Chess Library

I thought it would be interesting to know who on chess.com has the largest personal chess library. I know it wont be me , I have between 250-300 books on chess. Are you the one with the largest library here ?

 Are you being sarcastic here or do people actually own more books than you? The only way you can own this many books is to just purchase the sea of opening books people make in their sheds over a weekend. Then again, I suppose it depends how many languages you can speak...

I own no books at this moment in time. However, after Christmas, and my January birthday, I shall own all of five books- My System, Winning Chess Strategy, Winning Chess Tactics, Winning Chess Endgames, and Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame Course.

Not the biggest collection, which was the point of this thread, I believe, but a collection which (I hope!) covers everything I need to know.

It won't be me either, I have about 50 chess books (although I do have access to the Hasting's Chess Club library.... a couple of thousand volumes.... some very old, and some valuable enough to be locked away).

Nytik: That's a substantial library Reb has but I'm sure there's more than a few who have more. I know two people, albeit not on this site, who have way more than that.  Personally I "only" have about 70-80 but I also have hundreds of magazines such as the british ones Chess and British Chess magazines.  It's not a question of what one needs in terms of learning, most i just read for entertainment, games collections, biographies, and tournament reports etc.

Only 50-60 or so books for me, but I remember one person on this site living in CA had an immense library they donated to a chess club...

I believe in quality over quality. I read my books several times before purchasing anything new. I think I own about 10 books.

I have more books than I have time to read.

I wish I had time for some of the books on my shelf such as Kasparov's "Great Predecessor" books and Zurich 1953. Who has time to read when it takes hours to play one game!

Nytik> Not the biggest collection, which was the point of this thread, I believe, but a collection which (I hope!) covers everything I need to know.

An excellent beginning--should occupy you for awhile. I suspect you'll add tactics books or opening books (general or specific) before crossing 1800 FIDE. All in good time.

 That is the general idea, I chose these books to cover the broad spectrum of chess- tactics, strategy, openings, endgames, and My System thrown in because it's apparently practically essential . And I notice this is what your blog is based on.

I then plan to go in-depth on one or two openings- I hope to have a strong reply to both 1. e4 and 1. d4 as black and then I was thinking the English opening also. But anyway, sorry for interrupting your thread Reb.

Here is my collection: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/farbror&tag=Chess

 Doesn't look like you read that post several times before hitting submit  (quality over quality?).  Sorry couldn't resist...

 I have been collecting chess books for 35 years and dont even have 300 , so an average of less than 10 books a year isnt really so many. If you have just one or 2 books on all the world champions and if you bought the informants as they came out , a few books on great tournaments, world championship matches etc, they add up very fast ! I know there are people with private chess libraries with ver 1000 books in them. I am just curious who has the largest chess library on chess.com ? I was not being sarcastic, lots of people have larger libraries than I do. Yes, I do have a lot of opening books as well. I have 9 or 10 on the sicilian alone. On my recent trip to the Olympiad I added 3 new books to my collection, all 3 were highly recommended.

 I want your autograph! I have promised myself several times to read one (1!) for every three I buy!  No success.

I currently have 86, only read about 30, some are just reference, some are soely instructional, some are stories- I enjoy book collecting and whatever subject I am interested in at the time I end up purchasing some quantity depending on my interest and the availability of books for that particular subject.

Reb i have 60 books, im getting some more for xmas :-)

heres my thread on this subject :-)

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/list-your-chess-books

I counted up my chess book collection today and I've got around 800 including Informants and New In Chess Yearbooks. Also, countless magazines I've subscribed to over the years. My favourite books are player biographies and best games collections, tournaments (old and more recent) and quality books on match play. I tend to go for quality over quantity now especially hard cover books that will last even though they tend to be more expensive. Also, books on chess history interest me, it's great reading about the greats of the past.

I've devoted a whole room for my collection and very quickly running out of space, but that won't stop me from buying more though! I'm a chess book junkie, I guess I just love reading about chess.

Amazon is a favourite site of mine for chess book purchases as they always have the latest and hard to find older books at a great price. Their postage charges are reasonable too. You also have the option of saving some money and buying second hand.

All these books may not be turning me into a champion but I get a lot of enjoyment out of reading them.

