When I was first learning, Logical Chess Move by Move was a huge eye opener for me. It explains every single move in the game in detail while going through full games. You get introduced to opening ideas, middle game planning, and endgame technique. The book is a very effective primer on a lot of key chess principles and it really teaches the beginner the importance of a single move since you get to read all of the ideas that go into every move.

When I was a low intermediate level player (I'd guess around 1300-1400), I read Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess and that had a huge impact on my playing level once I start to assimilate the knowledge. His coverage of the thought processes for middle game planning, move selection, and looking at material imbalances really opened my eyes to how I should be thinking about positions.

I've read probably 15-30 books in part or entirely over the years. Those two stand out the most to me. Beyond those instructional books, I think books of games collections are good to go through. My favorite were How Karpov Wins by Edmar Mednis (I am a Karpov fan) and Bronstein's Zurich 1953 book (one of the most highly regarded books of all time). Alekhine's Best Games was also a fun read, but it used old style notation I believe, which was a chore for me to learn and go through at the time.

Other special nods from me:

Pawn Power in Chess is a good book to learn about pawn structures. I only skimmed the chapters on openings I was playing at the time, but I liked the content.
Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy is a more modern book on chess strategy. Not as impactful to me as Silman's book, but it's more advanced and I remember it helping me go from 1800ish level to 2000+

u/Antaniserse · 3 points r/chess

In no particular order:

The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games

Understanding Chess Move by Move

Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953

Tal-Botvinnik 1960

Alekhine My Best Games of Chess, 1908-1937

Botvinnik Best Games trilogy

u/JediLibrarian · 1 point r/chess

I am about 1600 USCF, with about 100 chess books. However, most of mine are biographies/historical.

My favorites are:

Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953 by David Bronstein

Soviet Chess, 1917-1991 by Andrew Soltis

Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness by Frank Brady

Aron Nimzowitsch: On the Road to Chess Mastery, 1886-1924 by Per Skjoldager and Jorn Erik Nielsen

Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov (3 volumes) by Garry Kasparov.

u/[deleted] · 1 point r/chess

Fritz13 is a great bargain. ~$50 includes a million game database which is my primary use -- I can set up a position using the 'infinite analysis' button and then turn to the database and conduct a search based on the position that I've just set up. You can also explore the database by themes, opening, a whole bunch of stuff. Now, most of the results of the search won't be analyzed (some are though) but I can go through the games pretty easily.

However, Fritz doesn't replace a good games anthology where the games have been painstakingly analyzed by a GM. It's not an either or proposition though, I wouldn't give up a good book like Igor Stohl's Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces or John Nunn's Best Games 1985 - 1993 or John Speelman's Best Games or Jan Timman's Art of Chess Analysis to name a few in our library, but then I don't have to make a choice. :) Oh, and every chessplayer should get a copy of Zurich 1953

Imho, paying to access an online database seems a little overboard when there are so many resources out there that can be had for little to no money at all.

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