Hey /lit/ Im thinking of studying chess. What books should I read? Looking for history of the game as well as theory.
Thanks
>>7385923
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/231/the_soviet_chess_primer_by_ilya_maizelis/
I haven't read it, but the excerpt make it look pretty damn sweet.
When you're starting out the thing you should focus on is tactics. The book I'd recommend is Back to Basics: Tactics, but it's not really important what book/program you use as long it's at an appropriate level.
Outside of beginners books the meme trilogy of chess books are:
Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953, David Bronstein.
My 60 Memorable Games, Bobby Fischer
Life & Games of Mikhail Tal, Mikhail Tal
>Looking for history of the game
As far as I understand Edward Winter is your man if you want to go in depth, otherwise wikipedia + google should suffice.
>>7386052
Oh, and there's also free tactics training online on sites like chesstempo and http://chess.emrald.net/.
>>7385923
Read Silmans complete endgame course
>>7386082
>Not Dvoretsky.
>>7386086
>Dvoretsky
Never read it, but it may be useful.
>>7386096
I was just trying to keep up the lit elitism going; I'm sure both are fine.
>>7386114
It has both. The most fundamental parts are in blue text, the PDF might not have preserved that.
May as well ask here: why is D4 and QGD considered a "strategic" opening?
>>7386122
Ahh it is black and white. Regardless, they both have unique features. Silman is quite user friendly and separates chapters by understanding/skill; and excludes rare endings like knight and bishop mates.
Dvoretsky seems to be chapters divided by pieces, you don't get to rook endgames, one of the most common endgame types, until chapter 9. And it has a section at the end on NB mates.
I would only use Dvoretsky as a comprehensive text after finishing Silmans, or perhaps read the corresponding Dvoretsky pages as Silman brings them up.
Either way, endgame is something that should be studied early. I've had games when I was younger where my opponent couldn't win KvKR.
>>7386139
I don't know about "strategic".
e4 is sharp, and tactical, whereas d4 is more positional and solid.
d4 is apparently played more often than e4 in games which are won, in chess championships.
Also, e4 runs into the sicilian, which is the biggest problem for white out of responses to e4
>>7386165
World chess championships *
I read an article on it but I can't find it again
>>7386139
QGD games generally don't have a lot of forced tactical lines it's more about trying to gain long term (ie strategic) advantages and win in the endgame.
Calling any first move anything is stretching it though.
I have bad experience with chess books.
Try having a feel for the most common openings and learn rock / pawn endgames.
Than just practice a lot of tactic
There is a book which consists only of freudian observations on chess players and plays, you could get that.
>>7386165
You will never get to a level in chess where any of that matters. It's not like the kings gambit is every played professionally but is still an amazingly fun and powerful opening to play as white.
Just find some openings that are easy to bring about and you enjoy playing, however I would suggest doing easy chess puzzles, as well as books that try to teach you what you should do in general and what you should look for in common positions.
youtube com/user/thechesswebsite/videos
This guys videos are the best for complete beginners.
OP here. Thanks for the tips, others have also suggested:
The Immortal Game: A History of Chess by David Shenk.
A History of Chess: From Chaturanga to the Present Day by Yuri Averbakh
and
The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games by Graham Burgess
Thoughts?
>>7386348
I can't comment on the history books. The mammoth books is a nice collection of games throughout chess history, but if you're a beginner a lot of the annotations will go over your head.
My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer
If you're just beginning you'll definitely want a book on tactics. Winning Chess Tactics is a good one.
Also you'll also probably want to pick out a book that looks at endings. Again for this you can go with Winning Chess Endings.
Use the tactics you have learned to simplify the position and then identify an ending based on what you've read and you'll go pretty far at the local chess club.
>>7386392
>My 60 Memorable Games
>inb4 all the pages are blank
I like
Logical Chess: Move by Move - Irving Chernev
It'll give you an idea of the thought process and analysis behind every single move of 10-15 master chess games. It's what I would recommend to anybody once they've learned the very basics of chess strategy and tactics.
History I got nothing, sorry. Wikipedia's genuinely not bad on stuff like this though.