Here's mine:

Opening Books
 

A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire –Summerscale

The Chess Advantage in Black & White- Kaufman

Winning with the Najdorf –King

Complete Defense to Queen Pawn Openings Schiller

Winning with the Schliemann –Tseitlin

Dutch Defense: New and Forgotten Ideas-Minev, Donaldson

Complete Defense to 1.Pk4(A study of the Petroff’s Defense) –Hooper

Complete Defense to King Pawn Openings: Caro-Kann –Schiller

The Ruy Lopez: Winning Chess with 1. PK4 –Barden

The Benoni –hartston

The Modern Defence –Keene, Botterill

The King’s Indian Defense-Barden,Hartston, Keene

The Siclian Defense Book1 –Gligoric, V. Sokolov

The Siclian Dragon –Levy

The Sicilian Sozin – Kottnauer, Botterill, Harding

Ideas behind the Chess openings-Fine

Caro-Kann Defence- Suetin

The Classical Caro-Kann-Kasparov, Shakarov

The Gruenfeld Defence-Hartston

The Dynamic Caro-Kann –Silman

The Meran System –Pedersen

The Slav Defense –Sadler

The Ultimate King’s Indian Attack –Dunnington

Starting out: Benoni Systems –Raetsky,Chetverik

Winning with the Gruenfeld –Adorjan, Dory

The Complete benoni –Psakhis

An Unbeatable White repertoire –Evans, Smith

Trends: Benko Gambit –Jacobs

Nunn’s Chess openings-Nunn,Burgess,Emms,Gallagher

The Chigorin Queens Gambit –Dunningtopn

B12 Caro-Kann –Seirawan

The Sicilian Scheveningen –Kasparov,Nikitin

The Grand Prix Attack –Lane

The Ruy Lopez Exchange –Panczyk, Ilczuk

How to play the Albin Counter Gambit- Schiller

New Ideas in the Four Knights –Nunn

Mystery of Najdorf – Raicevic,Jukic,Boto

Chess Informant No. 1-22

New In Chess No. 80

Open Ruy Lopez C80-81 –Korchnoi

Chess openings traps and zaps –Pandolfini

Winning with the closed Sicilian –Lane

Surveys: 34 Opening Variations
 

    * The Complete Grunfeld- Suetin
    * The Contemporary Anti- Dutch –Martin
    * Winning with the Ruy Lopez Exchange- Soltis
    * Grob’s Attack – Bill Wall
    * The Sicilian Defence- Gufeld
    * French Defence, Tarrasch Variation C05-06 – Bareev
    * Open Ruy Lopez – Flear
    * The …a6 Slav –Flear
    * 101 Chess Opening Surprises –Burgess
    * The Scandanavian Defence-Plaskett
    * Starting out: 1.d4! –Cox
    * The Scandanavian –Emms
    * Winning with the Cole System –Smith ,Hall
    * How to open a chess game-Evans,Gligoric
    * French Defence: Steinitz, Classical & Other System –Psakhis
    * Chess Openings For Black Explained- ALburt,Dzindzichashvili
    * Chess Opening for White Explained –“              “
    * Mastering the French –Harley,Mcdonald
    * Play 1.e4 e5!: A complete Repertoire for black in the open games-Davies
    * Winning with the Nimzoindian-Keene
    * The Complete King’s Indian –Keene, Jacobs
    * Practical Chess openings-Fine
    * Starting Out: Closed Sicilian –Pallisser
    * Play the Nimzo-Indian Defence-Gligoric
    * Sicilian Defence B86-87-Beliavsky ,Mikchalchishin
    * The Essential Center-Counter-Martin
    * Understanding the Chess openings:The Queen’s Indian –Soltis
    * The Nimzo-indian Rubinstein- Dunnington
    * Mastering the Spanish-King, Ponzetto
    * Queen’s Indian Defence –Efim Geller
    * Starting out: Modern Benoni-Vegh
    * Beating the Anti-King’s Indian: Gallagher
    * The Complete Pirc-Nunn
    * The New Classical King’s Indian-Nunn ,Burgess
    * The Open Spanish-Krasenkov
    * The HedgeHog-Suba
    * The Gambit-Yudovich
    * Starting out 1.e4: A Reliable Reportiore for the Improving Player –Mcdonald
    * The Trompowsky –Davies
    * How to play the English opening –Povah
    * Mastering the King’s Indian Defence-Bellin,Ponzetto
    * Mastering the Modern Benoni & Benko Gambit –Bellin, Ponzetto
    * Trends in the Advance French Vol. 2 –Wade
    * Understanding the Leningrad Dutch-Beim
    * Queen’s Gambit Accepted- Neishtadt
    * The Complete Sveshnikov Sicilian –Yakovich

 

