I was recently asked for some book recommendations, and thought easy-peasy, I’ll point them to something online. Then I looked at some lists, and thought I’d write my own… Just books, not videos or Chessable courses. Lots of really great books
omitted. The ChessDojo list isn’t too bad.
| Openings | Tactics | Strategy | Endgames | Praxis | Bonus | |
| Beginner | HERTAN. Basic Chess Openings for Kids | GILLAM Simple Chess Tactics and Checkmates | CHERNEV The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played(*) |
KOSTEN Winning Endgames | del GIOCONDO A first book of Morphy | WEBB Chess for Tigers |
| D | EMMS Discovering Chess Openings | CHERNEV/REINFELD Winning Chess(*) | STEAM Simple Chess(*) EMMS Simple Chess |
CHERNEV Capablanca’s 60 Best Chess Endgames | HARTSTON Kings of Chess RETI Masters of the Chessboard(*) |
|
| C | One-volume basic opening repertoire e.g. COLLINS Simple Chess Repertoire MacDONALD Starting Out: French AAGAARD/LUND Meeting 1.d4 (Tarrasch Defence) |
SEIRAWAN Winning Chess Tactics VUKOVIC The Art of Attack |
EMMS More Simple Chess SEIRAWAN/SILMAN Winning Chess Strategy |
SEIRAWAN Winning Chess Endgames | FISCHER My 60 Memorable Games | TAL Life and Games |
| B | Picking a style e.g. EMMS Attacking with 1.e4 WATSON A Strategic Opening Repertoire for White GALLAGHER Play the King’s Indian EMMS Easy Guide to the Nimzo-Indian WATSON Play the French GOLUBEV Easy Guide to the Dragon |
BURGESS Instructive Chess Puzzles | SILMAN Reassess Your Chess HANSEN Improve your Positional Chess |
SILMAN Complete Endgame Course (first few chapters) |
BOTVINNIK My Best Chess Games 1940-67 | ROWSON The Seven Deadly Chess Sins |
| A | WATSON Mastering the Chess Openings 1-4 | JACOBS Analyse to Win | WATSON Chess Strategy in Action | van PERLO Endgame Tactics | NUNN Secrets of Grandmaster Play | ROWSON Chess for Zebras |
| CM | AAGAARD Grandmaster Preparation: Calculation | AAGAARD Grandmaster Preparation: Positional play |
AAGAARD Grandmaster Preparation: Endgames | STOHL Modern Chess Masterpieces | KASPAROV My Great Predecessors 1-5 |
(*) Originally in Descriptive but Algebraic available
Juniors: start with my books with Tim Onions, then graduate to the Gambit books ‘for Kids’, apart from their Opening one, which is a boring catalogue.
P.S. Compilers of chess book lists: do split your list by level, and don’t recommend books available only in Descriptive, or My System. I know, My System is a great book, but there are better books to learn that stuff from now. When I was a boy, it was literally in a class by itself, but not now. See also: Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, Chess Fundamentals, Ideas behind the chess openings etc etc