Skip to the end for a summary of which book to choose
7. Silman’s Complete Endgame Course
Why this book is useful
With a 4.7 out of 5 rating with nearly 1300 reviews on Amazon, this book is great for learning how to play endgames. What stands out about this book is that it features all levels. It is described as: from beginner to master, meaning that you can start at an early level and continue to grow stronger and stronger with the help of this book. Each chapter represents different elo ranges. This makes it easy to train in a targeted way, not too easy and not too hard. What especially stands out is that it is really easy to follow. One of the reviews featured a chess coach, who uses the book to train kids. He mentions that he and his students have been able to follow the book without too much effort, and that he recommends it. Other people like the fact that it covers practical endgames, rather than endgames you will never see on the board, such as Bishop Knight checkmate. I am a 2000 rated chess player, and I played a lot of tournaments, and I can confirm that I have never seen a Bishop Knight Checkmate, or one of those endgame studies other books cover. In reality, you will see that the endgame you will get by far the most are rook endgames and king and pawn endgames, which are greatly covered in this book. You will really learn ideas that win you the game, rather than theoretical wins that only become significant at a higher level.
6. Logical Chess: Move by Move - Irving Chernev
Why this book is useful
With, just like Silman's book, a 4.7 out of 5 rating with nearly 1500 reviews on Amazon, this book is widely recognised as a great high-beginner book. Irving Chernev, who is a strong national master (Rated around 2200-2300), covers 33 games in complete detail, explaining every played move. This book mostly features strategic attacking plans, focusing less on tactics. What this basically means is that you will go from playing random moves without a plan, to playing moves with a long term reasoning. A chess.com review about this book mentions that it is like reading an action novel, watching the plans and counterplans of the two opponents. If you decide to buy this book, it is important that you do not blitz out moves. Instead, get a real chess board, and really think about every move that is played. A FIDE Master trainer on Reddit underlines how important it is to understand the moves, not just play them. I think that is the real difference between a beginner and an intermediate player. An intermediate player has a plan to work towards, while a beginner only is looking for tactics. If you feel like you got a feel for tactics and are ready to take the next step, this book is for you.
5. Play Winning Chess - Yasser Seirawan
Why this book is useful
With a 4.6 rating on Amazon, this book is great for beginners. It starts off with the basic movements of pieces, as well as the notation used. After that you will learn various basic tactics and strategies. The book is divided in certain topics, with quizzes and questions on the way to practise what you learned. A review mentioned: 'After this book, you'll know enough principles to actually analyze a chess board, even if it's only at a basic/beginner's level'. This means that you can objectively say which player has the better position, as well as making a plan based on that. The book breaks down 4 key points: Force(material count), time(Tempo, lead in development), space(control of the position, where to attack) and pawn structure(more important than often thought) Yasser Seirawan, the author, is a well-known grandmaster(The highest level a player can achieve). Seirawan's writing style is fun and lighthearted — he even suggests using a tape recorder as a chess clock with creative punishments for slow moves." It is fun and educational, what more do you want? I have read books by Yasser Seirawan, and I always enjoyed reading them. I strongly recommend this book to beginners who want to get a good foundation.
4. 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners - Franco Masetti
Why this book is useful
With a 4.6 rating on Amazon, this is a great book if you want to practise a lot. What stands out about this book, as the title suggests, is the enormous range of different tactical motifs, and the perfect amount of repetition(enough to make it stick, but not too much that it will bore you). It is mentioned in many reviews that it builds up in difficulty as you come further in the book, which makes it a perfect long term book. Tactics are by far the biggest part of chess games. A vast majority of beginner games are decided on tactics, so tactics are the most direct way to boost your win rate. For example, when I play against beginners, every game I win with a tactic like a fork, mate, discovered attack, you name it. If you were to use all the mistakes your opponents make, you would outsmart your opponents and climb in rating. If you want to have a detailed analysis of what is covered in the book, you can check out this page. It should be mentioned that the book is effective only if you know the basic rules, so don't buy it to learn how the pieces move.
