The following is my two cents on what could also have been included (though of course a list of ten cannot accommodate everyone): Considering myself to be a chess literature enthusiast, I have nevertheless only read 1,3,6,9 and 10. Kotov’s ‘Think like a Grandmaster’ was rubbish.Ī very intersting list. Silman is extremely boring and hard going. ‘How to play the Opening in Chess’ by several GM authors was pretty good, too. And the 10th Edition of MCO by Larry Evans (1965) was the best MCO edition ever. The first Editions of ECO weren’t bad either. If they were more relevant to today, I would have Watson’s series on the English Opening close to being in there somewhere and likewise with Kasparov and Nikitin’s ‘Sicilian …e6 and…d6 systems’. I agree that Nimzovitch’s ‘My System’ should not be higher than 9th. Keres’s Best games or Keres and Kotov’s ‘The Art of the Middlegame’ or Reshevsky’s ‘The Art of the Positional Play’ should be there instead. I can never understand why Bronstein’s ‘Zurich 1953’ gets such great accolades all the time. Capablanca’s ‘Chess Fundamentals’ was better, I thought, and should be there instead – a great book! I prefer Botvinnik’s Best Games over Alekhine’s Best Games, but this might be because I prefer Botvinnik’s playing style.Īlthough Lipnitsky’s book was doubtless great for it’s time, I didn’t find it that relevant for today. I think Fischer’s is considerably overrated because of who the author is. I learnt a lot more from it than I did from Fischer’s. Great to see you guys put Larsen’s book ahead of Fischer’s. Other books we seriously considered were: Practical Chess Endings (Keres), Secrets of Pawn Endings (Mueller/Lambrecht), The Art of the Middlegame (Keres/Kotov), Simple Chess (Michael Stean), Endgame Strategy (Shereshevsky), Modern Ideas in Chess (Reti), Zurich 1953 (Najdorf), Three Matches (Kasparov), Karpov’s Best Games (written by Razuvaev, but published as if written by Karpov). Mark Dvoretsky: Secrets of Chess Training (now School of Chess Excellence 1) Isaak Lipnitsky: Questions of Modern Chess TheoryĦ.

Mikhail Tal: The Life and Games of Mikhail Talĥ. Another rule is that the books should be relevant today.ġ. One of the rules of the list is that the same writer cannot be repeated. Below I will give books that fell just outside the list. John and I agreed our way to ten books and I have put them in order of quality, as I see it. But also, there was no room for Kasparov, Karpov, Kotov, Reti and so on.

No, there was no room on the list for Watson or Silman.

Best chess books to study