Chess books in addition to ICS material

I'm curious as which chess books people might be reading in addition to ICS material.

Perhaps some books on endgame or openings or to supplement the openings?

I'm trying to take a stab at Shereshevsky's "Endgame Strategy".

For the openings I've got "Winning with the Catalan" which gives complete games to pretty much all variations for what ICS provides. The only thing is that annotations are not as detailed as in other books. It's mostly variations in the opening.

For e4 defense I'm trying to learn some French. I've got a book called "Mastering the French" by Neil McDoland with is really great and I would definitely recommend it to everybody.

I do some tactics puzzles every day, as I am horrible at tactics and need to stay sharp. I use 'Chess Tactics for Beginners' and 'Personal Chess Trainer' (both are tactics software).

As for opening books, Taylor's book on the Bird, plus a book on the Slav, and a few on the Caro Kann I use when I need to book up. Ultimately, I should probably not study the openings much as 90 percent of my games are either won or lost due to middlegame tactics.

Finally, I should study the endgame at some point. I have heard good things about Keres' book Practical Chess Endings, and I really like Silman's recent book, but haven't read much of it yet.

I use PCT for tactical puzzles training as well. About Endgames, I intend to see the Muller video series about endgames, unfortunately i do not have time . Silman is very good too, i have it. and as reference, Fundamental Chess Endings by Muller& Lampard, although it is quite dry for me...

Tactics are one element of chess I really don't do. I am sure my game suffers. My most recent books that I fell I have helped with my quest are.
Understanding Chess Move by Move “John Nunn”
Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy “John Watson”
Both are easy to follow over a board, or if you like you can find most of the games online and download them.
Other great books I have enjoyed are.
The Immortal Game “David Shenk”. Great book really enjoyed it.
The King Chess Pieces “J.H.Donner”. Some good old world humor, but can be hard to follow.

Chess? wrote:Tactics are one element of chess I really don't do. I am sure my game suffers. My most recent books that I fell I have helped with my quest are.
Understanding Chess Move by Move “John Nunn”
Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy “John Watson”
Both are easy to follow over a board, or if you like you can find most of the games online and download them.
Other great books I have enjoyed are.
The Immortal Game “David Shenk”. Great book really enjoyed it.
The King Chess Pieces “J.H.Donner”. Some good old world humor, but can be hard to follow.

Had a go at Watson's book. I confess other than to say everything Nomzowich said has been superceded I really struggled with it. Seems wee bit advanced for me. Hope you are having more succes with it. My main supplement to the course is a kids tactics book. For me lots of moderately easy to solve tactical tests sharpen me better than a few that are hard to solve. Am I just being lazy?

Hoopy: I agree. Watson/Rowson are both too advanced for me. Before I can transcend the rules, I need to saturate in them, really have them as part of me, follow them almost mindlessly to get a sense for how they apply.

I wrote about this here:

I'm just not ready to play rule independently. If there is an open file, my rook is going to it unless I find a clear tactical refutation. I won't sit there chewing up time thinking of subtle ways it could go wrong. I am almost always wrong when I think I've found an exception.

I've been playing as a rule-slave for the past week or so, and have been happy with the results. I don't think as much before quiet moves, and typically end up with a better position anyway.

I was reminded of this during my lesson tonight, when Coach B said he thinks one reason children get better faster is that they are better at following directions than adults. When a good chess player tells them they should do X, they do X. When someone tells me to do X I try to find the eight million exceptions.

No more. Unless I can find a clear tactical refutation, I'm gonna play by the rules for a while. If only that were the only reason adults are slower learners than kids!

Indeed, one thing I like about the ICS course is that they are pretty good at laying down the rules. So far it has been helpful to follow them.

I've got so many books on my shelf. Some I've worked partly through and others I bought with the intention of saving them until I was ready for them. Right now, I think the ICS material will keep me too busy to do much else, but I may also dip into Sharpen Your Tactics from time to time for some extra tactical practice.

Also, I'm re-reading a great book called How To Get Better At Chess: Chess Masters On Their Art by Jeremy Silman, Larry Evans and Betty Roberts, which is a collection of short interviews with different GM's. It's all advice (with some complete games in the back) as opposed to a book of problems and positions, so it's not very taxing.

I agree completely about Watsons Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy, that is definitely a book for the hardcore. I glanced through it and just put it straight onto a shelf. Maybe in 5 years time...........

His Mastering the Chess Openings series is superb though, his quality of instruction in those is very good indeed and easily understandable for a beginning player.

