Top 10 Chess Books for Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Players

When you are thinking about learning chess, you are probably looking for a book that is easy to understand. Because the game is so complicated, you want to make sure that you are not wasting time learning things that are unnecessary. This can be especially true for beginners, who are still learning the basics of the game.

Over the course of this article, we will look at the top 10 best chess books, and we will also provide a brief review of each book.

Table Of Contents

Do chess books help you improve?

Yes, chess books help you improve. In fact, the very first thing you should do after getting serious about chess is to get a book on the rules, notation, and basic strategy of chess.

It all depends on what you’re looking for in a book. If you’re interested in an in-depth look at the history of chess, you’ll want to look for books written in the early 1900s.

If you’re looking for an instructional book, you’ll want to pay attention to the author’s credentials. If you’re looking for a book with a lot of diagrams, you’ll need to make sure the book is relevant to your experience level.

What is considered the best chess book?

If you’re reading this, you probably like chess: at least you like the idea of it. But, is there such a thing as the best chess book? And if so, which is it? Well, through the years there have been countless chess books written by various authors, with varying levels of quality and content.

One such book is “SEMI-CLOSED OPENINGS IN ACTION” by former FIDE world champion and ex-Soviet champion Anatoly Karpov, and it’s a book that can truly be called the best chess book. You should consider reading all of his books.

‘The Art of the Middlegame’ by Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov is also considered the best classic chess book.

How to find the right chess book?

Chess is a game that requires both strategy and tactics, and the best chess books teach the game in both of these ways. What separates the best chess books is that they don’t just focus on one or the other, but they use the best of both, creating a book that will teach you the game in the best way for your level.

But, how to find the right chess book? There are many chess books available, but you should start with one designed for your rating level.

The first thing you need to find in a book is a topic. Chess books usually fall under two topics: strategy or openings. To start, let’s take a look at some popular chess openings.

What to consider buying the best chess book?

Consider your level: The first thing you have to do is to choose the best book for your level.
How old are you?
What are your interests?
Your current chess skill.
The style you want to read the book.
And the price you are willing to pay.
Last but not least, consider the recommendations you get from experts, friends.

Top 10 Chess Books for Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced Players, and Kids

Chess has a special place in the heart of a true player. It is a great game that teaches you how to analyze your opponents and how to think ahead. It requires a lot of determination and patience, both of which are very important when it comes to chess.

But if you are a beginner or an intermediate player, you need to know where to start. In this article, we have compiled a list of the 36 best chess books for beginners, Intermediate, Advanced players, and kids.

7 Best Chess Books for Beginners

If you want to improve your position in the chess world, you should be devoted to studying chess opening theory. There are many different openings theories, such as the Grunfeld, the Richter, the King’s Indian, the Queen’s Gambit, and others. They all vary in terms of how they play, and the chess opening books that you choose will depend on the opening you wish to learn.

However, we often overlook the importance of the quality of the opening preparation and the quality of the opening knowledge. The best books will not only explain the intricacies of each chess opening but also teach us how to make our opponents play on our terms and how to achieve the best advantage. Here are the 7 best chess books for beginners:

1. Modern Chess Openings

The Modern Chess Openings by Nick De Firmian is the most comprehensive and instructive book to learn the chess openings. In this book of 768 pages, you will find a number of useful tutorials that explain how to play the best moves from the first few moves you make.

The author, Nick De Firmian is an American chess grandmaster. He won the US chess championship three times in 1987, 1995, and 1998.

2. FCO: Fundamental Chess Openings

The Fundamental Chess Openings (FCO) is a chess book intended for players of beginner to intermediate. The book covers different chess openings, each one with a detailed explanation of the basic ideas, plans, and goals. It is written by Paul Van der Sterren. The FCO is widely considered one of the most useful chess books ever written. The book contains 448 pages, each chapter covers one or more openings.

Paul Van der Sterren is a Dutch chess grandmaster, who is a former chess professional, and the writer of a number of popular chess books. He was born in Venlo, Netherlands on 17 March 1956. Paul is a two-time Dutch Chess Champion, having won the title in 1985 and 1993. He is the No.1 ranked Dutch player. Paul was qualified for the Candidates tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship.

