Eric's List of Good Chess Books.
Submitted by on Sat, 06/13/2009 at 4:29pm.
This post is for anyone interested in getting a new book. I really enjoy reading chess books and I've read quite a few. Most of the books I've read have been pretty good since I tend to do a lot of research on a book before I buy it. However, most of the books I've read have probably not helped my chess all that much...or maybe they have...who knows.
Anyway, I'm going to use this post to list the books I know for sure have helped me out in my chess improvement. It is my opinion that most chess books apart from opening books, biographical games collections, and a few absolute gems that come along once every 10 years....really suck and do nothing to improve your play. This list will be the best of the best of the "talkie" books that attempt to actually teach you something. Maybe an opening book or two will sneak in here if it's REALLY good but I consider opening books in a different class altogether, as the moves themselves are what you want, not a bunch of prose.
ERIC'S LIST (updated when necessary)
SIlman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman
-The only decent endgame book for anyone rated under 2200. All the other ones are poorly written, teach you nothing you'll remember (or need half the time), and are useful only as a reference text or bookshelf filler.
How To Reassess Your Chess Workbook by Jeremy Silman
-Great positional/planning exercise book. This is really the only Silman "imbalance" book you need as "the amateur's mind" and "reassess your chess" are just overelaborations of the method explained in brief at the beginning of this book. As always in chess, explanations are next to useless and only exercises are important.
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