reasoanblep Books
Endgame, Middlegame, Game collections, and General Books
- A. Alekhine, My Best games of chess: 1908-1937
- L. Barden, Bratsford Chess Puzzles
- M. Botvinnik, One Hundred Selected Games
- P. Clarke, Petrosian's Best games: 1946-1963
- C. Crouch, How to defend in Chess
- M. Dvoretsky, Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
This book has really blown me away. It's been a while since I had to use a physical board for book studying, but the positions analyzed are so fundamental and subtle, that you really can't do without a board. Warning: This is a HARD book which requires careful study.
- M. Dvoretsky, School of Chess Excellence, 1. Endgame Analysis.
- M. Dvoretsky, School of Chess Excellence, 2. Tactical Play
- M. Dvoretsky, School of Chess Excellence, 3. Strategic Play
- M. Euwe and H. Kramer, The Middlegame, book I
- M. Euwe and H. Kramer, The Middlegame, book II
- G. Kasparov, My Great Predecessors, Vol. I
- R. Keene, A. Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal
- P. Keres and A. Kotov, The Art of the Middlegame
- D. Marovic, Understanding Pawn Play in Chess
- D. Marovic, Dynamic Pawn Play in Chess
- S. Mayer, Bishop versus Knight: The verdict
- N. McDonald, Positional Sacrifices
- K. Mueller and F. Lamprecht, Fundamental Chess Endings
Comprehensive endings encyclopedia, covering fundamental ideas. Best used as a reference, but the plethora of excerices make it a good book for linearly improving your ending play as well.
- J. Nunn, Understanding Chess, Move by Move
- A. Nimzowitsch, Chess Praxis.
Ideal complement to 'My System', this book demonstrates Nimzo's theories through his own games. Highly recommended.
- A. Nimzowitsch, My System.
Excellent book, and a must read for every aspiring chess player. Positional wisdom is contained in its pages, where the theory of the hypermodern school of chess is developed.
- L. Pachman, Modern Chess Strategy
- Y. Seirawan, J. Tisdall, Five Crowns
- A. Shirov, Fire on Board
The title says it all. Make sure the fire extinguisher is in close vicinity before cracking up the board!
- A. Soltis, Pawn Structure Chess
- A. Soltis, The Art of Defense in Chess
- M. Suba, The Hedgehog
- M. Tal, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal
- V. Vukovic, The Art of Attack in Chess
- J. Watson, Modern Chess Strategy: Advances since Nimzowitsch
- A. Yermolinksi, The Road to Chess Improvement
Opening
- Too many of them, one day I hope to enlist them all...
Denounced
- N. De Firmian, Modern Chess Openings.
Openings for nimrods... Horribly out of date and filled with suspicious position evaluations. Wait, the evals were checked with Deep Blue. Who said that computers can open a chess game?
- J. Silman, How to Reassess your Chess.
This is the kitchen sink of chess books (how else can you describe a book that targets audience in the 1200-2200 range?). If you need this book, then your chess needs serious reassessment! Unless of course you want to keep it nearby for throwing it towards your opponent at a moment of utter desperation...