5 Essential Chess Books - Starting a Chess Library

thanks for the tips!

Nice video

Nice vid, very helpful

I recommend "Understanding Chess Move by Move" by John Nunn. It has an assortment of highlevel games "easily" explained by british GM John Nunn :)

nice vid ,just got into chess.So thanks for the help. Nice Avecyn poster in the background. I love MTG and Hearthstone

Thanks for this video -- great recommendations!

this days no one read books but I think its good idea

Which one do you think would help me improve the most?

Thanks for your video

Hopefully someone can help me with this but as a child I checked out a book at a Los Angeles Public Library. It has some awesome visuals of each chess piece being represented as some medieval warriors. I specifically recall the rook being an archer riding atop of a mammoth. I’m trying to find this book again. If anyone has any idea what book I’m barely describing would be awesome. I wish I could describe more but that’s all I can remember!

what elo rating is recommended for reading bobby fischer’s book?

came to this video becuase i have been playing chess for a month or two and wanted a book to help me learn. helped me massively

How can you be a chess player and play MTG? Chess is what made me quit MTG, I realized it is just elaborate dice rolling.

the book I recommend for all of my students is Applying Logic in Chess by IM Kislik. Great read by the fastest adult improver in chess history. Great tips on how to get good in fastest time possible

I have never understood the hype around "Zürich 1953" from Bronstein. As far as I´m concerned, the annotations are not helpful at all, and he doesn´t really explain anything. It´s more like enjoyable prose, but if you are looking to improve your understanding of chess, I would prefer something like Chernev´s Logical Chess any day of the week!
Also, Fischer´s MSMG is great, but for players under ELO 2000 most of his analysis will be way over their heads. There are some nice explanations sprinkled in, but like every other top Grandmaster (with the possible exception of Judit Polgar!) he doesn´t really bother explaining things that are obvious to expert players.

Thank you for this incredibly helpful video. As a college student, the only problem for me is the price tag on these. :(

Thank you! Much appreciated.

With all due respect, how can you call yourself a chess teacher when your own rating is under 1600? Teachers should be competent in what they're teaching, or else they're bound to lead people astray.

I'm a begginer. Thank you for the valuable information.

There are literally thousands of chess books. These recommendations like others are not practical according to the needs of different players strengths.
Each recommendations will be more helpful if every books are categorized by ratings geared towards beginners-post beginners- amateurs- advance- masters level.

In where the. Books

What book is the best for modern chess opening?

biutirul tanks

Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy: Advances since Nimzowitsch by John Watson is a fun read for the more advanced player.

I have the Zurich 1953 book on the left. You got all three? Isn't that a little overkill?

Very instructive. I've started to play chess 1.5 years ago. I went from 800 to 2100 reading a lot of chess books. I read:
-My 60 memorable games
-Play like a grandmaster
-My great predecessors part I (I have the other parts as well, but I prefer to analyse the book really deeply and so I've spent over 150h just on this one book.
-Mastering chess strategy
-Secrets of modern chess strategy
-Silman's complete endgame course
-Fire on board
-Pump up your rating

I'm currently reading:
-My great Predecessors part 2
-Dvoretsky's endgame manual
-the woodpecker method
-forcing chess moves
-life and games of Mikhail Tal
-new art of defense in chess
--Mastering chess strategy

Let me know if you have any questions about these books

Great video, what book would you recommend for a 1300 rated player?

I’ve read “Bobby Fischer teaches chess” , currently reading ”101 chess opening traps” and a bit of “the most instructive games of chess ever played” but I have trouble understanding both of the the current books I’m reading because I don’t know many tactics and I’m taking chess very seriously I want to read The Soviet chess primer but it’s 80 something $ is there any good books for my tactics any recommendations anyone?

Im not going to read about games when I can just watch play by play of every famous game online.

You may also increase your enthusiasm for chess by reading some non-instructional books. Walter Tevis's The Queen's Gambit, recently made into a Netflix series, is very good. Endgame by Frank Brady is a fascinating biography of Bobby FIscher. Much underrated but very good is Silver Queen, the autobiography of Maria Ivanka-Budinsky.

Great video

how about Reassess your chess by Silman?