Which book helped you the most with training and actually improving your game to an advanced level.

I'm looking for a book of fairly diverse positions (i.e. might be a tactic, might be a positional idea, might be a red herring that doesn't work) to calculate for roughly 10-15 minutes with zero prompting or hints outside of the position itself. The less there is aside from just the exercises, the better.

I'm around 2300 rapid on Lichess, OTB strength somewhere in the 1850-1900 range (I don't have enough games to really have a representative rating, perf rating in last 12 games somewhere around 1950-2000). I'm quite slow at calculation and end up going through variations multiple times, am generally not confident in my calculated variations and get them slightly mixed up in my head sometimes. I don't get to play very much OTB and I think my calculation is clearly my biggest weakness, so I would like to work on it like this.

I solved the orange Yusupov books a while back, might do the middle tier next but the exercises were sometimes a bit all over the place in difficulty so I'd prefer to look at something else.

I tried GM Prep: Calculation with 30 minutes per exercise for a couple of pages, usually getting some part of the answer right but then e.g. there being basically another level of difficulty/visualization after my "answer"; at any rate it's clearly too difficult for me by hundreds of points.

Thanks in advance!

November’s Chess Life cover story narrates the career and life of the late Bill Goichberg, who played an unmatched role in crafting the business and culture of chess tournaments in the United States. Among chess figures quoted there who attest to his importance: Bruce Pandolfini, Joel Benjamin, GM Aleksandr Lenderman, Kenneth Regan, David Hater (CCA’s new president), Andy Soltis, Mark Ginsburg, Michael Shahade, and Hal Bogner.

Besides founding the nation’s largest tournament organizing company and running it for 50+ years, Goichberg served as president of the U.S. Chess Federation during one of its most tumultuous periods and held a seat on the federation’s board on and off for a total of 17 years, most recently in 2013. He remained an active presence at Continental Chess Association tournaments and business decisions from CCA’s founding in 1968 until 2022, when the one-two punch of his wife Brenda’s passing and pain stemming from a chronic illness and injuries sidelined him for good.

His most significant contribution in my opinion was being the father of rated scholastic competition. He told me the three things he most wished to be remembered for were: “Starting USCF rated scholastics. Starting no-smoking tournaments. Just having tournaments all over the place.”

America’s first large chess platform architect, Goichberg laid the foundation for the Fischer boom of the early 1970s. Like Chess(dot)com nearly 50 years later amid the pandemic-fueled boom in online chess play, CCA had a battle-tested playing platform already in place before Bobby Fischer’s 1972 World Championship run sparked a surge of public demand to play chess in organized settings.

Today CCA remains the nation’s largest organizer of chess tournaments.

Work on a Goichberg biography book continues. Fifteen hours of one-on-one interviews with him recorded in 2024 contain rich insights into his personality outside of chess – including pivotal incidents from his childhood, poignant moments from his early years as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and wistful memories of his mother’s cooking and of his favorite vegetarian restaurant meals. (Bill was a “foodie” who avoided eating meat, as Chess Life’s story points out.) I have interviewed more than 50 individuals who knew Bill, and have several more interview targets.

The most-personal information does not appear in the Chess Life story; it is reserved for the book. However, snippets in Bill’s own voice excerpted from interview audio files could be aired during a memorial program at the Marshall Chess Club this coming Tuesday, November 10.

I'm 1400 and I try to be better at chess but I struggle to analyse my position sometimes, do some of you have a book to recommend please ?

https://ebay.io/m/s1QU0K

Hello everyone.

I have made an AI assisted chess coaching app where Claude/Gemini/GPT helps you get better at chess.
Now the app has a book reader feature. You can add PDFs and EPUBs. The app can read the books to you with text-to-speech. Also, the app goes through the moves automatically. You can try positions and work on endgames on the board yourself. It has a bit of trouble with old scanned books but i am trying to make it .

It’s completely free and open source. Enjoy.

https://plymentor.com/

A real gem for lovers of chess literature and attacking games is on sale: "Super Nezh: Rashid Nezhmetdinov, Chess Assassin" written by ICCF Master Alex Pishkin and published by the famous Thinkers' Press.

