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.

My System by Aron Nimzowitsch -- LDO. This book has so much to teach about positional play and is packed full of instructive annotated games.

Emanuel Lasker: The Life of a Chess Master -- combines a biography of the second world champion with a selection of 102 of his games. The annotation quality is mixed, but the good ones (some by Lasker himself, others by various top players of the time including Tarrasch and Reti) are very good, and the biography sections are interesting in themselves. Out of print, but not terribly expensive to buy used online, and may well be available at your local library or possibly chess club.

I'm working through the Kasparov My Great Predecessors, have "finished" volume 2. I say "finished" because like most good chess books even when you have read everything there is so much more to take in.

Very good books, will give you a sense of the history of the World Chess Championship and the evolution of opening theory/chess theory. Very thorough/good attention to detail on the chess side: I'm not sure how much is Kasparov's own work but there has been a lot of work put into researching the comments of previous annotators.

One of my favourite books of all time: Mikhail Tal's Life and Games of Mikhail Tal. Probably the most interesting style of any of the world champions, and definitely the best writer. Instructive and very entertaining.

A book I've mentioned before is Michael Stean's Simple Chess. It is so, so good that it should really be required reading alongside Nimzovich, Kotov, etc. Plus it's small, cheap and super easy to read through. I know strong players who read through this before every major tournament.

Zurich 1953 by David Bronstein. It goes over every single game from the Zurich 1953 tournament, which was the strongest tournament ever played at the time. The thing that makes it a jewel is Bronstein's insight and casual language used to bring down extremely sophisticated play to a level that anybody can understand.

Kasparov's My Great Predecessors is an excellent collection of books,
but as stated, it takes a lot of time to go through every game (unless you're
Anand!).

I just finished reading How to Reassess your Chess. Compared to a similar book I previously read, Winning Chess Strategies, I would say this book is superior, but maybe at a more advanced level.

Don't read this until your tactics are pretty sweet, though! This means never walking into one-move forks or skewers in slower time controls. And not leaving pieces en prise, that goes without saying.

I'm rubbish at Chess (BCF 134 six years ago) so I have little idea what's good to learn from. However, Reti's Modern Ideas in Chess is unlike any other Chess book I've seen and quite a few great players have recommended it, I think.

Understanding Chess Move by Move by Nunn is great IMO...On the Attack by I believe Timman I like a lot...also I like what I've read of the Winning Chess series

Thumbs up For Reassess your chess.

The best thing about RYC is that it is good enough to be read multiple times. I've read it probably 4 times now, all at least 1 year apart, and gotten something new out of it each time. What was initially terribly confusing became simple or obvious as I got stronger. It's okay if you don't completely understand everything. Take whatever you can from it and come back a little later.

RYC is my favorite book. Not only does it teach you what to look for when examining a position, but also how to go about doing so.

yeah I definitely wish I didn't lend that book to someone, or at least that I got it back, or at least that I remembered who I lent it to.

This, except that I do remember who I lent it to but it would be massively bad form to ask for it back right now.

I like Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur. First book I ever read. Also, Silman's endgame book and "The Amateur's Mind" are great.

Hmm, this probably explains why I inexplicably have 5 or 6 copies of this book. Wormhole to my bookcase I guess.

Hi, I don't mean to dig this up, but as what I am asking for doesn't seem to be specified, I would like to ask what sources a beginner should first pursue? I am a mid stakes poker player, a good reader, and capable of digesting information well, so I am not searching for something dumbed down necessarily, but I would like to find either a source designed for a beginner, or several sources which together can provide an adequately thorough overview of the game and which would be useful to a person who is new to the all but the most basic of concepts (the basic early game and vague understanding of position and similar concepts), and hopefully not too extensive a collection of reading, as I want to get into it fairly quickly and acquaint myself with the game before I search more deeply.

Thanks for your time. I hope I don't come off as stupid, as I am really quite ignorant of the game, but would like to learn.

Lev Alburt's Comprehensive Chess Course, volumes one and two, would probably be pretty close to what you're looking for.

I am probably going to order them quute soon, unless there are better (newer?) replacements of the series? It seems some people complain about the presentation and layout of the book, but I am not too trusting of random reviews anyway. I don't mind spending time on the subject, but having a smooth start would be good, of course. Are there any other specific sources (videos aimed more on basic concepts than high level games?) or programs that would be useful? I am just asking in case of course, I really don't mind going through books.

Going through both volumes cover to cover is probably the best way to start for a serious beginner. Once you've done that there are tons of great tactics programs or books that you'll want to use.

