Comments on: Five Best?

By: Rininger

Rininger — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:09:05 +0000

I don’t know about the best Chess book, but the worst was probably “That Man From A.U.N.T.I.E.”

By: Rob Dawson

Rob Dawson — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:55:55 +0000

Yep, Nabokov’s novel The Defense was the best chess-related book I’ve read.

By: serfer62

serfer62 — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:00:31 +0000

I never have liked chess, but in my deployment to the ME and working with native troops it was THE pasttime. So my best book is “Idiots Guide to Chess”. I still don’t like chess but miss the comradship of the game…

By: Steve in TN

Steve in TN — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:29:45 +0000

Wow. Politics AND chess. I would think Vukovic’s Art Of Attack In Chess would have to be in the top five somewhere.

My top five would be:
1) Chernev and Reinfeld’s Fireside Book of Chess
2) Nimzovich’s My System and Chess Praxis
3) Fisher’s My 60 Memorable Games
4) Silman’s 5) Vukovic’s Art Of Attack In Chess

And that’s probably why my endgame stinks.

By: Mark Goulston

Mark Goulston — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:57:45 +0000

Something worth adding to your terrific list is: “The Art of Learning” (Free Press, 2007) by Josh Waitzkin. I believe this will also become a classic not so much as an approach to chess, but as an approach to life. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Tim Gallwey, creator of the “Inner Game” series of sports psychology books:

If you give a man a fish, you feed him for day;
if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime;
but if you teach a man to learn, you feed him for a lifetime
and he doesn’t have to just eat fish.

By: Anthony (Los Angeles)

Anthony (Los Angeles) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:42:11 +0000

I’ll have to pass commenting on the Kasparov books, though I’d love to own the series. My list of the best five would be:

1. My 60 Memorable Games. One can always learn something from this.
2. Alekhine: My Best Games of Chess, 1908-1937. He was a pro-Nazi suck-up, but Alekhine’s games were marvellous.
3. Silman’s Complete Endgame Course. Published in 2007, but I don’t think there’s been any better endgame training book, ever.
4. Euwe & Kramer: The Middlegame, books one and two.
5. Capablanca: Chess Fundamentals. One of the best texts for a beginner. (Or a perpetual beginner, like me. )

By: biblio44

biblio44 — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:45:16 +0000

I would have added Nabokov’s great novel, The Defense, but that probably belongs in a different list.