Chess book recommendations

[J_Glenn]

I like the collection of Capablanca best game. learnt more from that big than any other in improving my style.

[KyleJRM82]

I'm putting aside Silman's endgame book for now, I feel comfortable with everything through the Class B section and I'm doing better in my endgames.

Starting John Watson's Mastering Chess Openings Volume 1. I'm hoping to rip through 1 and 2 pretty quickly and fill in all the gaps in my patchwork opening knowledge.

[KyleJRM82]

This is already my favorite book ever because I don't have to set up the board every time they want to show a new example.

[KyleJRM82]

Okay, so now I've made it through 87 pages in Mastering Chess Openings, a little more than a quarter of the book. So far, I love it.

For one thing, as I mentioned before, if I set up my analysis board on the computer rather than a real board, I don't have to set up positions. At the end of one example, I can just reset to a new game because each example starts with the first move of the game. I don't know about everyone else, but I just found that setting up the board for example positions to be the most tedious part of any book. (Although I'll try to use it to work on my visualization and "chunking," seeing how much of the board I can set up at a time without having to look back at the position).

The trade-off is that this book is even more example-rich and example-heavy than the other books I've read, so it ends up being about the same amount of work. I plowed out 20 pages this afternoon and it took about 3 hours. As another way to practice my visualization, for any opening example of 7 or fewer moves, I'm trying to do it in my head instead of over the board. Going to have to learn blindfold someday

Anyway, this book is amazing. The first three chapters I've done now do not specifically address any openings, but rather focus on key themes that cut across openings. He's really trying to pound home pawn structure and how it influences the middlegame. Sub-chapters on things like "Isolated c-pawn" or "doubled-e pawns." It really makes me appreciate how often I sometimes want to play my openings on autopilot and need to stop that.

[KyleJRM82]

Okay, I'm done with Mastering Chess Openings, Volume 1.

What an amazing book. Completely and utterly changed the way I look at chess. I think where I read it now, in the top half of class play and not having done much opening study, was perfectly timed.

The only thing I have in my experience to compare it to is Reassess Your Chess. That book completely tore down and rebuilt the way I looked at the middlegame, and this book did the same for the opening. Seeing the depth behind every move in the mainlines was fascinating. One of the first things you learn about chess is that e4/e5/d4/d5 are good opening moves because they fight for the center. And you nod and say "okay, I understand that. What else do I need to know?" Then you get to this point, and read a book like this, and suddenly you realize how incredibly in-depth that concept really is. And seeing so many examples of the battles raging for one side or the other to achieve/prevent one of those moves has given me a better understanding of openings that I'm not familiar with, i.e. I'm more comfortable going "out of book."

This is a very dense book, with tons of sidelines and example games. As always, there's no point in reading a chess book if you don't plan on playing over these lines, but this is doubly true with this book. After the first three chapters, the "text" portions become overwhelmed by the lines and moves. It took me about 2 months to get through the book this way, aiming for at least an hour a day.

This book is also going to have a metric ton of re-read value. I'd be lucky if I even remembered 30% of the primary material after one go-through, let alone all the sidelines and such.

So now the question is, do I go straight to Volume 2 (Volume 1 covered e4, Volume 2 does d4) or try to take a break and do a different book in between? I'm still debating on that one.

[TexAg06]

Kyle, have you read Zurich 1953 yet?

[KyleJRM82]

Not yet! That might be a nice zwischenzug

[TexAg06]

I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm only halfway through, but it really does deserve all of the hype it gets. Plus, I think it would help you for several other reasons as well. Studying openings and acquiring knowledge is great, but chess is the ultimate activity for knowledge application. Playing through full games and seeing the seamless mix of openings to middlegames to endings will go a long way towards helping you integrate everything you're learning. Plus, the majority of the games are QGDs, KIDs, and Nimzos, which judging by your e4 questions aren't openings you see a lot, so it's bound to help your d4 knowledge as well.

Putting learning aside, Bronstein is just a phenomenal writer and the book couldn't be more entertaining. It's fantastic.

[KyleJRM82]

The Mastering Chess Openings series goes through entire games. I wouldn't use it if it didn't

I was planning on my next book being a game anthology for those exact reasons! I've done an opening book, a middlegame book, a thought process book, an attacking book. A nice, all-around game anthology felt like it'd be a lot of fun.

So Zurich is on it's way. I might do it concurrently with MasCO2, just because MasCO2 is something I know I'm going to have to get through eventually and I'd like to get it somewhat overwith.

[BobJoeJim]

Another upside to working through Zurich and MasCO2 at the same time is that as TexAg06 mentioned, most of the games in Zurich are d4 openings, so by going back and forth you'll have two different author's perspectives on a similar set of openings, which I could see generating some unique insights compared to doing just one or the other at once.

[whiskeytown]

I'm currently working on the Dan Heisman "The Road to Chess Improvement - The Best of Novice Nook" - I could just read the column archives, but this is better because it's organized and summarized and rewritten -

I read something in there that really knocked me down - he pointed out you can add positives or remove negatives, and we do so much trying to add positives but rarely address the negatives - I'm now trying to focus on time management, piece safety, and piece activity in that order for the time being

RB

[Allen C]

Kyle, might I suggest as an alternative to Zurich, Fischer's 60 Memorable games? It's a classic as well but because Bobby is an e4 player it better reinforces the book you just read. Also, you posted that you have been going over a lot of Fischer games so you'll probably already be familiar with many in the book and be well prepared to dive into his notes.

Maybe Zurich, since it has mostly d4 games according to Bob and Tex, could follow Watson part II.

[KyleJRM82]

That's on my radar too! Fischer's 60 Memorable Games and Kasparov's My Great Predecessors.

I sometimes wonder how anyone has time to actually play chess while they are trying to get better at it.

[TexAg06]

Kyle, I also forgot how much Ruy Lopez is in Zurich 1953. It's like this book was made for you

As far as My Great Predecessors from Kasparov, beware, it's REALLY deep and variation-rich. Lots of really in-depth analysis. I tried to tackle it, got scared, and went back to Zurich haha.

[Leavenfish]

Originally Posted by DaMaGor

Post chess books which you are reading or have read and think would be helpful to the people here in improving their game, or which are just plain interesting.

Everyone is different in their chess competency so it's hard to generalize.

After 20+ years of tournament chess, my OTB has fallen all the way to 2050 - a good 150 pt drop (!)...largely because in the past 10 or more years I've played only 1 or 2 (small) tourneys a year. I've fallen far away from being 'tournament tough'.

Having just gotten interested in chess again, and knowing my 'weakness' is calculation (many would not think so, but they are wrong...that's why I habitually drop 1/2 to 1 1/2 pts in the typical 5 round tournament these days - it's definitely NOT due to any lack of knowledge of the game) so I've gone back to the basics:

1. Combinations in Chess - Bondarevsky: Never worked thru it completely.
2. Excellence at Chess Calculation - Aagaard: Not a beginners book...but how many books really strive to teach you how to THINK and CALCULATE during a game? Precious few...and yet that is what you have to do on every single move.
3. Assorted books on tactics: with the idea of spotting tactical ideas and rationally calculating the sequences.

Think about it: computer programs can play awesome chess...3000 elo tactically....but they are maybe 1700 or less positionally. Tactics (and proper calculation) are for anyone interested in improving their game.

That and simply working on my thinking is what I need...it's 'work' for sure, unlike reading something and hoping to get something from it. That I've done for years and it what most people do. The secret to chess success is WORK at the important things. I've 'coasted' on my inate abilities for a decade now, time to WORK on the important stuff or do other things.

For pure chess enjoyment: The King by JH Donner. Awesome.