Chess Books

This book is one of the pioneer works on the subject, as its publication date shows clearly. Despite its age, it remains as one of the most fascinating introductions to computer chess, and most of the ideas it presents are still valid. Its multiple authors cover all aspects of chess playing, from technical expositions of some of the best programs of that time, to physiological and psychological considerations.

In "A brief history of computer chess tournaments: 1970-1975", we are introduced to the atmosphere of the early tournaments, the diverse friendly matches between US and USSR chess computers, and several US and international championships, with many of the most interesting games fully commented and analyzed.

The next chapter, "Human chess skill" focuses in how does a human player select a move in the game of chess, the role of perception, the search mechanism, visualization, as well as other tipically human aspects such as motivation. Several tests applied to human players ranging from novices to grandmasters are presented and discussed.

After that introspective look at we humans, and our not-so-well understood thought processes, "An introduction to computer chess" begin to shift the focus to the computer, including such basic topics as how to represent the chess board, the moves, the status, how to generate the legal moves, search strategies, position evaluation, so that by the end of the chapter, all necessary foundations are well stablished for the rest of the book.

With Chapter 4, "Chess 4.5 - The Northwestern University chess progam" we begin the most technical part of the book. Here, authors David J. Slate and Lawrence R. Atkin show us with great style the internal workings of their famous chess program, many times world champion, and the one mostly used against IM David Levy for the famous Levy's bet. The details are sufficient to help a lot anyone contemplating the possibility of writing his/her own chess program. Modestly, the authors assume the limitations of their creature, and offer good advice on how it can be incrementally improved.

Chapter 5, "PEASANT: An endgame program for kings and pawns" provides yet another close scrutiny of a chess program, though this time with the important novelty that it is an specialized chess program, one specifically designed for a certain class of very frequent endgames. Monroe Newborn, its author, fully describes the inner workings, and most importantly, produces a set of tests for his program, with commented results.

The next chapter, "Plans, goals, and search strategies for the selection of a move in chess" tries to center on how do human players select good chess moves when having just a few seconds to consider the position (i.e: blitz chess), and then introduces a chess program specifically designed to play speed chess, without recourse to tree searching. This quite intriguing approach more closely mimics the human behaviour, to the point of even producing the same kind of erroneous moves a human player would play at blitz speeds.

As an alternative to the standard alpha-beta search techniques, Larry R. Harris introduces us to "The heuristic search: An alternative to the alpha-beta minimax procedure", where it presents what it considers important pitfalls of that search strategy, fully commented with specific examples, and proposes a new paradigm that addresses each and everyone of them from the start, thus truly directing the search in an intelligent way, as opposed to brute force, so that each aspect of the position can be ascertained as soon as possible, before going to other places in the search tree.

After these mostly technical chapters, in "Man and machine: Chess achievements and chess thinking", professor Eliot Hearst, a member of the Psychology Department at Indiana University, evaluates the present status of computer chess from the perspective of someone very knowledgeable with the game, as he is a rather skilled chess player and columnist. He includes many good practical examples, to make his points even clearer.

The book closes with a number of games played by Chess 4.5 and 4.6 in competitions during 1976, 1977, and 1978, that show a remarkable improvement on the rather pessimistic forecastings most experts agreed upon at that time.

This book shows the state of the art at the end of the 1970's. Though there have been huge changes since then, and tremendous gaps in our understanding have been filled, I still can't recommend this book highly enough. This book was published at the time when the best programs changed over from selective search to brute force. Nowadays we know that brute force is the way to go, but at that time even programmers who were winning tournaments using brute force techniques had little faith in their ultimate viability. The authors's speculation about the roles of search and evaluation is very interesting from the historical perspective.

One chapter of this book is worth the entire price. Slate and Atkins describe Chess 4.5 in one chapter. That chapter remains to this day the best description of an "attack-table" chess engine ever written, though you will need some additional reading to create a modern program on that basis.

Every English-speaking chessplayer (who is not also fluent in Russian) should have a translation of this book. Bronstein provides thoughtful and instructive analysis of 210 top level games from this great 1953 tournament. Add to this analysis, Bronstein's insight, as a participant and also as one of the top five players of the period, into both the overall context for the tournament and the competitive context for each game and you have something that will leave you wanting more: more chess and more Bronstein analysis.

Taking it then as a given that you should have a copy, should you track down this 1978 translation by Oscar Freedman, edited by Bruce Hochberg, with an additional introduction by Max Euwe, or should you stick with Marfia's translation, which has the obvious advantage that it remains in print? I haven't read Marfia's translation but my guess is that notwithstanding Freedman's valiant effort, Marfia's translation will do just fine for most people.

