames
Mikhail Shereshevsky. Endgame Strategy.
Mikhail Tal and Victor Khenkin. Tal's Winning Chess Combinations. - covers almost all tactics, with exercises
John Nunn. Secrets of Practical Chess. - calculation, inviting everyone to the party, DAUT
Jonathan Tisdall. Improve Your Chess Now. - calculation, tactical devices
Oct 9, 2017
0
#7
DeirdreSkye wrote:
wayne_thomas wrote:
Aron Nimzowitsch. My System. - prophylaxis, tempi, opening principles, chasing flank pawns, rook play, pivots, passed pawns, blockade
John Nunn. Understanding Chess Move by Move. - removing the defender
Emanuel Lasker. Lasker's Manual of Chess. - principles of economy, justice, when to attack
Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov. The Art of the Middle Game. - castling opposite sides
Max Euwe. Judgment and Planning in Chess. - sacrifice and commitment
Paul Keres. Practical Chess Endings. - principles in most common endgames
Mikhail Shereshevsky. Endgame Strategy.
Mikhail Tal and Victor Khenkin. Tal's Winning Chess Combinations. - covers almost all tactics, with exercises
John Nunn. Secrets of Practical Chess. - calculation, inviting everyone to the party, DAUT
Jonathan Tisdall. Improve Your Chess Now. - calculation, tactical devices
That's an excellent list for serious students.
I would add "The art of attack in chess" by Vladimir Vukovic and Bronstein's or Najdorf's "Zurich 1953" and it is complete.
Neither one of you kept in mind the level of chessgm003 before giving an extensive list of intermediate and advanced chess books. Remind me never to take a lesson from either one of you.
If it were me, Chessgm003, I'd turn to NM Dan Heisman, who is an award winning coach, and ask him his thoughts by going here and sending him a message. You can also go to his website and read his thorough list of chess books and when they should be studied.
I recommend two books. One if for strategies and the second one if for tactics. Get Winning Chess Strategies by Seirawan and Chess Tactics for Champion by Polgar. You are also playing to many bullet games. Skip playing bullet chess.
HOW TO reasses your chess by Jeremy silman. Read it atleast twice. Currently reading first time.
Oct 9, 2017
0
#11
DeirdreSkye wrote:
fightingbob wrote:
DeirdreSkye wrote:
wayne_thomas wrote:
Aron Nimzowitsch. My System. - prophylaxis, tempi, opening principles, chasing flank pawns, rook play, pivots, passed pawns, blockade
John Nunn. Understanding Chess Move by Move. - removing the defender
Emanuel Lasker. Lasker's Manual of Chess. - principles of economy, justice, when to attack
Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov. The Art of the Middle Game. - castling opposite sides
Max Euwe. Judgment and Planning in Chess. - sacrifice and commitment
Paul Keres. Practical Chess Endings. - principles in most common endgames
Mikhail Shereshevsky. Endgame Strategy.
Mikhail Tal and Victor Khenkin. Tal's Winning Chess Combinations. - covers almost all tactics, with exercises
John Nunn. Secrets of Practical Chess. - calculation, inviting everyone to the party, DAUT
Jonathan Tisdall. Improve Your Chess Now. - calculation, tactical devices
That's an excellent list for serious students.
I would add "The art of attack in chess" by Vladimir Vukovic and Bronstein's or Najdorf's "Zurich 1953" and it is complete.
Neither one of you kept in mind the level of chessgm003 before giving an extensive list of intermediate and advanced chess books. Remind me never to take a lesson from either one of you.
If it were me, Chessgm003, I'd turn to NM Dan Heisman, who is an award winning coach, and ask him his thoughts by going here and sending him a message. You can also go to his website and read his thorough list of chess books and when they should be studied.
As always , you are wrong again.I talked to the OP with private messages.I know exactly his level , you don't.
As for the award winning coach Dan Heisman, he didn't mange to become NM himself , how on earth he will coach others?But ok , let;s assume I am wrong and he is a great coach ,name please one titled player that he created.I looked all around the net and found none.Maybe you can enlighten us.
Also tell us please , how he earned the awards?From what I know from a column with questions and answers for beginners(Novik Nook) , no?
Heisman is good for adults and patzers.All the rest , better look elsewhere.
Hey, I admit I'm a patzer, but at 1829 no doubt you are the font of all wisdom. When are you going to bring The Ten Chess Commandments down from the Mountain? We are prostrate before your wisdom.
There are so many know it alls on Chess.com, and one hell of them are not even paying members, that it is impossible to keep track of them all. However, you'll be hard to forget because you didn't research Mr. Heisman's title, his book recommendations, his own books and, laziest of all, how to spell "Novice Nook." You might also want to learn how to punctuate a sentence.
Oct 9, 2017
0
#12
You need a game collection. Beginners get something like Logical Chess move by move, or the other one mentioned here by the same author. If you are not a beginner and havn't gone through those games it still wouldn't hurt to go through them you might pick up some nuggets of wisdom regardless.
