Attacking chess for club players: improve your skills to overpower your opponents / Herman Grooten. 794.12 G876
Another generous gift from the estate of Jeremy Silman. In this book, Grooten presents techniques for experienced club players to enhance their game. He uses an analysis of middle game positions to explain advanced concepts (or rather, explain the greater complexities of concepts you already know). Grooten includes 106 exercises with additional analysis in the solutions. Not intended for beginners.
Studies for practical players: improving calculation and resourcefulness in the endgame / Mark Dvoretsky & Oleg Pervakov; foreword by Jan Timman. 794.124 D98s
Dvortetsky's books are a favorite with Mechanics Institute Chess players. This one, co-written with Oleg Pervakov, is his latest to come out in English translation. (Book 2 of this set, with the subtitle "improving important endgame concepts," is due out in February.) These studies allow players to practice the lessons taught in his previous books.
Match for the World Chess Championship, Mikhail Botvinnik - David Bronstein, Moscow 1951 / Mikhail Botvinnik. 794.159 B75m
Botvinnik retained his world championship status by drawing Bronstein in this match. Behind at the end of the 22nd game, he won the 23rd, then with his draw in the 24th, he retained his title. In this now-out-of-print book, Botvinnik provides detailed commentary and analysis of his games. We are fortunate to have been given such a fine copy of this book. Thank you Kenneth Hills!
Winning chess openings / Yasser Seirawan. 794.122 S46
Seirawan has received high praise from club members who feel that reading his books has resulted in a noticeable improvement in their games. Written for beginners, this book will help those trying to pick out an opening that best suits their style of play.
Mikhail Tal: the street-fighting years / Alexander Koblenz; translated from Russian by Alexei Zakharov. 794.15 T13ko
To say "street-fighting" regarding a chess champion is curious, but the title of this classic (first published in 1963) refers to Tal's early games. The book includes 77 of these games annotated by Koblenz, who served as Tal's long-term coach and second.
Perpetual chess improvement: practical chess advice from world-class players and dedicated amateurs / Ben Johnson; forward by GM Ben Finegold. 794.1 J661
Perpetual Chess Podcast host, USCF Master Ben Johnson has compiled some of his favorite stories told by a wide variety of guests to his show. Along with advice on how to approach and study different aspects of the game including openings, endgames, tournament games, and speed chess, he also includes information on finding a chess coach and a like-minded chess community. Additionally, he also recommends the best ways to use the powerful chess study tools available today.
The world's most instructive amateur game book / Dan Heisman. 794.1 H473w
Here’s a book for the intermediate players. Heisman analyzes 30 games by intermediate players and offers guidance on improvement. The positions you find in this book will likely resemble the positions you will encounter in the under 1600 tier of a tournament. The study of the brilliant games of grandmasters of yesteryear is always helpful, but it’s also beneficial to learn from the mistakes of players at the same level as you.
Theoretical rook endgames / Sam Shankland; edited by Jeremy Hart. 794.124 S528
In January 2024, the Mechanics Institute had the good fortune to host one of our members, Sam Shankland, for a book signing and chess presentation. Sam is well known in the chess community and we had a strong turnout for the event. All copies of Sam's books sold out. That's not surprising given he has proven to be a brilliant teacher as shown on his DVD (also in the MI library) The Shankland Method. DVD 794.1 S528
