Top 5 Chess Books

Here are Top 5 chess books recommendations for players seeking to enhance their skills. Starting from basic knowledge, strategic insights to tactical progress, these selections all level players to improving their game.

1. My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fisher

2. Silman’s Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman

For over 100 years, the world’s leading chess players and teachers have told their students to study the Endgame. This book teaches the students what they need to know at their current rating level, and builds on that knowledge for each subsequent Phase of the player’s development.

3. Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar

Susan Polgar became the first female Grandmaster at age 15—and it wasn’t luck that got her there. Her use of tactics, combinations, and strategy during her games gave her the critical advantage she needed against her opponents. In Chess Tactics for Champions, Polgar gives insight into the kind of thinking that chess champions rely on while playing the game, specifically the ability to recognize patterns and combinations. With coauthor Paul Truong, Susan Polgar teaches the tactics she learned from her father, Laszlo Polgar, one of the world’s best chess coaches. Teaches players how to calculate the effect of a move in order to gain an edge over an opponent For intermediate to advanced chess players of all ages

4. How to Reassess Your Chess: Chess Mastery Through Imbalances by Jeremy Silman

How to Reassess Your Chess has long been considered a modern classic. This 4th edition takes Silman’s groundbreaking concept of imbalances to a whole new level. Designed for players in the 1400 to 2100 rating range and for teachers looking for a ready-made chess curriculum, the author shares a mind-expanding journey that takes the reader through imbalance-basics, ensures that every detail of all the imbalances are mastered, and leaves the player/lover of chess with something he always wanted but never believed he could achieve: a master-level positional foundation. Hundreds of games brought to life by instruction-rich prose, and stories that offer humor while highlighting various lessons, vividly illustrate all the book’s topics in a manner that’s both personal and fun. Jeremy Silman is an International Master and a world-class teacher, writer, and player who has won the American Open, the National Open, and the U.S. Open.

5. Build Up Your Chess 1: The Fundamentals by Artur Yusupov

Artur Yusupov’s complete course of chess training stretches to nine volumes, guiding the reader towards a higher chess understanding using carefully selected positions and advice. To make sure that this new knowledge sticks, it is then tested by a selection of puzzles.The course is structured in three series with three levels. The Fundamentals level is the easiest one, Beyond the Basics is more challenging, and Mastery is quite difficult, even for stronger players.The various topics, Tactics, Strategy, Positional Play, Endgames, Calculating Variations, and Openings are spread evenly across the nine volumes, giving readers the chance to improve every area as they work through the books.This book is the first volume at the Fundamentals level. The Build Up Your Chess series won the prestigious Boleslavsky Medal from FIDE (the World Chess Federation) as the best instructional chess books in the world.