Although it's not surprising that Silman is up there in terms of improvement, I wonder if the improvement is similar to the early gains that people have when weight-lifting. Often early on it's easy to make gains because there is so much that needs improvement that a solid guide makes a lot of difference.
I think Silman's books guide people from poor understanding of the game to competence. And that's a world of difference. And once you're at that level it becomes much harder to generalize advice to help people improve. Which is why some books for one person will be a revelation and for others will just be ho-hum.
The Amateur's Mind was the first book I read. I had just finished a period in my life with a lot of online games and I wanted a guide on being one of the best in my area. I learned a lot but came away disappointed because it wasn't a complete step by step guide to becoming a master. (Though the "Steps" series might be similar to what I was looking for it wasn't on my radar)
I don't think a single book can make a person a complete chess player but the right books at the right times can make a world of difference.
This is a really good point. Perhaps other interesting questions to ask would be "Which book most helped you reach your current playing level and which book are you currently reading that you believe will help you improve the most in the future?" Of course such convoluted questions would make for a less enticing blog post!
A book left out is Reuben Fine's Chess the Easy Way. A lot of players in the past who studied it got results with it and Chess Coaches always ask publishers to reprint. A Chess book doesn't have to be the size of a medical or law book. It will show the way, but the rest is up to the student to put the effort into doing.
I think it got two votes. Never seen it anywhere myself. Simple Chess shows that a slim book can rank high, so if you are looking for value per page that is the winner 😄
The list looks good. We have a lot of old books in because they have better explanations overall and simpler examples than modern books with lots of recent games and engine lines. Modern books are also less well known, although I'm sure many of them deserve as much praise as the old classics.
Although it's not surprising that Silman is up there in terms of improvement, I wonder if the improvement is similar to the early gains that people have when weight-lifting. Often early on it's easy to make gains because there is so much that needs improvement that a solid guide makes a lot of difference.
I think Silman's books guide people from poor understanding of the game to competence. And that's a world of difference. And once you're at that level it becomes much harder to generalize advice to help people improve. Which is why some books for one person will be a revelation and for others will just be ho-hum.
The Amateur's Mind was the first book I read. I had just finished a period in my life with a lot of online games and I wanted a guide on being one of the best in my area. I learned a lot but came away disappointed because it wasn't a complete step by step guide to becoming a master. (Though the "Steps" series might be similar to what I was looking for it wasn't on my radar)
I don't think a single book can make a person a complete chess player but the right books at the right times can make a world of difference.
That makes a lot of sense to me, and that is why people get nostalgic about the books that opened their eyes to what chess can be.
This is a really good point. Perhaps other interesting questions to ask would be "Which book most helped you reach your current playing level and which book are you currently reading that you believe will help you improve the most in the future?" Of course such convoluted questions would make for a less enticing blog post!
A book left out is Reuben Fine's Chess the Easy Way. A lot of players in the past who studied it got results with it and Chess Coaches always ask publishers to reprint. A Chess book doesn't have to be the size of a medical or law book. It will show the way, but the rest is up to the student to put the effort into doing.
I think it got two votes. Never seen it anywhere myself. Simple Chess shows that a slim book can rank high, so if you are looking for value per page that is the winner 😄
The list looks good. We have a lot of old books in because they have better explanations overall and simpler examples than modern books with lots of recent games and engine lines. Modern books are also less well known, although I'm sure many of them deserve as much praise as the old classics.