Why? First, this edition does not use algebraic notation. You can partially work around this by playing through the games on your computer (a database on the games is readily available on the web). Second, as with many McKay titles, the binding separates with the inevitable heavy use a book like this deserves. On the other hand, the book has the bonus of relatively large print and Euwe's thoughtful seven-page introduction.

Even better than the existing translations by Freedman or Marfia would be an update on either translation (or a perhaps an entirely new translation) in algebraic notation (or, perhaps, on CD). Ideally, this update would focus on light editing and error-checking of the analysis in the manner of Nunn's update on Vukovic's Art of Attack in Chess.

Nonetheless, any new editor should leave Bronstein's opening analysis alone because it discusses the openings, as understood at that time, in a coherent way. After reading the book you have a better understanding of the key ideas behind the openings frequently adopted in the tournament (e.g., King's Indian Defense, Nimzo-Indian Defense) even if you need to look elsewhere for the key lines in use today.

A final nice touch to such an update would be an additional introduction by one of the several distinguished surviving participants from the tournament. Any takers?

This book also goes under the title "Zurich 1953 Chess Tournament." David Bronstein is one of the best chess writers in history: he mixes prose explanations with analysis of variations in a way that makes this an easy read. You will get an exceptional grounding in the Nimzoindian Defense as played in the 1950's. More importantly, however, you will get engrossing explanations of middlegame analysis and planning that make this book a perrenial treasure. One of the most important books in my library.

Before television took a hold BBC Radio produced a superb series of programmes on chess.The experts enlisted for this venture constituted a veritable Who's Who of British and World chess of the time: Abrahams, Alexander, Barden, Broadbent, Bruce, Clarke, Euwe, Fraenkel, Golombek, Haygarth, Kottnauer, Pritchard, Rhoden, Sunnucks,and Wade. Favourite games,and gravest errors, masters at work, and a look into the past.
Terence Tiller joined the BBC in 1946.He ran the weekly chess series on Network Three for several years.

this book is the written record of a highly successful series of radio programmes about chess -broadcast in the uk. the book contains little known radio games played by fischer and tal as well as many articles of great general interest about chess .

When I was 15, many years ago, I discovered this book. I went from USCF 1065 to USCF 1612 because of my surprising tactical genius.:) Reading it improved my game that much.

In my opinion, this is best book ever written for learning fundamental chess tactics/combinations, yet the book lives in obscurity.

The material is presented using the methods and processes that psychologists call "programmed instruction." (This has nothing to do with computer programming; the term predates computers.) The short tutorial at the following link defines "programmed instruction" using the techniques of programmed instruction! If you take the tutorial, then you should have a good idea of the book's teaching technique.
http://www.centerforpi.com/cgi-local/WhatIsPI_MainMenu.pl

Most chapters deal with a single theme (tactic) such as double attack, pins, discoveries, queening combinations, etc. A typical chapter will start with a simple clear explanation of the tactic under discussion and then proceed with a sequence of positions, one to a page, where you are to choose for white and for black to play. The problems start simple and gradually build upon each other becoming more complex as the chapter proceeds. Unlike some books which merely give the best line as the answer, Ault provides good explanations for the reasons behind the moves including why some promising looking move doesn't work. Sometimes he even suggests ways to think about the position that can guide you to the correct move.

This is not a book for passive reading but instead requires your active participation -- similar to a workbook or perhaps even a private tutor. I would estimate that the book's level of difficulty is best for class D and class C players (1200-1600).

In summation, if you are looking for a good book on fundamental tactics and you are lucky enough to find this one, then
immediately grab it and don't let go!

This is a great book for someone who enjoys puzzles, and is a beginning-moderate player. It is organized into chapters, each demonstrating one type of combination: skewers, pins, forks, discoveries, etc. On each page is a chess board diagram from an actual master or tournament game. The reader is asked to decide the best move for black and for white. Turn the page, find the answer, clearly shown on another board diagram. The author also tells you what actually happened in the game. You feel as if you're playing with all the greats, Fischer, Spassky, Euwe, Lasker, (written before Kasparov's prominence).
So, it's a "learn by doing" workbook experience.
There's no boring and complex text to try to follow.
You absolutely don't need a chess set to follow the book.
It is so enjoyable you'll read it twice, at least.