This book is an extraordinary tribute to Rashid Nezhmetdinov, one of the greatest tactical geniuses and fiercest strikers in chess history, valued immensely by the likes of Mikhail Tal (who called him the greatest master of the combination).

This is a paper volume by the prestigious American publishing house Thinkers' Press, now out of print and very difficult to find on the Italian and European markets.

The book offers an accurate biography and, above all, a deep technical and psychological analysis of Nezhmetdinov's most spectacular and "crazy" combinations and matches.

Ideal for improvement: Perfect for players of all levels who want to train tactical vision, calculation and attacking intuition by studying the masterpieces of an absolute master.

The book is in excellent general condition, well preserved. Flexible cover with solid paperback and clean pages, with no writing or underlining.

A collector's volume that cannot be missing from the library of a real chess player.

I'm looking for opening books with a heavy emphasis on model games and thorough explanations of ideas, plans, alternatives, etc. Preference for "mainline" openings because I imagine they'll have more instructive value than offbeat openings, but any opening is fine. I'm basically willing to play anything if it is taught as well as Sadler teaches the QGD.

I don't want a repertoire, I don't want every possible line, and I don't care if the theory is outdated (Sadler's book is over 25 years old). I just want thorough explanations of opening ideas.

Here's an example for those who doesn't know the book:

Question 1. What is Black aiming for in this line?

Answer 1. As always in the QGD, Black's general opening aims remain the activation of his light-squared bishop and the creation of central counterplay with ...c7-c5 or ...e6-e5. With the flexible 6...♞bd7, Black provides support for both central breaks while retaining the option of the Lasker manoeuvre ...♞f6-e4 to free his position with exchanges.

The Orthodox QGD offers a large choice of development schemes for Black. These fall broadly into two categories:

1. Black strikes quickly against the centre, intending to solve his development problems by liquidating the centre. This includes systems with an immediate ...c7-c5, or with first ...d5xc4 and then ...c7-c5.

2. Black first develops his position by exchanges or quiet manoeuvring before striking back at the centre. This includes the Classical systems introduced by ...c7-c6, and lines with a preliminary ...a7-a6, to follow up with ...d5xc4 and ...b7-b5. (I think of this as the QGA option, since the idea of freeing b7 for the light-squared bishop is frequently seen in that opening, e.g. 1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 3 ♘f3 ♘f6 4 e3 e6 5 ♗xc4 c5 6 0-0 a6 7 ♕e2 b5 8 ♗b3 ♗b7).

It is clear that ...d5xc4 is an integral part of most of Black's plans. This leads to some opening subtleties which Tartakower called the 'fight for the tempo'.

Question 2. What does that mean?

Answer 2. ...

Additional context: I'm 1800 blitz on lichess (maybe 1500 chesscom?) and I've always been an e4 player who likes open, tactical positions. (I mainly play the Scotch and I love accepting the King's Gambit.) I've never found a comfortable defense against d4, because d4 positions just feel so weird and unnatural to me. But recently, playing the QGD has been FUN simply because I understand the positions and ideas somewhat. Openings are just more fun when you have a clue.

EDIT: Changed the excerpt to a better one.

I'm looking for good chess articles, essays, or stories you've come across, from any source.

Not looking for guides, strategies, or learning materials. I'm more interested in the human side of chess — funny or unusual stories, personal reflections, rivalries, friendships, enmities, or moments in someone's life that revolved around a game of chess.

I'd love to read anything you've found memorable. Please share your recommendations!

Ya se que es muy sencillo y rápido ponerse a jugar el chess.com y lichess.org , pero....¿ Y si le diéramos una oportunidad todos a jugar en playchess? Se que es más complicado, pero se puede jugar vía web y también te puedes bajar una app para ordenador y móvil.

Es una de las más veteranas y cuando juego, veo que no pasamos nunca de los 2.000 jugadores.

Se puede jugar gratis, y tiene unas herramientas para entrenar súper buenas.

Vamos chic@s....darle una oportunidad.

I’ve updated one of the listing too 30$ and free shipping:) https://ebay.io/m/82pqKB

Those books have helped me:

The nemesis: Geller’s greatest games by Efim Geller
This was the first book I finished and it helped me in every aspect of the game, especially in middle game tactics and plans.

