Exeter Chess Club: Educational Chess Books


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"Books should be used as we use glasses: to assist the sight. But some players make use of them as though they conferred sight"
-- Jose Raul Capablanca
[P.S. I have been asked, is that quote really Capa or in fact from Lasker? Search me, I've been quoting it for years and forgotten where I saw it. Anyone?]

Contents

There are also books recommended in the CHESS FAQ: the rec.games.chess newsgroup Frequently Asked Questions list (with answers).

Canonical books:

the sources for the games and some of the notes * Recommended (Chernev and Walker particularly)
** Recommended for advanced study (Webb, Nunn and Dvoretsky particularly)
... (J) Junior book

*** Other book recommendations: ***
Botvinnik: Selected Games 1967-1970 [Dover] Descriptive
Chernev & Reinfeld - Winning Chess [Faber] Descriptive
Livshitz - Test Your Chess IQ (3 vols.: BCF 160+, 180+, 200+) [Pergamon]
Silman: Re-assess your chess [?]

A LIST OF RECOMMENDED BOOKS
(from the British Chess Federation)

I've not read many of these myself, but these recommendations will have been made carefully by the BCF. I'd welcome opinions of yours. All the books in the "collections of games" section are in Descriptive notation; the Fischer book is for advanced players only.

Verbatim... (DrD)

A STARTER BOOK FOR ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS

A CO-ORDINATED COURSE FOR BEGINNERS ADDITIONAL BOOKS FOR ESSENTIAL DAILY PRACTICE USEFUL BOOKS FOR THE IMPROVING PLAYER PLAYING IN SERIOUS COMPETITIONS
The young tournament player should select from the following list:- COLLECTIONS OF GAMES FOR PARENTS

Dr.Dave's recommended books

A word about descriptive notation:
learn it!
(actually, that's two words - but you get the point. There is a host of really cracking chess literature in English which is often too cheap to pass up [second-hand or, like the Dover editions, not in need of re-setting]. Can you really wait for Batsford to commission a "Twentieth Century Edition" of Reti's Modern Ideas in Chess, on sale at £12.99 when you can pick it up for a fraction of that price, brand new from Dover? Of course not. It's worth becoming bilingual.)

Pricing: as accurate as I could get June 1993. Look around for bargains - I nearly fell for a John Walker classic for £9.99 then saw it brand new for £3.95 elsewhere!


5.4.1 Seven steps that cover the lot (prices Summer 1993):

5.4.2 Good further reading:

"I'm still confused, but now I'm confused on a much higher level"
-- ANON. For entertainment and browsing:

5.4.3 Good advanced reading:

"Chess is a game of understanding and not of memory"
-- ZNOSKO-BOROVSKY.
[cool blue cat says:] COOL TIP: It's always a good idea to borrow these before spending money on them: they will all repay study over time but all could do with balancing ideas from other authors.

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5.4.4 Otherwise Good Books with a Confidence-Sapping Error in the Very First Diagram:

Gerzadowicz, S Thinker's Chess (Thinker's Press)
MacDonald, N Defence in Chess (Master Class)

Any more? Or similar? For example, Otherwise OK Books with a Confidence-Sapping Error on the contents page: No.1: The London System by Andrew Soltis advertises a line of the Advance French on the contents page!


This document (books.html) was last modified on 30 Apr 1996 by

Dr. Dave