Don't believe negative reviews you read of this book from stuff-shirt blowhards (like Taylor Kingston at chesscafe.com). This is an unbelievably entertaining book that is filled with rich chess games and tremendous enthusiasm. Yes, Motwani does proceed on the premise that every chess player has some kid in him. He does not take himself too seriously, but it is obvious that he is filled with wonder over life on earth, and especially of chess! I predict that his books will all be treasured classics someday. I think you should grab them while you can. I did!

This book tries to cover chess from many angles. Particularly, I like the way the topics are covered, in an engaging, narrative style that stimulates and gave me a real feeling of having Paul himself beside me, going through mastergames with me.

The deep annotations, insightful suggestions and orginal analysis all points to a well planned and thought out book.

Openings are also covered in a limited but in-depth manner. Along the way, Paul will suggest various alternatives, especially the less obvious and not-so-popular moves that are equally playable and yet present more practical problems for the one seated opposite you.

Get this book. Its a gem that any serious learning chess player should not do without.

I own 300+ chess books, and this one is my absolute favorite. To give you an idea of others in my top 10: The Amateur's Mind by Silman, Middlegame Planning by Romanvosky, My System, 300 Chess Games by Tarrasch, Grandmaster of Chess by Keres, Alekhine's Best Games. My version of "The Game of Chess," by Lasker (which has been re-named The Complete Chess Self-Tutor in this new edition) is from 1972 (I am not famililar with the edition that is currently in print but I understand it to be superb). This book is an utterly brilliant (and very demanding) chess course. It uses a unique method of instruction. The reader is given some textual introduction to a problem, and then is presented with three options for moves to pick. Depending on which option you pick, you are referred to a different section of the book. That new section will tell you if you picked the best move. If you picked the wrong move, it referes you back to try another choice. But even on the wrong choices, Lasker goes to great lengths explaining to exactly why it is not the best move. He presents variations of likely scenarios to make his point. He does this in a style that instructs, enlightens, and informs, always referring you to general principles to follow. Then, when you finally pick the right answer, you are presented with the next problem, which logically follows from the prior one. As a result, you gradually work your way through the book. There are large sections on the opening, the middlegame, and the end game. This is the greatest chess instruction book I have ever seen. Unlike so many chess masters, Lasker is a brilliant writer as well. His style is articulate, patient, and comprehensive. He does not "dumb-down" to you, but presents things more clearly than I have ever seen in the whole history of chess literature. He published this book when he was 84 years old! It has the feel that he wanted to sum up his life's work in chess in a manner that would leave a legacy to the aspiring player. Well, he did an amazing thing for chess players: he poured himself into this work with a sincerity and devotion that is unparallelled in chess history. His career was so long that he played against Em. Lasker, Capablanca, Nimzowitsch, and Alkehine, and here he is analyzing Bobby Fischer's famous 5. 0-0! in the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez. Lasker is the Bertrand Russell of chess: a man who lived for 95 years, who saw the richest epoch in the development of chess, and who knew how to assimilate it and summarize it in an instructional format that would be of maximum value to the student. This is that rare work that demands hard work of the student, but constantly inspires you to continue tackling it. You will emerge from its hallowed pages a far stronger player. This is a stupendous work, that for some reason is almost unknown. If I had one book to take to a desert island, it would be this one. I could go on and on, but you get the point. Get the book!

As a high school chess coach, this is the greatest book on chess that I have ever found. It unfolds like a "choose your own adventure" book, with the reader analyzing a scenario, and making a "move" by turning to a certain page. That page explains why the move was correct, or why it wasn't, in detail so that the reader can understand the strategy behind the reasoning. I picked this book up ...on sale... and immediately bought 5 more for my team! Buy this if you can find it!

The Usborne Internet-Linked Complete Book Of Chess is a straightforward introduction to the classic game of chess written by Elizabeth Dalby, and highly recommended for young players. From a fundamental tutorial about basic moves, to deadly and complex traps for enemy pieces, to solid attack and defense strategies, to 80 brain-twisting chess puzzles, and so much more, The Usborne Internet-Linked Complete Book Of Chess is a superbly organized and "kid friendly" guide featuring full color illustrations, diagrams, and offering a wealth of useful internet links.

Superbly illustrated including lots more chess board diagrams than other childrens guide. It has much more "beyond the basics" content than any of the other usually classic illustrated children's guides from Dorling Kindersley, Kingfisher, and even the others from Usborne itself.