You also need a theory book. Something like the Amateurs Mind or how to reassess your chess. I'ld go through both of them and the workbook that comes along with it in that order, but it will take over a year to go through all three and really absorb the material I think. Maybe longer...Some say do reassess your chess first but I don't think so, I think also learning bad thought processes while learning theory will help you more when you are starting out with theory books.
If you want a map to get better at every rating stage get A guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman.
Never stop studying tactics.
I'd suggest you research Heisman's book recommendations on his website.
If you become a paid member to chess.com you will have access to a lot of stuff to study from. I'd suggest you look into that to. I at one time was a member of the prodigy program and they often told us to read articles or watch videos from the chess.com website as homework or do drills. The drills are a nifty little way to practice technique without having to have a partner. You should check it out. I think at all levels one should supplement any learning plan with some of what chess.com has to offer on their paid learning materials. A lot of people try talk smack about chess.com because there are other free resources, however, they cannot get the same videos, nor the same articles, or other stuff that only chess.com has to offer. Sure I can google Evan's gambit and get a bunch of live commentary on it. I can also look at GJChess videos and learn about the Colorado gambit but there are other videos that only chess.com has to offer, and are better quality than the unplayable Colorado gambit at high levels, or even someone who just glimpsed at the videos and found a line to deviate from the Colorado Gambit video series, which is very easy to do. No where else can you find Pawn Structure 101 series. There, you will get video commentary on all the openings discussed in Pawn Structure Chess, a book who's author's name is escaping me right now.
Lastly, pick one theory book, and go over some master games in a game collection at a time, and do whatever else you have time for like watching videos and reading articles and stuff from talky chess magazines or online sources. And again, never stop doing tactics.
I am not very high rated so my knowledge about this subject might be sub part and I suggest you try and ask a master what you should be doing before you actually commit to anything. I only ask that you take what I say as a grain of salt as I do everyone else that I write to on the chess.com forums. I am not high rated, I may not be acurrate.
I just know it takes a lot to improve. If all you do is play chess. All you will do is stay at your current level. I improved because I played people higher rated than I a whole lot. Even then I only improved slightly, and only started real improvement when I joined the Prodigy Program and got an opening repertoire. I'm not trying to advertise I am just trying to say what happened. The reason why I do not like the prodigy program is that you don't get enough 1 on 1 questions answered because it is not an individual based mentorship it is rather a class based mentorship and thus they do not have enough time to answer all your questions. I do believe it's worth it though, as you get more than enough hourse to compensation for the amount of money you are spending, that and a lot of other added things like homework that reinforces what you have learned and video playback training games so you don't even have to buy a game collection you can just watch their videos of games with a FM analyzing them as he goes. However, the games are not against another master... So you may have to pony up the dough for other game collections regardless oh well 
. Not saying the Prodigy program is your best choice, just that I had a good experience, though I cannot afford it anymore, and , it's actually too much work for me. Plus, like I said, I didn't like that there wasn't any 1 on 1 connection between mentors and students. I guess that is to be expected.
NEWAY, what ever you decide, I wish you good luck.
ps
As far as I knew, Dan Heisman was a NM. Unless the Dan Heisman I met was actually an imposter???!!!
Oct 9, 2017
0
#13
BobbyTalparov wrote:
@Daybreak57: While I do recommend "The Amateur's Mind" and "How to Reassess Your Chess", I caution against recommending them for beginners (I'd also suggest reading them in that order - Amateur's Mind first). The reason for the caution is a trap many beginners fall into: worrying about strategic concerns at the expense of tactical ones.
I cannot tell you how many beginners I've seen justify a tactical blunder by saying something like "well, I wanted to keep the bishop pair", or "I did not want to double my pawns", etc. For that reason, I recommend those books for later (same with the Aagaard books). Other than that, I concur with pretty much everything you said.
I made that recommendation because I saw he was 1500. I do not know the symbols so I didn't know which rating that was. It's a rapid rating, not bad for a beginner he has 1500 but he only has a 1000 on tactics, and a 1200 on blitz. You may be right. Maybe he should wait on the Silman books. I agree they shouldn't be read by beginners. I just assumed he was just as good as I am but I guess without the high tactics rating that I have maybe he should focus more on tactical motif training but I still believe he should have a theory book. If anything bobby fischer teaches chess. Don't know if that is the best book for him, but I have nothing else to say in what actual theory book he should be reading because I have no idea I am not sure exactly what level he is at with only a tactics rating of 1000 yet he has a rapid rating of 1500. My guess is he is not doing enough tactics to raise his rating. Or uses another tactics trainer. I don't like chess.com tactics trainer anymore so I myself don't do any tactics on this site at all anymore.
Personally I think a person with a 1500 on blitz and a 1500 on rapid knows much more than someone with a blitz rating of 1200, because it takes a lot more pattern recognition to have a higher blitz rating. So maybe you are right, maybe we shouldn't just base his level on just his Rapid score. I'm not saying that just because I happen to have a blitz rating of about 1500 and also a rapid of about 1500, just that it seems to me that I know more than people who don't have also a high blitz rating like me who I play rapid against.
