what chess book most revolutionized your understanding of chess?
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What is this "book" you speak of? I thought the internet was the only place to read!
sirfraijo wrote: General Treaty Of Chess by Roberto G. Grau, it is excellent, well, at least the first book for novice, is the best introduction to the game I've ever seen. It gives you a clear path of how to pogress in the game.
I'm surprised one of you mentined this book. Even thou I know Grau was a great player, I didn't know his books were known outside Argentina. It was my first chess book. I have a first edition with orange pages from arround 1946 that belonged to my grandpa and I consider it gives very solid base theory to start with.
May 5, 2008
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#23
There have been some really good books mentioned here...
One that really got to me (after I'd gotten the basics) was Silman's The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery
logical chess move by move
Chessmaster "Art of Learning" and Bruce Pandolfini's "Weapons of Chess" are good for my low attention span.
Think Like a Grandmaster by GM Kotov is the most influential general Chess book I have read. Analytical accuracy is paramount in Corr. Chess play.
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The most influential Opening Book was "Play The French" by IM John Watson, which gave me my "best" opening, based on performance rating; The first over 2400.
im too good to read books
Jeremy Silmans Reassess your chess had the biggest impact on my playing.
Comprehensive chess course by Lev alburt was a great set of books covering all aspects of the game.
many of these books look good .. but i still haven't decided if i want a book on tactics and strategy .. or if i want another book of annotated games .. which would improve my play more? .. i've been trying to read through one game a day from the chernev book logical chess move by move .. and that seems to be helping my play ..
also .. what websites are the best for finding chess reading material? both for improving my chess play .. and for reading about the history of chess and different chess players ?
ashatarani> i still haven't decided if i want a book on tactics and strategy ..
When making decisions like this, it's helpful to look at your losses and try to figure out what caused them. Looking at your game against McCrankenSpank, tactics were much more instrumental in your defeat than strategy and are what you should probably focus most on for the near future if you want rapid improvement.
May 5, 2008
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#31
Sharukin wrote: The Right Way to Play Chess by Pritchard. I read it when I was about 15. 35 years later it is still the only chess book I have read all they way through.
it is a fantastic book for beginners alright, I totally recommend it. I've read tons of books and enjoyed many, such as Karpov's Chess is my Life, My System by Nimzowitch, My 60 memorable games by Fischer but I realised after years of trying to play positionally because I admired it that I am a tactical player; so now one of the most influential was Attack and Defence in Modern Chess Tactics by Pachman. The other very influential one was Chess For Tigers by Simon Webb, very funny but a good way to assess and make the most of your strengths and cover your weaknesses.
May 5, 2008
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#32
"Reassess Your Chess" by Jeremy Silman. I find chess a very difficult game and the previous books I've read have either been much too difficult or real simple basic material. This Silman book is different; I really like it.
My System by Nimzowitsch.
My chess levelled off to a plateau for years until I came across Bruce Pandolfini's Weapons of Chess ( everyone may laugh but it's such a simple book that explains so well, it holds your attention - someone mentioned low attention span in a recent post on this forum ). Once I understood things like weak squares, pawn structure, my chess took off. But as a positional player ( finally understood what positional is recently 
) I'm still a novice.
LikesForests mentioned tactics - the best book I come across is Understanding Chess Tactics by Martin Weteschnik
Amateur's mind really helped me. I was engrossed in that book for countless hours. I went from a tactical player to a balanced player. Silman always writes good books. I am not so sure about Pandolfini.
There are many good chess books, but I want to mention one from another class : Silman's Complete endgame course. What I like so much about it? Besides being very clear, with well-defined objectives (what a player rated 1400 should know, then one rated 1700, up to the master level and beyond), it is also written with a clear thing in mind: minimize the time needed for learning. The author is aware that chess is for many just a hobby, thus we can't spend too many hours on it.
Bobby Fisher teaches chess... it helped me beat all my nemeses in middle school and taught me how to look for mates at a young age. I wouldn't love chess as much as I do today without that book.
i learned by reading "The Sicilian, Dangerous Weopons." It taught me O'kelly sicilian and then with the aid of fritz I look at all of my losses, and some wins too. Its worked so far. I've gained a little under 400 rating points on fics since last november. RIght now I'm reading "Fighting anti-sicilians." At least I'll win my games with black!