Chess Books
A collection of books seems to come naturally with playing chess as a hobby. As you study chess tactics and chess strategy you'll constantly want to learn more. Each of the books listed here is a title I have in my own collection.
Each book has a short description or review that I hope might be helpful when you're deciding on additions to your own chess bookshelf.
Chess - Lazlo Polgar This book has been called 'the brick' and if you had enough of them you could probably build a sturdy house. The author's name is recognizable to chess players, Lazlo Polgar is the father of the chess playing Polgar sisters. You've got to imagine many of these puzzles and positions must have been the same ones the sisters cut their chess playing teeth on. With over 5000 puzzles, positions and problems, there is a lifetime of chess learning here. A great 'bathroom book'! |
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The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings - Reuben Fine This slim little volume is a personal favourite. Don't let the size fool you. This book is packed full of solid opening advice and theory. This is a book that I'm learning a lot from. Highly recommended. |
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Modern Chess Strategy - Ludek Pachman Before Jeremy Silman there was Ludek Pachman. This book was originally published as a series of three volumes covering each aspect of the game. Now available in a single volume, it makes a comprehensive chess program. The author was a Cezch grandmaster who was active in major tournaments from the 1940's to the 1980's. Pachman takes the reader through every phase of the game with plenty of examples from the masters of the past. |
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How to Reassess Your Chess - Jeremy Silman This is the one that everyone recommends if you want to improve your game. This book is subtitled 'The Complete Chess Mastery Course" and it lives up to that billing every step of the way. You'll learn about 'imbalances' (and how to create and exploit them) and the 'Silman Thinking Technique'. How to develop and assess 'candidate moves' and more. This is an invaluable guide book and one of the top sellers of all time. And since everyone else does, I highly recommend it!
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How to Win in the Chess Openings - I.A. Horowitz A great book for a beginner. This book takes several basic openings and reviews them in detail. If you are just setting out to learn the great game (or coming back to it after years away from the board like me) and need a primer on a few classic openings, then this is the one for you. . |
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The Chess Garden - Brooks Hansen Not a chess book in the style of the how-to books on the rest of the page, this one is a novel with chess as one of the central themes. This book gets several five-star reader reviews at Amazon.ca and I have to agree, it's a great book and one that has been vastly underated (or maybe under-promoted?). A wonderful story unfolds with a magic-realism style similar to Garcia-Marques. A story that is likely to stay with you long after reading it.
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The Defence - Vladimir Nabokov Again, not a chess how-to but a novel with chess and the madness it can inspire in a player (not that it could really happen, right Bobby?) as the central themes. This one is a little hard to come by as it seems to be currently out of print. It was made into a move called 'The Luzhin Defence' a few years ago with a different ending from the book.
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