Most of the other childrens guides merely show what the pieces look like (a pawn is a pawn is a pawn)and how they move with a teensy bit of strategy very reluctantly put in so as not to frighten the horses. This seems to be the one illustrated childrens book which not only simply explains but also graphically SHOWS the strategy in much much much more detail with copious illustrations. If a picure is worth a thousand words then this book is worth millions and is a quantum leap above the others. If you want science fantasy 3D abstract illustrations which are beautiful for adults to look at (but either confusing as hell or simply irrelevant in learning chess) then the Kingfisher guide is superb. But if you want your kid ( and maybe yourself) to really understand what the pieces are actually doing and the finer points of strategy involved, then the many many more colour (usually) 2D pictures in this book can't be beat.

It packs more content which is easy to understand in a 108 page beginners guide than some of the 3oo plus pages pot boilers written for adults by some grandmaster players who can't teach for nuts. This Usborne guide has quite comprehensive sections on the opening, middle game and end game with lots of examples and board shots. It also has quick internet chess links on the Usborne site which are aimed at helping kids and beginners understand. I must admit I have learnt quite a bit from the book myself and it is a very suitable guide also for adults from beginner to imtermediate and perhaps even to the threshold of advanced.

In case you were wondering I like this book. Much more importantly my kids ( 5 years) love it too and beg me to get the set out and try the early things in this book. If you can only buy one book to help your kids ( or even yourself) with chess you won't be disappointed with this. My only caveat is that if your kids are really young then the amount of illustrated info on each page may be a bit daunting and for pre- readers one of the more basic guides from Usborne, DK or kingfisher may be an easier (but more limited) starting point.

... that this book has gone out of print, for it's great fun. Personalities (from Jacob Bronowski to Aleister Crowley), history, records (worst result in a blindfold simul?), chess variants and more. If you can find a used copy of this (or of its predecessor, "The Complete Chess Addict"), grab it!

You'll meet some up with some fascinating info including Robert Maxwell and the phoney brilliancy, the Urinal opening, the dream match of Fischer v Kasparov, the horrible fate of Jeffrey Archer, the Beatle who ate the pieces, Gazza's draw against a grandmother, the rudest chess pieces, and the man who was British Ladies Champion. Also a chapter on Nigel Short, Fischer, Judith Polgar, Kasparov, Karpov, and others. Fader & Fader 1987 London

It seems that these days anyone can write a chess book about the openings. Quite a few authors have a well-established production routine: do a database search, add a few meaningless comments, secure the praise of a few drivel-producing colleagues and here you go! A marketable chess book is born!
Well, Chess Stars book in general are on the opposite end of the spectrum. The Safest Sicilian is another great example with a lot of original research and useful insights into the opening.

I cannot say that I always agreed with GM Delchev, but it is just a difference of opinion. The format of the book is very interesting, one way to utilize it would be:

1. Read just the quick repertoire part (won't take long)
2. Start playing the opening in blitz
3. Go back to the book and review the "holes" in your preparation.

And yes, despite the title, this book will not guarantee you a draw with black, but you didn't expect it, did you?

For those of you who want to see great opening books for white, I strongly recommend "Opening for White according to Anand" and "Opening for White accroding to Kramnik" series.

"The Safest Silian..." is a Chess Stars book written primarily by Bulgarian GM Alexander Delchev.The book is a Black repertoire commencing after 1.e4,c5 2.Nf3,e6 and thus covers the Taimanov open Sicilian + "misc" third moves for White. In particular,, the first 8 "parts" cover open Sicilian variations, parts 9 - 11 respectively cover 3. c3,3.d3,and finally a grabbag of other 3rd moves (b4,b3,c4,Nc3, and Qe2).

I very much liked this book for both the content and the style of GM Delchev, who writes in a cheerful,conversational way with the knack of appearing to converse with the reader.

The book is unusual in a couple of different ways. In the format, each part has 3 sub-sections "Quick Repertoire", "Complete Games",and "Step-by Step".The first two sections are self-explanatory,while the third is sort of a reference set of other variations that might occur,while the quick repertoire is ostensibly adequate to get started playing the Sicilian.This division is very attractive,I think,speaking for myself and I suspect many others,it's hopeless to imagine that I would actually absorb a complete opening book.

Another unusual feature is that "obsolete" White approaches are covered,e.g. the first part covers 3.d4,cd4 4.Nd4,Nc6 5.Nb5,d6 6.c4,which was Karpov's (very successful) treatment in the 1970's.
(An incidental peculiarity is that the notation does not include an "x" for captures, as illustrated in the line quoted above. I've often wondered why this was not standard).

