Perpetual Chess Book Recommendations
As regular listeners know, I love chess books and often ask guests to recommend their favorites. In the early days of the podcast, I kept a list books recommended by guests that I updated regularly, but it grew so large that I stopped updating it. You can still see the old list of all books recommended by guests through 2019 here. For recommendations on more recent episodes please go to the show notes for each interview. In January of 2021, Dr, Patzer (creator of the excellent Patzer’s Review, book review blog) made a spreadsheet with the total number of recommendations per book. Check out the spreadsheet here.
I don’t always agree with my guests’ suggestions, so I also thought it might be helpful to make a list of my own favorite chess books for various experience levels. I have attempted to sort these books by level of difficulty within each rating range.
Please note that we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Lots of these books are also available on Chessable and other “e book” websites, so be sure to check for each book in your preferred format. Rating guidelines are approximate guesses!
A (Partial) List of Ben’s Favorite Chess Books
Note- ratings are meant to approximate USCF/FIDE ratings. To convert to Lichess rapid ratings you could add roughly 300 points to these ratings or try a rating converter like this one
New to Chess/Under 1000 - Learn to Play Chess Like a Boss, Everyone’s First Chess Workbook, Susan Polgar’s Learn Chess the Right Way Series, The Chess Steps Method (this series goes from beginner all the way to 2200 FIDE Level at Step 6), A First Book of Morphy
1000-1300 USCF rating- Logical Chess Move by Move, Chess: 5334 Combinations and Games, The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played
1300-1600 USCF rating- A Guide to Chess Improvement: The Best of Novice Nook, The Power of Pawns, Masters of the Chessboard, Practical Chess Exercises, Capablanca’s Best Chess Endings
1600-2000 USCF Rating- Simple Chess, Endgame Strategy, Mastering Chess Strategy, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, My 60 Memorable Games, How I Beat Fischer’s Record (plus Judit’s other books in the trilogy), Chess Tactics from Scratch, Chess for Life, The Mammoth Book of the World’s Greatest Chess Games, Chess for Zebras, Improve Your Chess Now
2000+ USCF Rating- Timman’s Titans, Chess Structures, Chess for Zebras, On the Origin of Good Moves, The Seven Deadly Chess Sins, Secrets of Practical Chess, Rewire Your Chess Brain, Under the Surface, Game Changer, Thinking Inside the Box, Positional Decision Making in Chess, Pump Up Your Rating
Books for Kids- Everyone’s First Chess Workbook, Winning Chess Strategies for Kids, Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids, Coach Jay’s Series
General Interest/Chess History/Culture- The Anand Files, Mind Master, Chess Queens, All The Wrong Moves, Searching for Bobby Fischer, The World Champions I Knew, Endgame, In Black and White
Here are a few of my chess books.