For some of us, chess is just a game we observe through pop culture, like in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone or the more recent Queen’s Gambit. Though it makes for an exceptional plot device, chess is an exceptionally interesting and difficult gameplay. Each player must focus on their game while anticipating their opponent’s next move. Before opening with a Queen’s Gambit or the Sicilian’s Defence, players must understand the fundamentals of chess as well as some of the psychology behind their choices during every game.
If you’ve ever wanted to play chess, these books are a great way to start. Learn directly from chess masters who collectively have hundreds of years of experience and will walk you through thousands of gameplays and the ideology behind them.
Here are 10 books for learning chess that will get you from amateur to grandmaster – or somewhere in between.
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess
by Bobby Fischer, Stuart Margulies, and Don Mosenfelder
Learn the art of chess from Grandmaster Bobby Fischer. Strategizing while playing chess is no easy task, but Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess will get you playing like a professional through his efficient methods.
The book employs a deliberate curriculum with exercises and practices problems so you can play at a grandmaster’s level.
Complete Book of Chess Strategy
In a game like chess, thinking ahead is an essential approach. Silman’s novel provides a simple guide to conceptual planning for novice chess players. Devise a mind map of your own gameplay while also adapting and, most importantly, anticipating your rival’s each step before they even make it.
Logical Chess: Move by Move: Every Move Explained New Algebraic Edition
Okay, so you know the basics now. How does one progress from novice to exceptional? Irving Chernev aims to help aspiring chess players improve their game by providing detailed explanations of thirty-three complete games.
With Logical Chess, you will learn how any single move impacts your opponent and, ultimately, the game’s outcome.
My 60 Memorable Games: Chess Tactics, Chess Strategies with Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer is at it again with another instructional tome on chess strategy. This title is commonly hailed as one of the best chess books. Get insight into Fischer’s tactics as he explores 60 of his games of chess move-by-move. We get insight into the grandmaster’s tactical decisions as he engages his opponent.
Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games
by Bruce Pandolfini and Laszlo Polgar
If you think of a chess game as a mathematical equation, you can understand that there can be countless ways to arrive at your answer – or your win. Pandolfini and Polgar outline five thousand unique instructional settings pulled from known chess matches. To make things even better, this book is illustrated to give you visual representations of game strategies.
Silman’s Complete Endgame Course
This one is an excellent book for beginners. With Silman’s Complete Endgame, a player can progress from beginner to skilled player. Silman builds on knowledge at each level of players’ development to help them get to the endgame.
Kramnik: My Life and Games
by Vladimir Kramnik and Lakov Damsky
In Kramnik, the Russian chess grandmaster details his life and unusual childhood, and, most interestingly, Kramnik revises and analyses his 100 best games. Though this is more autobiography than an educational book, the book gives us insight into the mind of one of the best chess players of the twentieth century.
Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 1
Known as the greatest chess player, Kasparov has dominated World Chess Championships for years. In this book, Kasparov thoroughly examines and analyses the game of his predecessors. Through this review of past chess players and their games, Kasparov explores the psychology of chess and its impact on the outcome of any game.
Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual
by Mark Dvoretsky, Vladimir Kramnik, and Karsten Muller
Dvoretsky’s Endgame is one of the best books published that focuses on the endgame. Novice or master, engage in the theories and strategies behind the final moments or moves of any great chess game. If you’re interested in chess, you cannot miss what people call a masterpiece in chess theory.
My System & Chess Praxis: His Landmark Classics in One Edition
Latvian-born chess master Aron Nimzowitsch was one of the highest-ranked chess players in the early 20th century. In his book, hailed as a classic, he details his own strategies and theories in the game’s art. In particular, Nimzowitsch explores pawn structures and is at the forefront of the hypermodern movement.
There you have it, 10 best books for learning chess that will get you from novice to proficient chess player. As an added benefit, most of these books are written by chess pros who are masters in the field. With the above books, you will get better insight into the internal mechanisms of this centuries-old game.