It's harder to describe the final unusual feature,but it's something like this: Delchev does not regard variations as "final",and instead often produces analysis or recommendations that he himself refers to as speculative and resovable only in the future.So that one gets the feeling Delchev is describing the "live" Taimanov Sicilian,as opposed to just spitting out "correct" variarions. I believe this is much closer to the way in which a chess professional regards the opening;in any case it makes for good reading.

I could not recommend this book for novice or intermediate levels,as a lot of chess understanding is assumed.(quite possibly more than I possess). And inevitably some remarks are (to me) mysterious,e.g., when discussing the variation quoted above with 6...Nf6 Delchev remarks "The slogan of Black's campaign should be:d6-d5!
After the further moves 7.N1c3,a6 8.Na3,b6 9.Be2,Bb7 10.0-0,Be7 11.Be3,0-0, 12.f4,Delchev recommends 12...Rc8 with the remark "12...d5 is possible,but not necessary at this moment".To me I would like to be able to think play ...d5 as soon as it doesn't have a concrete drawback.But of course this is my failing,not Delchev's.

Also,Delchev likes complexity,for example (p.184)when discussing 7...Nc6 vs 7...Nb6 in a deferred Alapin Delchev conludes "both continuations are of equal worth,but I prefer 7...Nb6 as more complicated".Rogozenko in his Anti-Siclian book chooses 7...Nc6 from having the opposite attitude.

All in all I regard this book as one of the very finest repertoire books I've seen, and hope that GM Delchev continues to publish.

This is a terrific book about an important historical chess match. If you play chess, even if you don't have a great interest in these historical figures, the games are interesting and the author has gone to great pains to get all the information he possibly could relating to these players and these matches.

This is a hard back book, designed to last for years. It is well worth the price!

First of all, have you ever read ANYTHING on the Internet ... only to look for it later, and discover that it had been moved or deleted? (One of my 'pet peeves.') I don't know why anyone does this, much valuable material: chess games, book reviews, news items, etc; these are all deleted on a regular basis. (Please read on, you will see the relevance of this complaint later in this review.)

I have had this particular book for many months now ... all I can say is that there are literally hundreds of books that people have sent me over the last few years, and I need to do book reviews on all of them ... eventually.

Chess History: what is the perhaps the most important match of the last 250 years? Which match was one of the first to pit the top masters from two different countries that were considered to be the leading chess nations of that day? Which match was the FIRST to have all the moves of that event recorded for chess posterity?

The answer was the event of 1834, which was - in actuality - a series of matches between la Bourdonnais and McDonnell.

Morphy studied these matches, as did many other chess players of the 1800's. But for over 100 years, the regular player could not find a book on these games anywhere. In the last 20-30 years, chess databases contained all of the games, as did a few other sources ... but most of these were inaccessible to the average chess enthusiast. A permanent record of these games was long overdue.

Taylor Kingston did an excellent, if somewhat lengthy review, for Chess Cafe, (The authorized merchandise distributor for the U.S. Chess Federation.). However, even though I have searched for it diligently, I can see no trace of this review on their website. (It is archived on my web pages; you should be able to find it with any search engine.)

Should you study these games? Well, to be honest, the answer is yes and no. As an Original USCF LIFE-Master, the student might look at these games and they would appear to be a little crude. Of course, one must bear in mind that they were played almost 200 years ago - chess has advanced considerably since that time. Additionally, several reviewers have pointed out that the analysis in this book is not perfect, the assiduous player, aided by Fritz, (or any other chess program); will definitely find improvements in the play and the notes ... should he (or she) choose to do so.

Then why would you buy this book? I think that this question has more than one answer:
# 1.) It is the ONLY place where you can find ALL the games ... and the notes from dozens of different sources in one place. (The author gets an A+ for his research, I doubt if any pertinent source has been overlooked or missed.)
# 2.) I enjoy a chess game that has been diligently annotated; many times there are copious notes, especially in the more famous of these encounters.
# 3.) The average player, which means anyone rated below 1850, will definitely learn a great deal by diligent study of these historic clashes.
# 4.) Anyone who considers himself a serious student of chess history will definitely want this book; it is as thorough and as in-depth as anyone could hope for.

A small side note is that the author even found my web pages, and mentions them in a couple of places. (See the notes to game # 04 and game # 50.)

In the end, this is a fantastic book, it receives my highest recommendation. This is a beautiful hardback edition with a library binding, the highest quality paper, and top-notch editing. This is a volume that most chess players would be proud to own and place on their book-shelf. I conclude with a quote from Mr. Kingston's review: (this book) ... "must be considered the definitive work on this important event, and one of the best of its kind ever. It is a book that scholars will cherish, and that anyone with the least interest in the game's history will enjoy."