I will way say this though, this guy we are talking about saw how to setup a fork and later dealt with a bad position and ended up winning at the end regardless because of his passers and his trusty bishop. So I wouldn't say he is a stranger to tactics. Perhaps A guide to chess improvement will help him learn how to play real chess, slowly, with a correct thinking algorithm, to always look for the tactics first before considering strategical ideas, which is all taught in that book. It will take a while for him to digest all of that though. I myself haven't finished digesting that stuff, because I don't play enough anymore.
Winning Chess Tactics by Robertie. Very short book. Feels good to complete a short book.
Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond....
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
Daybreak57 wrote:
BobbyTalparov wrote:
@Daybreak57: While I do recommend "The Amateur's Mind" and "How to Reassess Your Chess", I caution against recommending them for beginners (I'd also suggest reading them in that order - Amateur's Mind first). The reason for the caution is a trap many beginners fall into: worrying about strategic concerns at the expense of tactical ones.
I cannot tell you how many beginners I've seen justify a tactical blunder by saying something like "well, I wanted to keep the bishop pair", or "I did not want to double my pawns", etc. For that reason, I recommend those books for later (same with the Aagaard books). Other than that, I concur with pretty much everything you said.
I made that recommendation because I saw he was 1500. I do not know the symbols so I didn't know which rating that was. It's a rapid rating, not bad for a beginner he has 1500 but he only has a 1000 on tactics, and a 1200 on blitz. You may be right. Maybe he should wait on the Silman books. I agree they shouldn't be read by beginners. I just assumed he was just as good as I am but I guess without the high tactics rating that I have maybe he should focus more on tactical motif training but I still believe he should have a theory book. If anything bobby fischer teaches chess. Don't know if that is the best book for him, but I have nothing else to say in what actual theory book he should be reading because I have no idea I am not sure exactly what level he is at with only a tactics rating of 1000 yet he has a rapid rating of 1500. My guess is he is not doing enough tactics to raise his rating. Or uses another tactics trainer. I don't like chess.com tactics trainer anymore so I myself don't do any tactics on this site at all anymore.
Personally I think a person with a 1500 on blitz and a 1500 on rapid knows much more than someone with a blitz rating of 1200, because it takes a lot more pattern recognition to have a higher blitz rating. So maybe you are right, maybe we shouldn't just base his level on just his Rapid score. I'm not saying that just because I happen to have a blitz rating of about 1500 and also a rapid of about 1500, just that it seems to me that I know more than people who don't have also a high blitz rating like me who I play rapid against.
I will way say this though, this guy we are talking about saw how to setup a fork and later dealt with a bad position and ended up winning at the end regardless because of his passers and his trusty bishop. So I wouldn't say he is a stranger to tactics. Perhaps A guide to chess improvement will help him learn how to play real chess, slowly, with a correct thinking algorithm, to always look for the tactics first before considering strategical ideas, which is all taught in that book. It will take a while for him to digest all of that though. I myself haven't finished digesting that stuff, because I don't play enough anymore.
Hey,
The reason my tactics rating is at 1000 is because I don't use tactics trainer much but I'm good with tactics. I've studied many tactics including forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, removing the defender etc.
One of the reason that I'm limited to 5 tactics per day since I'm a free member.
I've been playing on this platform for a couple years now. I don't play bullet, blitz, or even rapid. I like to play on longer time controls (30 minutes) and think slow... I'm a slow thinker and take a lot of time before moving.
I have beaten people with 1800 ELO also and many with 1600 ELO's. While I do believe that I can start with advanced books too, I don't mind starting with some basic books also.
The thing I don't want is having all books teaching me stuff I already know. But if some are basic, it doesn't hurt at all 
I like to think that I'm a novice.
Possibly of interest:
Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Simple-Attacking-Plans-77p3731.htm
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/
Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1949)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf
Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233537/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review585.pdf
Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014)
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/openings-for-amateurs/
https://www.mongoosepress.com/catalog/excerpts/openings_amateurs.pdf
Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/
http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/Chess_Endgames_for_Kids.pdf
A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf
Seirawan stuff:
http://seagaard.dk/review/eng/bo_beginner/ev_winning_chess.asp?KATID=BO&ID=BO-Beginner
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092617/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review560.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-winning-chess-endings
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627132508/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen173.pdf
http://www.nystar.com/tamarkin/review1.htm
wayne_thomas wrote:
... Emanuel Lasker. Lasker's Manual of Chess ...
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104828/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review658.pdf
Daybreak57 wrote:
... Amateurs Mind ...
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708094419/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/ammind.pdf
SJFG wrote:
... Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess ...
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708095832/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review769.pdf
Hey everyone, I'm playing chess on this platform for a couple years now and I'm not really improving (My rating not reaching the 1600 mark).
I'm considering buying some of the best chess books ever written which will help me study and improve my game. Since I've never read ANY books on chess, I don't know which ones to pick and which ones to avoid.
Having said that, can anyone make a list of top 5 or top 10 BEST chess books to read which will be helpful for me to become a better chess player and improve my play.
Thank you,
Usman.