Strategy ,Tactics, Studies books
 

Grandmaster Secrets: Endings –Soltis

Granmaster Secrets : Openings –Soltis

Chess Fundamentals –Capablanca, de Firmian

Analyzing th end game –Speelman

The Middle game Book 1 –Euwe,Kramer

My System –Nimzovich

Turning Advantage into victory in chess –Soltis

Winning Chess Tournaments for juniors –Snyder

The Middle Game in chess –Fine

200 Challenging Chess Puzzles –Greif

Combinations The Heart of Chess-Chernev

The King Hunt –Cozens

Development of a chessmaster-Schiller

The Final Countdown- Hajenius,van Riemsdijk

Practical Knight Endings – Mednis

Practical Chess Endings: Keres

Chess Endings Essential Knwoledge – Averbakh

The Chess Sacrifice –Vukovic

303 Tactical Chess Puzzles-Wilson,Albertson

Master The Game of Chess – Sehgal

Winning with chess Psychology –Benko, Hochberg

From Beginner to expert in 40 Lessons –Kostyev

Training For the Tournamnet Player-Dvoretsky,Yusupov

How to play good opening moves-Mednis,Hochberg

Chess Catechism –Evans

Alexander on Chess –Alexander

The Art of Defense In Chess- SOltis

The Art of Positional Play –Reshevsky,Hochberg

3 Steps To Chess Mastery –Suetin

Attack & Defence in Modern Chess Tactics-Pachman

The Art of Chess –MASon

Easy Endgame Stategies – Robertie

The 10 Common Chess Mistakes –Evans

A World Champions Guide to Chess –Susan Polgar

Chess Tactics For Champions –Susan Polgar

Guide to Good Chess – Purdy

# Teach Yourself Visually Chess –Edwards

*Complete Chess Strategy 1 -3 –Pachman

*Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur-Euwe, Meiden

Master Class Typical Mistakes –Mcdonald

Mastering Chess Tactics –Mcdonald

The Complete Idiot’s Guide  to Chess –Wolf

Comprehensive Chess Endings 1 -5 – Averbakh,Maizelis,Kopaev,Chekover

Chess For Beginners –Horowitz

Chess Board Magic –Chernev

Planning in Chess- Flesch

Chess for Fun & Chess for blood- Ed Lasker

Chess Endings Made Simple –Snape

Wining Chess –Chernev, Reinfeld

Inside the Chess Mind-Aagaard

Secrets  of Rooks Endings-Nunn

Understanding Chess Move by move –Nunn

Improve Your Chess now- Tisdall

New Ideas In Chess –Evans

Winning Chess Tactics For Juniors –Hays

Chess Endings For the practical player

School of Chess Excellence VOl. 1 to 4 –Dvoretsky

Secrets of Chess Training –Dvoretsky

Attack and Defense- Yusupov, Dvoretsky

The Middle Game book 2 –Euwe,Kramer

Play Like a GM –Kotov

Think Like a Gm –Kotov

Train Like a GM –Kotov

The Soviet School of Chess- Kotov, Yudovich

A Contemporary Approach to the Middlegame –Suetin

Plan Like a GM –Suetin

Understanding the Sacrifice-Dunnington

Chess Endgame training –Rosen

Pandolfinis’ Endgame Course –Pandolfini

How to use Computers to Improve Your Chess –Kongsted

Understanding Pawn play in chess –Marovich

The Art of Chess Combination- Znosko-Borovsky

The Soviet Chess Conveyor-Shereshevsky

The Art of planning in chess-Mcdonald

Defence and Counterattack- Florian

Why You lose at chess –harding

How to calculate chess tactics-Beim

The Art of Attack in chess –Vukovic

The brilliant touch in chess –Korn

Winning Chess Tactics –Seirawan,Silman
 

Biographical Books

Lasker's greatest games - Fine and Reinfeld

The Unkown Capablanca-Hooperdt

Chess At the top 1979 to 1984 –Karpov

Beyond the 13th Move –Torre

Gary Kasparov’s Fighting Chess-Kasparov,Speelman,Wade

My Best Games of Chess 1935-1957-Smyslov

Reshevsky’s Best games of chess- Reshevsky

Jon Speelman’s Best Games of Chess – Speelman

Devlopment of a GM –Adams

Morphy’s Game of Chess –Sergeant

Capablanca's Laste lectures

The Chess Games of Adolph ANderssen –Burnett,Pickard

John Nunn’s Best Games –Nunn

Chess Praxis –Nimzovich

Nimzovich –The Hypermodern –Reinfeld

Grandmaster Achievement –Polugaevsky

Mikhail Tal’s Best Games of Chess –Clarke

The Closed Openings in action –Karpov

The Development of A Chess Style –Euwe,Nunn

My Life and Games –Kramnik,Damsky

My 300 Best Games –Karpov

The Games of Anatoly Karpov –O’conel,Adams

My Best games of chess VOl 1 1908 -1923 –Alekhine

100 Instructive games of Alekhine –Reinfeld

CJS Purdy;s Fine art of Annotation Vol. 1 to 3 –Purdy

My 60 Memorable Games –Fischer

