Chess Reading List

This is my chess reading list, from board geometry and piece coordination through positional play, endgames, and calculation. Read in order, alongside slow games, tactical exercises, and analysis of your own games.

1. Board Geometry and Piece Coordination

• Ilya Maizelis: The Soviet Chess Primer
  • Learn: piece movement, board geometry, development, center control, king safety, tactics, pawn structure, and basic endgames.

2. Annotated Complete Games

• Irving Chernev: Logical Chess: Move by Move
  • Learn: development, tempo, castling, exchanges, open files, and converting small advantages.

3. Tactical Motifs

• Martin Weteschnik: Chess Tactics from Scratch
  • Learn: forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, overloaded defenders, deflection, attraction, interference, clearance, and zwischenzug.

4. Positional Evaluation

• Michael Stean: Simple Chess
  • Learn: weak squares and pawns, outposts, open files, space, bishop quality, piece activity, and exchanges.

5. Pawn Structures and Plans

• Mauricio Flores Rios: Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide
  • Learn: isolated and hanging pawns, Carlsbad, French, King's Indian, Benoni, Maroczy Bind, Hedgehog, Slav, and Sicilian structures.
  • Study typical pawn breaks, piece placement, exchanges, and endgame transitions for each structure.

6. Practical Endgames

• Jeremy Silman: Silman’s Complete Endgame Course
  • Learn: opposition, key squares, king activity, pawn races, passed pawns, triangulation, zugzwang, rook activity, Lucena and Philidor positions, and minor-piece endings.

7. Imbalances and Planning

• Jeremy Silman: How to Reassess Your Chess
  • Learn: material, pawn structure, space, minor-piece quality, weak squares, files, diagonals, initiative, and king safety. Build plans from these differences.

8. Strategic Decision-Making

• Boris Gelfand: Positional Decision Making in Chess
  • Learn: tension, prophylaxis, restriction, exchanges, pawn decisions, and transforming advantages.

9. Advanced Endgame Theory

• Mark Dvoretsky: Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual
  • Learn: precise pawn, rook, and minor-piece endings, fortresses, corresponding squares, zugzwang, and theoretical wins and draws.
  • Use after the basic endgames are familiar, then keep as a reference.

10. Calculation

• Jacob Aagaard: Grandmaster Preparation: Calculation
  • Learn: candidate moves, forcing moves, visualization, long variations, quiet tactics, and evaluating resulting positions. Solve without moving the pieces.