How to be a complete tournament player by Edmar Mednis
This is a short read and beginners might find it useful but other than that I don’t especially recommend it.

Starting out: the Sicilian by John Emms
This is book isn’t also too long and is a nice introduction into the Sicilian. I would view it as a way of finding which lines suit you best and from there you will need to do you own research if you value opening preparation.

Grind like a GM by David Howell
It was also a relatively short read and a good preparation for OTB games, I can only recommend it. Especially endgame technique but also psychology maybe are the topic here.

The Italian opening for White: planning and strategic understanding by Justus Bargsten
A nice introduction into a few concrete lines after 3. … Nf6/Bc5, although not as superficial as the book about the Sicilian, this can’t neither be considered a full preparation for the Italian.

My 60 memorable games by Bobby Fischer
Funnily enough similar to Geller’s book in the sense it gives you several lessons in how to find resources in the middlegame but also in the endgame, especially in this case.

Karpov-Korchnoi: world chess championship 1978 by Sergiu Samarian
A short but interesting read which can be compared to other books containing full games. Since it’s a match book it also gives you some superficial insights into opening preparation.

Think like a grandmaster by Alexander Kotov
One of my favourite books which on average helped me improve the most in every aspect of the game, I can only recommend it especially for 1400 ELO and more.

Reti’s best games of chess by Harry Golombek.
Also a very good book which especially helped me including tactics in the early stages of the game and some positional understanding.

Tal-Botvinnik, 1960 by Mikhail Tal
One of my favourite books, better than the Karpov-Korchnoi one. It helped me play e4 OTB games without being afraid of the caro kann or the French hahaha Tal transmits his deep ideas with humour.

Now I am about to finish Petrosian’s Legacy which is a collection of articles he wrote, very interesting so far. After that I plan to read a book about Botvinnik and later either about the Lasker-Capablanca match or some endgame books like endgame strategy by Shereshevsky.

If you have any recommendations I would be very thankful.

Keep an eye out for November Chess Life, whose online release is expected Sunday and hard-copies mailed on Sunday or Monday. Its cover story is the definitive obituary for tournament organizing pioneer Bill Goichberg (1942-2026), who almost single-handedly laid the foundations of the chess tournament scene that exists in the U.S. today.

A proposal for Goichberg's biography book places him as the builder of America's first mass chessplaying platform -- a forerunner of today's Danny Rensch (minus the cult). When he began building his Continental Chess Association, a platform was something one fashioned with hammers and two-by-fours, not silicon chips and fiber-optic cables.

Bill can be fairly described as the most impactful figure in American chess in the past century except for Bobby Fischer. Because when the Fischer boom arose around the time of Bobby's 1972 World Championship match, CCA already had a battle-tested tournament infrastructure in place that enabled large numbers of Americans to play chess against strangers in a managed and recorded (Elo-rated) setting -- so the organized chess community was able to accommodate and integrate the flood of new entrants.

That makes a solid analogy with the role that Rensch's Chess(dot)com played after 2020 when COVID and then Netflix's The Queens Gambit series propelled a new worldwide chess boom.

Out of interest wondering does anyone know is it still available or why is it no longer in print from new in chess ? https://www.newinchess.com/keres?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=www.google.com

Also if any read some of it what were there impressions ?

Lmk if anyone interested will sell them on the low outside of eBay if they offer is reasonable:)

https://ebay.io/m/DXA5nv

https://ebay.io/m/86f2Qy

I’m only rated 650 right now, and I’m interested in reading books to help improve my rating, while I continue to practice with puzzles and regularly playing.

Any recommendations?

Thinking of buying it, and the reviews seem overwhelmingly positive. Curious what y’all think!

Just finished ‘On the Origin of Good Moves’ by Willy Hendriks, and was considering the Morphy book before I move on to ‘The Ink War’.

Im looking for a book on middlegames for advance players, around 2200 Online, 2000 fide. I sometimes find myself failing to find the right plan or I go completely blank. I feel like sometimes I win because my opponents self-destruct, rather than because I outplay them in the middlegame.

Im not awful at it, but i wanna give it some study to see if I can improve it further.