Learn from Bobby Fischer’s Games –Schiller

How to beat Bobby Fischer –Mednis

Bobby Fischer: from genius to legend –Gufeld

Profile of A Prodigy –Brady

How Fischer Plays Chess- Levy

Bobby Fischer and His approach to chess-Agur

The Immortal Games of Capablanca –Reinfeld

The Art of Sacrifice in chess –Rudolph Spielman

Botinnik’s 100 Selected Games 1926-1946 –Botvinnik

Kasparov’s VOl. 1-6 –Chess Asia

Tigran Petrosian: His life and Games –Vasiliev

Spassky’s 100 Best Games –Cafferty

The Games of Robert James Fischer – O’Connell

Kasparov’s Chess Openings-Borik

#Achieving the aim –Botvinnik

Interview with a GM –Summerscale

My best Games 1978 –Karpov


A Memorial to Steinitz –Devide

The Test of Time –Kasparov

My 50 Years of Chess- Marshall

Fire on Board: Shirov’s Best Games – Shirov

Why Lasker Matters-SOltis

The Blockade-Nimzovich

William Steinitz:Selected Chess Games –Devide,Hooper

My Chess Career-Capablanca

Anatoly Karpov: His road to the world championship –Botvinnik

The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal- Tal, Nunn,Chandler

Gary Kasparov:His career in chess-Yudovich

Tigran Petrosian : Master of Defense 1946 to 1963 –Clarke

Aron Nimzovitch: Master of planning –Keene

Chess is my Life : Korchnoi

Karpov -Korchnoi Match 1978 -R. Keene

Chess Matches,Tournaments,Collections

Best of Chess 1988 – 1995 Games of Worlds top ten –Chess Asia

World Championship Chess 1990 Cycle-Chess asia

“           ‘                       ‘           1993 Cycle –Chess asia

Fischer vs Spassky 5Million Comback –Davies,Pein,Levitt

“           “           “ The Chess Match of the Century –Gligoric

Best Chess Games 1970 -1980 –Speelman

The GM’s Mind –Avni

The Golden treasury of Chess- Horowitz

1992 Fischer –Spassky 10:5 – Matanovich

Korchnoi_karpov match 1978-Keene

Moscow Marathon 1984/1985 World Chess Ch. –Speelman,Tisdall

World Champion from Ruy Lopez to Fischer –Santos,Ramirez,Valdez

5 Crowns: The Complte Karpov- Kasparov Duel –Seirawan,Tisdal

World  Chess Championship 1995:Kasparov vs. ANand: King

The World Chess Championship 1948-1969 –Glogoric,Wade

Great Chess Victories and Defeats –Byrne

500 Master games of Chess- Tartakover

Zurich Int’l Chess Tournament 1953 –Bronstein

The book of the Nottingham Int’l Chess Tournamnet –Alekhine

The 1974 Canidates Semi-finals –Santos, Ramirez, Mendez

The Leningrad Interzonal 1973 –Torre,De Castro

Interzonal Chess Biel 1993 –Chess Asia

Interzonal Chess Manila 1990 –Chess ASias

World Chess Olpympiade 1988,1990,1992,1996 –Chess Asia

Various Tournament books from 1988 to 1997 ( Iceland, Spain, Belgium, France,)

# Chess Match between Steinitz and Blackburne –Steinitz

Folkstone 1933 Int’l Team Chess Tournament –Kashdan

Trophy Chess: Lessing Rosenwald Tournament -1954 -1955 –Evans

The World Chess Crown Challenge:Kasparov –Karpov Seville 1987 –Bronstien

2nd Intl’ Chess Tournamnte Moscow 1935 –Krylenko

Soviet Union vs World 1970 –Petrosian,Matanovich

Mammoth Book of Greatest Chess Games –Nunn, Emms, burgess
 

Chess Magazines

Chess Asia

VOl 14 #1

VOl 17# 3

Vol 16 # 2

VOl 17 # 4

Vol 17 # 2

Vol 14 # 2

Vol 8 # 2

Vol 7 # 4

VOl 9 # 2

Vol  7 # 3

Vol 8 # 4

Vol 11 #2

Vol 10 # 4

VOl 12 # 3

Vol 11 # 1

Vol 9 # 1

Vol 3 # 4

Vol 4 # 2
 

Inside Chess

Vol 7 # 13

Vol 5 # 7

VOl 6 # 24

Vol 10 # 10

Vol 7 # 10
 

Chess Life

July 2005

July 2006

Aug 2005

May 2005

Got some 180+ more at the attic(unless the mites got them) and some i already traded and sold.:)

I think I have close to 200 chess books, which comprise perhaps 10% of my home library. I have long regretted diminishing my chess library by half when I had a dozen texts and was playing little chess. I traded them at a used bookstore for a fat public policy text from the Kennedy administration.

Two of the tournament books I lost in that exchange are out of print, and were among the best tournaments in the early 1970s.

Wow! Guess some one had plenty of time to write that!  Ummm.......get a life!

Sheeesh !  When I started this thread I had in mind that people would simply tell the number of chess books in their library , NOT list them all !   I guess some people really dont have much to do !