It's not a book, but i started also practice tactical with Total Chess Training suite from Convetka which contains a lot of puzzles in 5 softwares (ct-art, studies, opening blunders, middlegame, strategy).

It's not expensive and it's globally well done. I talk about the chess material, because the software itself is a pain in the ass to install, and the GUI looks terribly old fashion.

Nevertheless, i like the "miniature idea". A puzzle is proposed on the full size board, and you are asked for a move. If you fail, a reduced problem similar to the global one is proposed on a 4x4 board, and once solved the problem on the 8x8 board seems suddently easy.

I like this because it helps me to recognize patterns.

The puzzles are classified according to various themes that you can practice separately or mixed. Good stuff.

It's not like CTS (chess tacticians server) where speed is the key and reflexion not valorized enough. So i gave up at CTS, even if it's free.

Endgames: Silman's Complete endgame course (I also have the Dvoretsky endgame manual which is a very good book but for two pages an hour is required to get the grasp of what he is explaining, so for the moment way to advanced for me. Hopefully not after this ICS course)

Openings: none, well none that i am reading.
I have discussed this with an IM (+2400) and one of the best chess trainers in the world (atleast in the dutch language) and he says that if you dont have a rating above 2000 it is better to spend your time to study how to play chess then learning openingmoves without knowing how to proceed in the middlegame. I agree with him. So no openings yet for me.

Although I bought the opening package, my view is consistent with Chesstiger. Openings are secondary to middle game and (i also believe endgame). I am not going to try too many books as I want to adhere as much as possible to "the course". As someone commented elsewhere the danger is we make up our own course & don't stick to the "rules". ( Plus I have so many unread chess books that I don't want to waste any more cash!!).

I have made a list of books that I need to fix my chess knowledge, and hope to go through it in 1-2 yrs. On Secrets of Chess Strategy - the game are good and not really all that incomprehensible. What I don't see is the 'aim' of the book. Watson himself has cleverly avoided stating a clear aim for the book - so apart from saying that rules in chess are too ambigious to be followed rigorously in the modern era, he hasn't stated much. It is clearly not an instructional book anyway. I also didn't like 'My System' - it's more of a self-praising manuscript than anything where Nimzo blatantly comments that he 'discovered' theory of open files and other such things ! Pachman's 3 volume book on the other hand is a much better read. If nothing else then Kasparov's 'My Predecessors 5-volume set' would be an awesome addition to anyone's chess shelf. ..oh btw I am currently studying 'Silman's Endgame Course' which when finished will give way to 'Endgame Strategy - Shereshevsky'. oh yes I love endgames

well, well, I would like to point out that ICS material we need to take it as reference and collect the games in that particular opening and variation and analyze most of the grand masters games around above 2700 ELO rating player ( both sides ), then we will understand very well, i believe, may be i am wrong, thats what I am going to follow any suggestions ? !!

http://iwebuniversity.com/ebooks/chess-ebook-collection/

Find some chess ebooks on the web. I've not read anything yet, so i don't know if it's good material or not, let see.

Wow, that can't be legal can it?!

It's legal until the publisher demands that it is removed.

By the way, link asks to subscribe as premium member. Boeoeoeoeoeh, rather find free e-books.

I downloaded it freely without any premium access. I use Jdownloader, so i never bother about this.

siva.uk75 wrote:well, well, I would like to point out that ICS material we need to take it as reference and collect the games in that particular opening and variation and analyze most of the grand masters games around above 2700 ELO rating player ( both sides ), then we will understand very well, i believe, may be i am wrong, thats what I am going to follow any suggestions ?

I'm now nearing completion of month three including the 1.d4 Openings Repertoire. There is plenty of overlap between the opening and the main course study materials, and there are plenty of complete games already provided in the main course compementing the opening studies. Frankly, there is nothing else absolutely necessary unless someone is deficient in endgames.

While it is certainly not necessary, I do suplement the ICS opening study materials with games from chesspublishing.com which offers thousands of complete games with verbose grandmaster comments as well as monthly updates on the various openings. For anyone not having a lot of time to devote to the openings I'd suggest just sticking with the ICS materials and maybe consider subscribing to chesspublishing.com after completing the course.

New in chess is having a spring sale so i just picked up a few books as supplement:

1x (1597) Chess Exam and Training Guide - Euro 9.95
Edition: Paperback medium
Rate yourself and learn how to improve!
by by Igor Khmelnitsky

1x (1261) Chess Lessons - Euro 9.95
Edition: Paperback large
Many Useful Exercises
by by Artur Yusupov

A lot of good stuff at 50 % !