Alan David Brunelle (USCF 2062 OTB): 1. Bronstein Zurich 1953, 2. Nunn/Griffiths Secrets of Grandmaster Play, 3. Mednis How to Defeat a Superior Opponent, 4. Watson Play the French, 5. Keene An Opening Repertoire for White.
A strange combination perhaps, but here goes: The first two books I found very useful mostly for attitudes, although the technical content is very important of course - I think that Bronstein brings out the joy of chess: showing how to look for the beauty in the game, while at the same time illustrating the competitive aspects. Nunn/Griffiths keep hammering in the important point that there are many parts to evaluating positions, and how to go about the task of making aggressive moves. Over and over again they inspire one to look for moves that improve your position, regardless of material or static positional tradeoffs (or more correctly: with “proper regard” for such tradeoffs). I find that just reading parts of these books without using a board before tournaments or club nights makes me much more forceful in my play. Mednis’ book is also good at shoring up one’s confidence by providing one with the notion that it doesn’t really matter whether you are supposedly “better” or “worse” than your opponent: the only thing that contributes to your result is how well (& how consistent!) you play. This is very important psychologically, and is another nice game collection. The Watson book is great for a couple of reasons: (1) it provided me with a more than adequate repertoire against 1.e4, and (2) it falls in line nicely with the 1st couple of books in discussing tradeoffs and the pursuit of the initiative. I rather reluctantly put the Keene book on the list: I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a book that anyone else could derive an awful lot of benefit from. But the question was stated as what got me to where I am, and without a doubt it got me out of the 1800’s up to the mid 2000’s in the span of about 12 months simply by providing me with a solid basis for an opening repertoire with white. It strikes me that forming a repertoire with black (especially vs. 1.e4) is easier than trying to develop a consistent repertoire with white. While it seems very simple to choose one of the “simple and easy to learn” systems (Colle, Kings Indian Attack, Larsen/Bird), I don’t think that those can really take you to Expert or Master levels. Prior to picking up this repertoire I had dallied with the KIA and rogue 1.e4 lines. In my 1st 13 games with white after learning this system I went 11-1-1, and my rating shot up. Since then the results have leveled out some, and I am continuously shoring up some of the lines which I have found to be lacking. Still this was very important at the time to me.
Chris Rosenfield (APCT 2107): I'll think about that. Maybe all 5 books were the volumes of ECO! Or maybe endgame books. Or the great little book of Bronstein's annotated games.... Mostly what has helped me is my unusual lifestyle, constantly moving into new areas to serve as a doctor temporarily. I’m not looking to go barhopping. I go home after a day’s work and the activity for the evening is in the mailbox! When my lifestyle was more normal, I was a C player....the concentration required for postal chess and the extra time spent on moves make all the difference!
James Marfia (APCT 2078): Well, the very FIRST one was Chess Made Simple, Milton Hanauer. Probably outa print. THEN there were a succession of Fred Reinfelds. By the time I got thru those, I was a B-level postal player; so they MUST be better’n they’re cracked down to be. In college, I got hold of Bronstein’s Zurich 1953. Took four years of college Russian, basically so I could understand it; went through it, I believe, about four, maybe six translations, before the final revision went off to Dover Books. Thank YOU, Jack O’Keefe (Eagle-Eye Proofreader Extraordinaire). That’s about it for ‘memorable’ and ‘influential.’ I have a big collection, of course - what Expert doesn’t? - but I just played through ‘em and sopped ‘em up. Can’t point to anything else and say, “This was The Stone Tablet.”
Roy DeVault (APCT 2106). Here are my top 5 books: 1. My System - Nimzo, 2. Pawn Power in Chess - Kmoch, 3. The Art of Attack - Vukovic, 4. Modern Chess Opening Theory - Suetin, 5. The Games of Robert J. Fischer by Wade and O'Connell.
Charles Pote. 1. NiC (New in Chess) Keybooks and Yearbooks (especially the Yearbooks), 2. My System - Aron Nimzovich (Aron’s Hypermodern Chess is also good), 3. Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine, 4. Logical Chess by Irving Chernev, 5. Pandolfini’s Endgame Course by Bruce Pandolfini. I should squeeze Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess in there somewhere.
Dan Quigley (APCT 2078). 1. The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, Reuben Fine, 1943. Yes, the lines are dated, but the line of reasoning employed by Fine is not, and that is the value of the book. Updating the lines and finding the process in them that Fine employs are simpler than realizing what the overall goal of opening play as manifested in the openings Fine discusses is. I am convinced a close reading of this can quickly take B and below players up a full class. 2. My System, Aron Nimzovich, 1920's. Key book for understanding many of the fundamental as well as a few of the advanced strategic plans in the middlegame. 3. Think Like a Grandmaster, Alexander Kotov, 1974. The key book for my understanding, such as it is, of tactics. The section on trees of analysis is particularly useful for understanding the true nature of tactical thought. This book also lets one know just how deep one has to look and how perceptive one’s tactical vision must be. 4. BCO2, Gary Kasparov and Raymond Keene, 1989. The best of the one volume opening references; this book, more than any other one volume opening reference, has the most critical lines in them (i.e. those with the truly best moves for either side) and the fewest final assessment errors, much fewer than even ECO. 5. The Complete Guide to Correspondence Chess, Alex Dunne, 1991. The best introductory book to the world of correspondence chess, it not only informs one of the full range of correspondence play, it inspires one to take the field seriously on its own merits. Before I read this book, I viewed correspondence play, while enjoyable, primarily as a vehicle for improving my o-t-b play. After I read this book, and played over some of the great games contained therein, I began to take correspondence play much more seriously, which improved my strength considerably.
