How to Master Chess Literature
Navigating the intellectual labyrinth of chess literature is almost as difficult as getting a good grasp on the game itself. Fortunately, a tempered approach to chess literature can give you enough mastery of chess arts and letters to benefit your actual game.
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Instructions
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Start out with an absolute beginner's book, even if you know the basic rules of chess. Look at John Emms' "Concise Chess," "Chess: From First Moves to Checkmate" by Daniel King or even "Chess For Dummies," which is written by a chess master, James Eade. Pay attention to chess notation since this is important in progressing on to more advanced chess literature.
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Move on to books about chess openings, such as "Improve Your Opening Play" in the chess series by publisher Everyman. "Ten Ways to Succeed in the Opening" is a small and relatively simple chess openings book that provides principles to guide good openings. Fill your inventory of chess openings with a book like "Nunn's Chess Openings" by John Nunn.
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Keep up with chess sections of major newspapers which provide classic chess problems on a small board, often in the sports or entertainment section of the paper. The chess sections requires a good understanding of chess notation but the payoff is the accumulation of solutions to common chess situations.
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Advance to more sophisticated and comprehensive texts such as "The Oxford Companion to Chess," which includes backgrounds, advanced strategies, openings, middle games and end games. Other books that focus on larger chess strategy include "Winning Chess Strategies" by Yasser Seirawan and "The Reassess Your Chess Workbook" by Jeremy Silman.
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Stay up to date on chess happenings and new strategies with chess magazines such as "Chess Life Magazine" or "British Chess." Stop in at the Chess Cafe online chess center at ChessCafe.com for more miscellaneous and contemporary chess literature (see Resources below).
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