5 More Recommended Chess Books for Openings buy on Amazon:

7 Best Chess Books for Intermediate Players

If you are an intermediate player, then you will definitely need the following chess books in order to improve your game. These books will help you improve your game, and if you are able to read and comprehend them, you will be able to improve your game even further. You can find here some of the top chess books for intermediate players:

1. Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess

The classic chess instruction book, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess by Bobby Fischer and co-authored by Stuart Margulies and Donn Mosenfelder. The book teaches chess in a very unique style. It is designed for the intermediate player and has a very direct style, and also contains a lot of humor and wit.

It takes a serious subject and makes it easy and fun to learn. If you’re looking for a good introduction to chess, then look no further than this book. Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess book contains 356 pages.

The author, Bobby Fischer was an American chess grandmaster, and he won the eleventh World Chess Championship. Co-authors, Stuart Margulies and Donn Mosenfelder were chess masters.

2. Logical Chess: Move by Move

This is a chess book written by renowned national master Irving Chernev. It’s a classic for intermediate players because it’s easy to read and is designed for all levels. The book was published in 1957.

Logical Chess: Move by Move is a wonderful book that describes each move in a chess game in detail. It’s an ideal book for those looking to improve their game or for those who don’t have time to study the game. The book is broken into 33 sections that are easy to use. One can read a portion, study it, and then move on to the next portion.

5 More Recommended Chess Books for Intermediate Players buy on Amazon:

7 Best Chess Books for Advanced Players and Club Players

Know the Dumbest Game Chess Boxing Here

If you are a chess player, then by definition you are interested in improving your game, and the best way to do so is by studying chess books. As with any field of study, chess can be broken down into various levels of study, starting with books that are simply designed to teach the game of chess.

The best chess books for club players are very different from the best chess books for intermediate. They are usually aimed at advanced players. The reason is simple:

The best chess books for club players are more likely to be competing in club tournaments.
These players are trying to improve their club chess ranking, which are used to qualify for international competition.

Thus, they have to play more games, which they are more likely to lose, so they need to study more. For this reason, the best chess books for advanced players are more detailed. With many games that are suitable for club players. The 7 top chess books for club players are below:

1. How to Reassess Your Chess

Jeremy Silman, the American International Master, and chess author, offers a variety of strategies and tactics that can help you improve your game and win more matches and tournaments.

The “How to Reassess Your Chess: Chess Mastery Through Chess Imbalances” is a book that helps you check your progress and gives you a guide to improving it. Jeremy Silman is a professional chess player who has also helped other players along the way.

Because of his experience over the years, he has come up with the best chess strategies to help you improve your game. The book is filled with useful information that is sure to be useful for anyone who is looking to take their game to the next level.

2. Tactics Time!: 1001 Chess Tactics

Tactics Time by Tim Brennan, Anthea Carson is an excellent chess book for advanced players. Tim Brennan is a software engineer and a Class A player. Co-author Anthea Carson is a chess coach and a tournament chess player. She won the Game 60 Female US Chess championship in 2004.

Tactics Time is a chess tactics training book that teaches you how to solve the most difficult types of chess puzzles. It is one of the few chess books that fully explains how to solve tactics puzzles that you will encounter in chess openings, middlegames, and endgames. The book includes 1001 chess tactics from the games of everyday chess players.

This book is for players who are older, are interested in learning tactics, are looking for different ways of attacking, are looking for tips on improving their play, are looking for a step up from beginner tactics, want to improve their tactical ability, or want to improve their tactical ability.

Tactics Time 1001 Chess Tactics from the Games

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7 Best Chess Books of All Time

In the chess world, it is an axiom that the best players of the day learn from the best players of the past. The same can be said of chess books. There are several good chess books out there, but there are few that consistently deliver top-quality material.

This is not to say that there aren’t plenty of bad chess books out there. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of bad chess books that appear to be written by people who have clearly never read a book on the subject. Here are 7 good quality chess books of all time:

1. My 60 Memorable Games

The book includes 60 of Fischer’s best games, each introduced with a short memoir of the time it was played. It is a great book to improve a chess player’s ability. The chess book, My 60 Memorable Games was first published in 1969.

This is really a nice game collection for all chess lovers. It contains the games of the famous chess player Bobby Fischer, who is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time.

