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Be candid about your chess books.

#42
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#43
@playsforfun23 said in #36:
> Right now, I have been trying to complete My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer. I thought chess books were going to be an okay read until I actually read a chess book and then my whole perspective of them changed. I had no idea just how tedious going through them was going to be. However, I have decided to not give up and so far, I am reading his 9th game in the book where he challenges Keres for the first time as a teenager. I think it will still take me several months before I truly complete one but I hope to finish it someday.

Play through one game per day. In two months, you’ll be done that book
#44
@kajalmaya said in #32:
> Now the real question for those who have read dozens of books is what single book would you recommend to read cover to
cover to someone who doesn't want to read many books?

Domination in 2,545 Endgame Studies, by Kasparyan.

In many ways, the only chess book a player ever needs.
#45
You guys the Fischer and Nimzowitsch books are very hard. If you're have trouble finishing a book try something easy to start with. Pick up any small tactics book and you'll be able to finish it (thereby achieving one goal) and it will most likely improve your chess game!

@Noflaps
#46
Thanks for the concern, but Nimzowitsch it shall be. Indeed, I'm so determined that I went out and bought some bratwurst. So it'll be wurst and over-protection and the seventh rank, until I'm finished.
#47
@noflaps, if reading a whole chess book is difficult, here's my advice: make a short routine, ONE chapter a day or ONE game a day and read the chapter or play the game as many times as necessary and day when you will be impatient to read the next chapter, it is a good thing ! everyone is different, for example, I read quickly (150-200 pages of a chess book in one day with about ten games, but the next day I only read the annotated games and I try to play again without them. annotations!). I recommend that you never rush and go at your speed or find your routine, I wish you all the best!
#48
@SixtySecondsOfHell I have a hard copy of Kasparyan, and I wouldn't give it away. Truly impressive book. But not sure if I would suggest it as a single book for someone who wants to read just one book to improve their game in an all round manner.
#49
@Noflaps said in #1:
> Have you ever read an entire chess book and played through all its games? Really?
>
> I mean ... really?
>
> Over the decades, I have accumulated a ridiculous number of chess books -- both in hard (paper) copy and in electronic (though legal) form. You'd think I was exaggerating if I told you how many. But I would not be.
>
> Yet, I don't believe that I have ever finished even one chess book. Not really. Not in the sense I am about to carefully define.
>
> By "finished" I carefully mean: read every single word AND actually played through, thoughtfully, every included game. Every. Game.
>
> Don't get me wrong: I love chess books and have "read through" endless fields of their text. But have I ever REALLY devoured one? Truly? Never once. In many, many (many!) years.
>
> If you have actually "finished" a chess book (in the sense defined above), which was it (or which were they)? Which chess books could you (based upon actual, honest personal experience) recommend to "finish" ?
>
> I'm sure some of you HAVE shown more resolution and self-discipline than I have, and have actually "finished" a chess book -- or maybe a few! But I think you are the exception, not the rule.
>
> Maybe I'm wrong. Am I? I ask in earnest. And with a bit of sorrow and shame.
>
> I might finish one some day. Right now, I am very interested in Silman's "Odessy." And Lord knows I love Lakdawala's many clever and well-written works. But it seems to require more self-discipline than I can muster to actually "finish" any chess book. I hope that's why I'm still a patzer. Indeed, I'll cling to that explanation.

I own 3 books and read all of them and analyzed many of the positions. I re-read silman's how to reasses your chess 4 times or so, but the others not much
#50
Silman's "Reassess" (in any of its various editions) seems, anecdotally, to be one of the most common, if not THE most common, books to be purchased and studied in the last few decades. By highlighting the notion of "Imbalances" he provided learners everywhere a sensible way to break down and try to understand the Middle Game. Of all the books I haven't completely "read," his third edition of Reassess is the one I've probably come closest to having not not "read." :) '

As a chess book addict, I have purchased every one of his editions of Reassess, including the most recent. So long as Silman was given a fair royalty, I suppose I've indirectly paid for his dinner several times. And I am happy to have done my small part in contributing to his well-being.

Indeed, just a few days ago, in a book store that has separated me from so much of my discretionary income, I stumbled upon a copy of his recent, thick, heavy, rather auto-biographical "Chess Odessy" -- and it caused me to stay up late for several nights. Now I temporarily must resist the temptation to keep staying up with it or I will never plow through Nimzowitsch as I intend to do.

If I am to get through Nimzowitsch (and I swear, this time I shall!) I must try not to let my eyes fall upon any of Silman's or Lakdawala's books (for now). And that is not easy because I've been unable to resist buying their lovely volumes over the years. Indeed, their stuff alone could keep me reading until the day I have to take the Big Dirt Nap. Which would not be bad at all, of course, but right now I must stay locked in on Nimzowitsch. And I repeat: I shall!

Is my new Nimzo-fetish doing any good? Well, ALREADY I'm noticing some interesting things. Like: it's a sad thing that Nimzo didn't have at his disposal a multi-core desktop running a modern chess engine. At one point, Nimzo points out how an advancing black pawn, at the end of a sequence of moves, makes an opponent uncomfortable -- but engines, at high ply, make it clear that a different pawn move would have made the opponent rather MORE uncomfortable, and arguably would have served his instructive point even MORE clearly.

Furthermore, at one point, early on in an opening, I began to notice something else: a computer, at very-high 45 ply, absolutely agrees with a move shown by Nmzowitsch in which black's king's pawn is advanced to e5. Furthermore, the computer seems to view the second-best move to be the similar two-square advance of black's QUEEN's pawn.

In other words -- even at 45 ply the computer (in the given position) supported a very "classical" treatment of the center, with black's control of the center coming from pawn occupation, and not "from afar" as the hyper-modern approach taught us also to value.

That got me wondering: perhaps in the opening stages, a ChessBase-like attention to win/loss records may still be superior to a brute force engine evaluation, even at very high ply. Indeed, my early exploration of Nimzo's book -- with the help of a computer-- makes me wonder if even today simple brute-force, very-high-ply evaluation may not yet be sufficiently deep to really see through to the complete value of a hyper-modern "control from afar" philosophy, even though the computer's brute force evaluations seem much more dependable later on, when we are well into the middle game.

The "Soviet School" (which I take to mean every position is best analyzed very concretely) and "modern rule independence" perhaps come more into their own AFTER we are well into the middle game. When still in the opening, the computer seems to be erring (if it is, indeed, erring) on the side of the more classical center, which is urged upon us by classical rules of thumb. That's an interesting thing to end up pondering as a result of working with the arguably most famous Hypermodern's best known book.

And it illustrates how easy and tempting it is to become entranced (snared?) by an attempt to "read" slowly and with maximum effort and attention. Indeed, it may be causing me to count angels that are pinhead-dancing.

Will any of this do me any good? Well, it is pretty hard to polish up dusty old Noflaps at this point. But I must admit to feeling a bit freshly invigorated as a result of trying to really get to the bottom, slowly, of a single book and its example games. With the resolution in place, the hours seem to fly by unnoticed. And as a wise poster noted somewhere far above in this string, the results might manifest themselves later.

But at this rate, I'll have to outlive very large California trees to finish.

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