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KOSTYA'S RECOMMENDATIONSand links

Chess Fundamentals

Ilya Mazelis - The Soviet Chess Primer (0 - 1800)

Irving Chernev - Logical Chess Move by Move (0 - 1800)

Irving Chernev - The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played (1000 - 1800)
John Nunn - Understanding Chess Move by Move (1500 - 2000)

John Watson - Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy (1600 - 2000)
R.B. Ramesh - Fundamental Chess: Logical Decision Making (1400-2200) 

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Tactics & Calculation

Susan Polgar - Learn Chess The Right Way (5 books, 0 - 1400)
Alburt & Palatnik - Tactics for the Tournament Player (1200 - 2000)
Vladimir Vuckovic - The Art of Attack (1400 - 2200)
Spielmann & Muller - The Art of Sacrifice in Chess (1400 - 2200)
Maxim Blokh - Combinative Motifs (1400 - 2200)
Smith & Tikkanen - The Woodpecker Method (1600 - 2400)
Jacob Aagaard - Excelling at Chess Calculation (1800 - 2200)
Volokitin & Grabinsky - Perfect Your Chess (2200+)

Chessking software/apps (PC, Apple, Android) - Tactics For Beginners, CT-Art (1400-1600), and CT-Art 4.0 to name a few but there are many others.

 

Middlegame Play
Jeremy Silman - Reassess Your Chess, 4th edition (1200 - 1800)
Johan Hellsten - Mastering Chess Strategy (1400 - 2200)
Mauricio Flores Rios - Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide (1600 - 2200)
Alexey Suetin - A Contemporary Approach to the MIddlegame (1800 - 2200)
Israel Gelfer - Positional Chess Handbook (1800 - 2200)
Landa & Sakaev - The Complete Manual of Positional Chess 1 & 2 (2000 - 2400)
Boris Gelfand - Positional Decision Making in Chess & Dynamic Decision Making in Chess (2000+)

 

Endgame Play

Jeremy Silman - Complete Endgame Course (0 - 2200)
Mikhail Shereshevsky - Endgame Strategy (1200 - 2200)

Johan Hellsten - Mastering Endgame Strategy (1400 - 2200)
Jesus de la Villa - 100 Endgames You Must Know (1200 - 2400)
Mark Dvoretsky - Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual (2200+)

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Openings

Quality Chess - GM Repertoire series (1800+)
Chess24/Chessbase/Chessable courses (level greatly varies)

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Series of Books - (for players who want a structured training program)
Yasser Seirawan - Winning Chess (1000-1600)
Artur Yusupov - Build Up Your Chess/Boost Your Chess/Chess Evolution (1400-2200)

Jacob Aagaard - Excelling at Chess (1800-2200)
Mark Dvoretsky - School of Chess Excellence & School for Future Champions (2100+)
Jacob Aagaard - Grandmaster Preparation (2200+)

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Game Collections (suitable for all levels with the exception of Kasparov)

Mikhail Tal - Life and Games of Mikhail Tal
Bobby Fischer - My 60 Memorable Games
Alexei Shirov - Fire on Board 1 & 2
Vladimir Kramnik - My Life and Games
Garry Kasparov - My Great Predecessors I-V & Kasparov on Kasparov 1-3 (1800+)
Simen Agdestein - Wonderboy Magnus Carlsen 

KOSTYA'S BOOKS

DAVID'S RECOMMENDATIONSand links

Game Collections

My Life and Games by Tal

Test of Time by Kasparov

My Best Games of Chess 1908-1937 by Alekhine

Chess Praxis by Nimzovitsch

100 Selected Games by Botvinnik

My 60 Memorable Games by Fischer

Fire on Board by Shirov

Chess is my Life by Korchnoi

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Bronstein

 

Tournament/Match Books

Tal-Botvinnik 1960 by Tal

New York 1924 by Alekhine

Zurich 1953 by Bronstein

 

The March of Ideas

Modern Ideas in Chess (1000+) by Reti 

My Great Predecessors (1800+) by Kasparov

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Psychology/Self-Improvement

The Seven Deadly Sins by Rowson

The Road to Chess Improvement by Yermolinsky

The Art of Learning by Waitzkin

 

Tactics

https://www.chess.com/puzzles (0+)

Chess 5534 Problems (0+) by Polgar

 

Openings

Grandmaster Preparation (1400+) by Lev Polugaevsky

Winning Quickly at Chess (1400+) by Iakov Neishtadt

*Avoid* “winning with the blah” or “play the blah”

Development (0+) by Pruess

 

Endgames

Endgame Strategy (1200+) by Shereshevsky

Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual (2200+) by Dvoretsky

Endgame Studies 101 by Kavutskiy 

 

Middlegame

Winning Chess Strategy (1200-1600) by Seirawan and Silman

My System (1400+) by Nimzovitsch

The Art of the Middlegame (1400+) by Keres and Kotov

Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy (1600+) by Watson

Small Steps to Giant Improvement (1400+) by Shankland

 

Fiction/Fun

Lisa by Jesse Kraai

The Queen’s Gambit by Netflix

Searching for Bobby Fischer (book and movie) by Waitzkin

Child of Change by Kasparov

Chess for Tigers by Simon Webb

David's Books
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