On the topic of what the role of books is in improving one’s play, this is an old one that has been debated forever by everyone at all levels. My conclusion is that chess skill is a combination of innate ability and learned ability. I think innate ability accounts for 80-90% of an o-t-b player’s rating, and perhaps ten percent less of a correspondence player’s rating, assuming that corr. player is not using a computer to assist himself. The other 10-20 percent of an o-t-b player’s rating, I speculate, comes from book learning. If that strong player you refer to got where he is largely without books, then I suggest he is playing at no higher than 90% of his possible rating plus a few more percentage points for however much time he has put into books. Notice that no endgame books grace my list. I have done a percentage count of my games that reach an endgame, and have discovered that only 36% do. Of those 36%, the overwhelming majority were so simple as to not require book knowledge. Of the few others that book knowledge might have helped, in most of them my natural ability brought about the appropriate result easily. In my opinion, in no other phase of the game is book knowledge less important and innate ability more important to success, than in the endgame. This is why Capablanca is so widely considered an endgame wizard. The books to rating points ratio of endgame books is slight indeed, though frequently overrated.
John McCumiskey I appreciate your inclusion of me in this request. I was an OTB and correspondence expert at one point several years ago who is now working his way back up. I am still finding these books very useful long after the first time I cracked the binding! When I made the first trip to expert, here are the books that I found the most helpful to me (in order):
1. My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer. This may well be the best all-around chess book ever written. Everyone can learn something from it. 2/3. Endgame Preparation /Analyzing the Endgame by Jon Speelman. I personally count these two books as a “one book set.” My biggest improvement occurred as I was working my way through these books while living in Alaska. I suddenly found myself understanding endgame play better (although I still have a lot to learn) and was managing to hold lost endgames and win both even and won endgames. I also started to understand what kind of positions should be taken into endgames and when to keep well enough away from an endgame (see next selection). At that time, especially in OTB, many other players seemed to ignore endgame study while I enjoyed it greatly! I still work through these books regularly. 4. Capablanca's Best Chess Endings by Irving Chernev. Another endgame book I started working through right after completing Speelman's books the first time. A classic work that gets into the “simplicity” of Capablanca's endgames. Since each game is covered from start to finish, I was able to learn how and why Capablance would go from a middlegame (sometimes from the opening, too!) to an endgame. For me this was a very important stepping stone to the Speelman's set of books. As an aside, I recently loaned this book to a 1300 player when he asked for a recommendation for a book on endgames ... during and after his study, I noticed a marked improvement in his endgame play and results! 5. Simple Chess by Michael Stean. I must admit that the first time I saw this title, I thought, “Another Horowitz/Reinfield ‘How To Win’ book.” Boy, was I wrong! Stean was able to explain to me in “simple” terms the concepts of outposts, open files, half-open files (minority attack), play on black/white squares, and space. Without the understanding of these concepts, I’m sure my attempts to improve would have been much more difficult. In addition, this is not only a book that you can analyze from, it a book you can just read and get something out of it. This is one of my regular “reading” books, making it one of my favorites.
Steve Smith. I wrote an article several years ago that fits this topic. Here it is: I have too many chess books. My chess library contains almost 100 books. I enjoy ordering them and I like the sound of the UPS truck stopping in front of my house. But I don’t seem to ever get around to actually reading them. I will look at the table of contents, read the preface, and maybe spend a little time starting chapter one. Then I will file the book away and its primary function will be to add ballast to my bookshelves. There are exceptions, of course. I have learned a great deal from a handful of books and it’s those books I will focus on in this article.
I read Logical Chess Move by Move by Chernev and Point Count Chess by Horowitz & Mott-Smith at the same time. After reading these two books my rating increased from 1600 to 1800. Logical Chess Move by Move is unique. Chernev explains the ideas behind every single move of every game. From his book I learned the importance of planning. I discovered that attacks can evolve and persist over the course of an entire game. Point Count Chess introduced me to the positional ideas in chess. Bad bishops, backward pawns, hanging pawns, holes, pawn levers, minority attacks, knight outposts, etc., etc., were covered with great clarity. Unfortunately, this book has gone out of print.
The ending is probably the most important part of the game, but I have managed to read only one end game book cover to cover - How to Win Chess Endings by Horowitz. It is a basic introduction to end game theory that is readable and easy to understand. I learned almost everything I know about the end game from this book. Two years ago I read a book that helped me move from 2050 to 2175 - Test Your Positional Play by Bellin & Ponzetto. The heart of this book is a series of 30 test positions. For each position three different detailed plans are offered. Your task is to choose the correct plan and or refute the incorrect plans. It is recommended that you spend about 30 minutes analyzing each position without moving the pieces. This book has helped me avoid sloppy thinking habits while I analyze positions during tournament games.
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