Chess Book

[Peter D Williams]

Just curious to know what chess book (or dvd, source ect) have members on here found that has helped them improve the most?

[Nick Burrows]

My System - Nimzovitch - believe the hype!
Improve Your Chess Now - Jon Tisdall

[Colin Patterson]

I'd find it hard to attribute individual books to periods of improvement - it's as much about playing tournaments, solving mate in two puzzles in the paper, following masterly commentaries (Gibraltar coming up) and generally absorbing yourself in chess I always think.

Most enjoyable reads, where I felt I probably learned something would be;

International Chess Tournament 1953: Zurich - David Bronstein (approximate title)
Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy - John Watson (following on from My System above)
Secrets of Practical Chess - John Nunn
Simple Chess - Michael Stean

Also, I should mention the time that I beat a former County Champion with the Icelandic Gambit after watching an old Foxy Openings Video by Andrew Martin. Probably doesn't count as improvement, but it felt like it at the time!

Looking forward to receiving Nunn's new book on the middlegame, which I have just ordered. Should learn something from that. Anyone read it yet?

[Roger de Coverly]

I'd find it hard to attribute individual books to periods of improvement -

It would be difficult to disagree.

It's now obsolete in terms of the analysis, but I would rate Chernev's "Logical Chess move by move". What it gives you is the essential notion that you should try to improve your position with every move and that opponents are just sitting there waiting to be destroyed. It was a much better guide to young players forty or more years ago than Golombek's stuff, which was full of obscure lines of the Kings Gambit and tiresome lines in the Four Knights. At a young age, I probably knew the Metger unpin line from Golombek, but the Najdorf would have been a surprise. If anyone looks at my game from round 4 of this year's 4NCL, knowing the Metger line was eventually useful.

In recent years Ray Keene has tried to paint "Flank Openings" as a revolutionary manifesto of its time. I wouldn't go that far, but as you had to learn algebraic to use it, it did have a certain status.

[James Byrne]

...

[Niall Doran]

Improve Your Chess Now - Jon Tisdall

Apart from learning how not to think like a tree, how did this book help you exactly?

A book that made a difference to me:

The Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman. He goes through games played between amateurs and him versus amateurs and explains their faulty thought processes. It can be a bit long-winded and the over-sized characters make it seem like he was trying to pad, but this book worked for me. Two main things I learned from this book:

• You have to form a plan based on the position and not on your desires. You don’t just launch a king-side attack because you think “sod this manoeuvring lark, I’m attacking”, there has to be something in the position that justifies it. This might seems elementary (and it is) to some people, but I’d never got it before. I also feel I understand chess better and enjoy the battle of my plan versus the opponent’s.
• Do not fear your opponent, regardless of his ranking (up to a point). Everybody loses, including you, so don’t fear the reaper. Make your opponent work for it; make them doubt (how come this rabbit isn’t caving in?) Fight to the last. Also players up to a certain level (2100 I think Silman mentions, might be USCF though) will make mistakes, so hold on in there. You’ll also make a name for yourself as a tough nut to crack, making your opponents fear you more.

This weekend, I managed to draw against a 1650 opponent (I’m around 1700) after dropping a piece for no compensation other than my opponent having one slightly weak pawn. I managed to end up, through fighting spirit alone, in an endgame with three pawns v bishop and one pawn and a draw was agreed. This will probably dishearten him more than if he’d lost a “normal” game!

I can also recommend http://chesstempo.com/ for tactics.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Looking forward to receiving Nunn's new book on the middlegame, which I have just ordered. Should learn something from that. Anyone read it yet?

Yes, I've read most of it (in bed or in the train - should really play through some of the examples). I like it, though think that it will be most useful for players, say, under 2200. It's a very clearly written prose book, and to quote from Rowson (when discussing another Nunn book) he restricts the variations to the absolutely critical ones ("cutting out the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak").

One of my favourite all-time books was Larsen's Best Move Guide. I benefited enormously from that when I was about 18 (2200 strength).

[AMcHarg]

Also players up to a certain level (2100 I think Silman mentions, might be USCF though) will make mistakes...

It really depends on your definition of a mistake. I'd say most players above this level don't blunder much, but they do occassionally (Kramnik missed a mate-in-one against Fritz did he not? - possibly the worst mistake of a reigning world champion ever).

I haven't read many Chess books, but I found Jeremy Silman's chapter on Bishops vs Knights to be the thing which improved my play the most.

[Nick Burrows]

Improve Your Chess Now - Jon Tisdall

Apart from learning how not to think like a tree, how did this book help you exactly?

It made me really think about thinking. Rowson points out that reading (consuming) chess books is mainly acquiring knowledge about chess rather than increasing ones skill at playing the game. It takes more than reading. Tisdall's book was the first insight i had into how to increase skill, with lots of ideas and ways to work by yourself. Improvement cannot be spoonfed, it has to be earned at the edge of your comfort zone.
The chapter on visualisation & stepping stones is gold dust and the book is rightly regarded as a classic. Just perhaps aimed at an audience a little higher than 1600-1700 elo.

[Roger de Coverly]

Rowson points out that reading (consuming) chess books is mainly acquiring knowledge about chess rather than increasing ones skill at playing the game. It takes more than reading.

One other skill is that books aren't always to be trusted. Assuming that the thread is serious, there was a recent discussion at redhotpawn.com where someone asserted that the well known sequence in the Scotch ( 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Bc5 5 Nxc6) had to be bad because White violated "opening laws" by moving the same piece three times. This apparently was stated in one of the first books he had read.

[AMcHarg]

This backs up the point that Chess is always positionally subjective. "Rules" outlined in such books are merely guidelines that tend to work on average. There are always positions that defy the rules.

Rowson is right in one respect; Chess skill is not the same thing as Chess knowledge. They are tied in a way though, as someone with more knowledge will be stronger than the very same person with hardly any knowledge. I always think that knowledge can be directly translated into skill in the opening, but it's in the middlegame and endgame where they seem to part company.

[AMcHarg]

Incidentally - it might do more for many players to read a book on sports psychology than one on Chess. Many are beaten by the number next to their opponent's name before even sitting at the board.

[Niall Doran]

Incidentally - it might do more for many players to read a book on sports psychology than one on Chess. Many are beaten by the number next to their opponent's name before even sitting at the board.

Any recommendations?

[Nick Burrows]

Incidentally - it might do more for many players to read a book on sports psychology than one on Chess. Many are beaten by the number next to their opponent's name before even sitting at the board.

Any recommendations?

Two fantastic books addressing chess psychology are Jonathan Rowsons:-

The 7 Deadly Chess Sins
Chess for Zebras

The great classic that is hard to get hold of is Psychology in Chess by Nikolai Krogius

[Niall Doran]

The great classic that is hard to get hold of is Psychology in Chess by Nikolai Krogius

It's still available in French, if that's any help to anyone!

http://www.amazon.fr/psychologie-au-jeu ... 740&sr=8-1