2. Life & Games of Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Tal was a Soviet Latvian chess grandmaster and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is often regarded as one of the greatest attacking players of all time. He became World Champion when he was 23 years old by defeating then-champion Mikhail Botvinnik in 1960.

This is the fourth book in his written chess book of the Life & Games of Mikhail Tal. The book contains games played by Tal. A book like this one brings out the circumstances under which the game was played. This book contains annotations of games played by Tal.

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8 Best Chess Books for Kids

Chess is one of the world’s most popular games, but it’s not for everyone. The goal of this article is to help you learn the basics of chess, whether you’re a beginner or an expert. We’ll look at some of the best chess books for kids.

The perfect chess books for kids are those that teach them chess in a fun and engaging manner. There are so many chess books available that it can be hard to know which ones are the best. We have compiled a list of our favorite chess books for kids, so you can find out which are the best for your child.

1. Chess for Kids

Chess for Kids is a complete children’s chess book. The author, Michael Basman, is an International Master and an English chess player who has taught chess for over 30 years. He has taught children in schools in London.

This book is designed to teach you how to play chess, either by yourself or in competition against an opponent. It gives an overview of the game, the pieces, the playing field, the moves of the pieces, the checkmate, the opening, the middle game, the end game, and even strategies for openings, middlegames, and endgames.

The Chess for Kids book is designed to be easy to read and understand, but it also contains enough information to become a useful reference manual. The book assumes that the reader is completely new to chess, but the information is presented in such a way that even an experienced chess player can learn some things.

2. How to Beat Your Dad at Chess

This book will tell you about the basic knowledge of chess. It will teach you how to calculate the probability of your next move, how to use psychology to influence your opponent and give you the basic rules of the game.

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess is the ultimate step-by-step guide, showing you how to win any game, including tactics for intimidating opponents, rescuing a lost game, avoiding common blunders, and much more.

Murray Graham Chandler is a chess grandmaster. He internationally played many games for New Zealand and England. He is the author of the bestselling Chess for Winners, is a master player who has taught his clever ideas to top international grandmasters.

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Frequently Asked Questions of Chess Books

Is it necessary to read chess books?

It is necessary to read chess books because they are useful for improving your chess skills. However, if you want to learn how to play better and maximize your wins, then you should try reading chess books.

Do chess players read books?

When playing chess, it is important to keep up to date with the latest developments through studying chess manuals, magazines, and books. There is no specific time that one should dedicate to reading chess books. However, many players choose to read at least one chess book per year.

Are chess books useless?

Books are an indispensable way to improve your skill at chess. They are excellent for learning the basics, intermediate tactics, and advanced strategies. Some are even based on middlegame or endgame mistakes you can exploit.
Though, Chess is a game of practice. It is always better to play the game, apply the tricks that you have learned from the expert’s books.

How many chess books should you read?

The answer to this question depends on what you seek to achieve from your study of chess. If you want to be a master, there are a number of chess books you should read!
Most chess players read many chess books during their chess career. If you’re a beginner, the recommendation is to read at least one chess book per year. As you get stronger, you can increase your pace to one book per month.

What is the first chess book I should read?

The first chess book I would recommend you to read is “How to Reassess Your Chess” by Jeremy Silman.

What chess books do grandmasters use?

Grandmasters use the same chess books that all chess players use to improve their game. But “My Most Memorable Games” and “Dynamic Decision Making in Chess” books by “Boris Gelfand” are well-reviewed. “Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors” book is also used by grandmasters.

What books should every chess player read?

The books titled “The Art of the Checkmate”, “Chess for Dummies”, “Bobby Fischer Goes to War”, and “The Ultimate Chess Tactics and Strategies” are books that every chess player should read. A list of must-read books for every chess player is above.

What is the ultimate chess book?

We recommend the book “The Ultimate Chess Tactics and Strategies” because it has a convenient format and it can be used by players of all levels.

In summary, we’ve compiled this list of the top 10 chess books to help you study chess and improve your chess rating. Due to the wide variety of skill levels, it is important to choose the right chess books for each level. “Chess for Children (buy on Amazon)” is a wonderful book for kids who want to learn the game of chess. The book is a classic one, but it’s still a great primer for chess for kids. It’s so good, it’s going to be a featured book in my own chess book list. Have a great week everyone!

Top 10 Chess Books for Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Players

Do chess books help you improve?