3. Winning Chess Tactics - Yasser Seirawan
Why this book is useful
With a 4.6 out of 5 rating, this is another book by the famous grandmaster Yasser Seirawan. This time he developed a book which is purely focused on tactics. The thing with Yasser Seirawans books is that people always seem to enjoy reading them. I was scrolling to the reviews and there were so many reviews who praised how fun it was to read the books. I know what kind of difference it makes to have an enjoyable book. It is all about consistency, and consistency comes from the motivation to read the book. There is even a review, stating that his rating is about 1300, but without the book, his rating would be zero. Certain reviews highlight that it is a good follow up on Play Winning Chess. At the end of the book there is a test featuring everything you have learned in the book. A chess.com review stated that an important part of the book is sacrifices, and transforming complex positions to known tactical patterns. It also mentions that Winning Chess Tactics covers a number of games of tactical geniuses. However, don't expect to just fly through the book. The puzzles are made so that you really need to think about them, and that you will learn from them.
2. Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess
Why this book is useful
With a 4.5 out of five rating with nearly 10 000 reviews on Amazon, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is an excellent book to go through as a beginner. Disclaimer: The book is not actually written by Bobby Fischer, they just paid him to use his name. Nevertheless, it is a super good book as a beginner. As a review mentioned, it is like learning in a school like way. Instead of boring the reader with long texts, they show a diagram with a position and an ABC question, such as: is it mate in one? Then you check the answer and that's how you learn. It is really interactive, forcing you to think about diagrams rather than just reading. Others say it raised their interest and viewpoint of the game in a positive way. Especially for real beginners, this is the book for you. It has a heavy focus on back rank checkmate, as well as other important motifs. I know for a fact that beginners often get mated by back rank checkmates. They have a winning position, but then they make one mistake and oops, they got checkmated.
1. How to Win at Chess - Levy Rozman
Why this book is useful
With a 4.8 out of 5 rating with over 3000 reviews, I think this book deserves to be the number one. I have a number of reasons for that. First of all, it is written by Levy Rozman, more famously known as gothamchess. I always enjoy watching his videos, and many reviews pointing out that the style in the book is just like the videos, funny and enjoyable. He also put links and qr codes to videos in his books, which helps with getting a detailed explanation. Second of all, many reviews mentioned that is perfectly suitable for both absolute beginner players, and for players who are already comfortable with the game. That means that you can progress while reading the book, and use it for a long time. Lastly, in the first half of his book, he covers the key points of playing chess: openings, endings, tactics and strategy. This is the part for beginners (0-800). In the second half of the book, he builds upon these core skills, introducing concepts like zwischenzug (in between move) and the art of trading. The book also describes itself as: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond. A chess.com review mentioned that the book also dedicated 15 pages to the concept: Checks, Captures and Attacks. These are moves that forces the opponent to react to what you do, giving them no time to plan something for themself, giving you the initiative. I know how important this is. I am a 2000 rating player, and my chess coach still reminds me to look for Check, Captures and Attacks. My friend, who isn't very good at chess but likes the game, send a video of him playing with his dad, and asked me to give one tip. I said: on every move, think: can I check my opponent, can I capture something or can I attack something. This helped him improve significantly, especially with his tactical vision. I think all the concepts that are explained in the book have a direct impact on how you play the game. Therefore, if you are a beginner and you are looking for a good all-round chess book, I would give this as my main recommendation.
Best overall choice: If I could only recommend one to you, this one is the best all-round book in my opinion.
Which beginner chess book is best for you?
- If you are a beginner who struggles with the endgame and just wants to learn practical position that you will come across in real games, then Silman's Complete Endgame Course is the book for you
- If you are a high-beginner who wants to learn about strategy by studying beautiful games move by move, then Logical Chess: Move by Move is the book for you
- If you are an absolute beginner who is searching for a fun, easy to read book to learn the basics, then Play Winning Chess is the book for you
- If you are a beginner who knows how the pieces move, but struggles with tactics and need a lot of practise and variation, then 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners is the book for you
- If you are a beginner just read Play-Winning-Chess and you're looking for a follow-up, or you just want a fun easy to read tactic book, then Winning Chess Tactics is the book for you
- If you are a low beginner who often loses the game by playing a dumb move, and you want to actively learn with practise exercises, then Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is the book for you
- If you are between a beginner to low intermediate player and you want to get a great foundation from the famous Gothamchess, then How to Win at Chess is the book for you