Got Seirawan's Chess Duels yesterday, seems like it is going to be one of the best chess books I've read. Highly recommended

Two books that represent a very solid and fun course in tactics are Murray Chandler's How to Beat Your Dad at Chess and Chess Tactics for Kids. I'm currently going over them for a second time and, despite the title and hokey covers, I feel like I'm getting quite a lot out of them and believe they would be helpful to at least the range of players from 1000-2000 USCF.

Each book has two pages devoted to each of 50 different tactical motifs. The left hand page has several diagrams showing the bare bones of the motif with solid and dotted arrows showing where all the pieces go so you don't have to be distracted much by the chess notation (which is also included). The right page has four, more complicated positions with detailed solutions in prose and notation below. These seem to be designed to just read through as additional examples but you can easily cover up the solutions and try to solve each position yourself first. Each book ends with 40-50 test positions with a separate solutions section.

To anyone who is trying to follow the advice to work on their tactics I would recommend reading these two books before tackling the thousands of problems on Chess Tactics Server, CT-art, or any of the 1001 whatever books available.

I've got about 200 pages to go in How to Reassess Your Chess, which at my current pace means another couple of weeks. When that's done, I'll be picking up some new book(s) to continue with.

I'm looking for anywhere between 2 and 4 new chess books to study concurrently. Probably two, but I'm willing to go beyond that if the others are short or I have another good reason. One of them will be Silman's Endgame Course, which I have a pirated PDF of but want to get a legit copy (and I like studying from a real book better anyway).

I want suggestions for how to fill out the remaining 1-3 slots. Some guidelines, because I'm hyperspecific and picky when I'm spending money:

1) It must be level appropriate. I float around 1700 in the ICC 45-minute pool, sometimes pushing up to 1800. This tracks pretty closely to ICC standard, and I think ICC standard 1700 is something like USCF 1400ish.

2) I just got done with a thought-process book (Amateur's Mind) and am finishing up a positional book (HRYC), so a different direction would be a nice change of pace.

3) If it's an opening book, I want one that does a good job of explaining the basics of how to convert the opening into a middlegame plan and execute that plan. My openings are in general weak, but especially as black and especially especially against 1.d4.

4) I do tactics training at chess.emrald.net, but I'm willing to consider a tactics book if it's cheap and highly useful.

Alright, I think that's enough restrictions.

I really liked Lasker's Manual of Chess. The style is something that I don't expect a lot of people to like, but it covers all aspects of the game and gives good discussion on combinations and how they come up from positional play, etc.

First, buy your 2-4 new books but then do you damnedest to finish those before buying more. I've been a bit of a book buying junkie over the last year, for every one I finish I buy 3 more and it just gets lame and I always feel like I have to rush through the one I'm on to get to the next one. Some are useful as reference books however and I don't mind hording a few of those.

Anyway, out of my 30ish book collection allow me to recommend:

Rate Your Endgame by Colin Crouch

The format of this book is pretty much the most enjoyable (and helpful?) way of studying the endgame that I've encountered. For the bulk of the book Crouch lays out complete games with which to play solitaire chess. You try to guess the move of the master (or one equally as good) for every move in the endgame and you get a score for each answer. An explanation is given for why most reasonable but wrong moves you may have chosen are inferior so you're rarely left wondering if your idea would have worked as well. In between every couple games are lessons on general ideas and theoretical positions that are useful for the upcoming games. Fantastic.

Mastering the Chess Openings by John Watson (volumes 1 and or 2?)

Watson systematically goes through all the major openings explaining the plans and ideas for the various pawn structures and piece placements and provides several completely annotated games with references to several other games embedded within for each opening. You mentioned interest in d4 defenses which are covered in volume 2 but I would certainly recommend volume one as it contains 3 excellent chapters on general opening principles and since you're a reformed e4 player it would be relevant to about 3/4 of your games.

Starting Out: (Some defense vs. d4) by somebody

All Starting Out: books I've looked at are very educational on all facets of the game relevant to that opening and use complete, well commented games.

Practical Chess Exercises from Tactics to Strategy by something Wang

The title sums what this 600 puzzle book is about. Each diagram contains no hints or categories and each answer contains a title that is useful as a hint (Knight Fork!, Stop Enemy Counterplay!, Positional Pawn Sacrifice!), the difficulty level from * to **** and a very short lesson on the theme of the puzzle along with the appropriate lines of play. Excellent on Kindle or Amazon Kindle apps with a clear diagram and solution on the next page.

Of course I also recommend the two kids' books in my above post or any tactics book that meticulously explains all the motifs (Winning Chess Tactics by Seirawan and Back to Basics: Tactics by Heisman are two others I've read) as a supplement to any tactics training site.

Also my ICC standard is about 50 points below my USCF and my 45-minute pool rating is 100 points above my USCF so, uh, what's my point again? Oh yeah, I like this thread and wish it got more traffic.