Something funny about BF Teaches Chess: i am working with chess beginners since 23 years, and the only book that students work from cover to cover or at least consistently over weeks was this book. With only one diagram per page and no need to learn the notation it is easy to go through. And it is not bad for absolute beginners - at least they learn backrank mates 😅
The version of My System (21st Century edition) I saw has an introduction by Seirawan! "It is with the greatest of pleasure that I write the introduction to this edition of Aron Nimzowitsch's classic, My System. The effect of Nimzowitsch's writings and play has had a profound impact on chessplayers since his chess careeer began in 1904." ... "It is a book that provokes you to think differently about chess. It challenges you to consider a different approach and urges you to prove or refute Nimzowitsch's ideas. It is also a book that you can read and reread, each time coming away with different lessons and insights, leading to a deeper understanding of the game."
I find a few classic books missing: Modern ideas in chess - Richard Reti Zurich 53 - Michael Najdorf The Middlegame - Max Euwe World Chess Championship 1948 - Paul Keres Keres' best chess game - Paul Keres Masters of the Chessboard - Richard Reti Dynamic Chess Strategy - Mihail Suba Endgame virtuoso - Vassily Smyslov Bent Larsen’s Best Games - Bent Larsen The Art of Analysis - Jan Timman Chess Middlegame Planning - Peter Romanovsky Kombinationen - Kurt Richter Mastering Chess Middlegames - Alexander Panchenko Modern Chess Strategy - Ludek Pachman Lasker's Manual of Chess - Emmanuel Lasker The Art of Sacrifice - Rudolf Spielmann
Have you thought of doing a Dojo Talks about My System? I see so many arguments about it - is it a perfect first book on positional chess? Is it for experts only? What does it have that's still unique when there are so many other books on positional chess? Is "overprotection" actually a thing? Is "discovered check" really one of the eight key elements of chess strategy? Is it the greatest chess book ever written, or should it be banned, like Nigel Short says? It might be good to hear it broken down in detail. For my part I kind of agree with Kostya in that I find that reading it is like panning for gold. I get the occasional flash of insight, but also spend a lot of time just sifting through stuff that just seems completely irrelevant or unhelpful - like metaphors that are harder to understand than the points that they're illustrating, or terminology that he doesn't really define, or long explanations of how revolutionary his ideas are and why everyone else is wrong.
I am confused about Think Like a Grandmaster. Everyone simplifies it only to calculation trees and never checking second time. But Kotov covered many more topics and his book is actually awesome. Maybe the problem is with translations - he actually written series of books Think Like a GM, Play like a GM etc. I had translation in Polish where they were merged and some topics were shortened. Maybe most valuable parts are in other volumes. But his books basically says that GM must practice 4 essential skills - evaluating positions, finding plans, finding tactical motives and calculation. It remains true during opening, middlegame and ending. He provides many examples and excercises. He introduced candidate moves technique, he emphasized how evaluation impacts the decisions. He covered learning openings by ideas, not move by move. He even covered topics like handling time trouble, daily regime during tournaments, when to sacrifice for initiative and when not. Some aspect of the game covered by Kotov are not analyzed elsewhere and still he is constantly criticized for one thing - calculation trees.
Brazilian players will rate Ludek Pachman’s trilogy on strategy as very high. The book is great, but I think the reason why this book is considered great in Brazil is because there were not a lot of good books on strategy published in Portuguese in the 1970s and 80s.
I suppose I'm an old timey person but I LOVED reading 'My System'. The Old world writing and humor weren't lost on me. As an intermediate player I find Silman to be more of a TEACHER than many GMs, who's comments are often over my head, even the ideas that are 'simple' and 'basic' to them just doesn't come across to me at all. When I was a plateaued advanced beginner someone suggested "Logical Chess Move By Move" and that one really sraightened some improper thinking that was holding me back. With these books my progress was steady from then on.
Lol my copy of ‘my system’ has an introduction by Yasser Serawain. It is strange to hear that he would not actually like the book as he speaks very highly of it in this intro.
It's interesting that you don't rate Chernev's Logical Chess highly at all, but you put his less well known book about Capablanca's endings in your training program. You must rate his endings book much higher!
I am with Kostya about "My System", I rather prefer much more "Chess Praxis" ...and I am definitely not a millenial...::)) No doubt whatsoever that Nimzowitsch was one of the real seminal genius of modern chess, perhaps the greatest
Sielecki’s criticized Zürich a lot. He said that a lot of key positions are not mentioned. He showed some random examples and it was really weird. Sielecki didn’t use engines in his review, only his knowledge as an IM.
There is a book on Zürich 1953 written by Euwe, with opening analysis by Keres. It is interesting to go through a game by reading first one of the books, and afterwards again with the other one. Afterwards you can go again using an engine to see if both guys get the critical positions.
Great video. At the end you mention a lot of less famous but nonetheless great books that weren't considered. How about a similar discussion on this sort of book. A pre-2000 "Solid, Underappreciated Chess Books" list?
48:07 As a Russian, the way David pronounced it the first time is far closer to what it should be. For sure it's not "Alyoshin". Though it does not compare to what English transliteration did to Nepomniachtchi (dear god, how did you come up to spell it that way)
Great discussion! Btw the Mar Del Plata variation of the KID *is* in Zurich 1953 (Taimanov vs. Najdorf) and comes from the Mar Del Plata tournament earlier that year.
RE: Endgame Strategy. Dvoretsky writes about it in the intro to his own endgame manual . IIRC he writes Shereshevsky based the book on a series of lectures that Mark had presented at seminars w/ his permission so I presume it's mark's examples and shereshevsky's writing. Dvoretsky also recommends the book in the afterward section of the endgame manual where he gives his thoughts on a wide variety of endgame titles. I have Endgame Strategy coming in the mail, it will be interesting to see what Shereshevsky writes in the intro.
While I would watch such a video, I feel there is far too much emphasis placed on this. I would find a greatest games or greatest matches list much more interesting.
re Tal-Botvinnik 1960, does anyone know whether the serious translation issues pointed out at www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R30ONC0A3ANR8F/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1941270425 have been corrected in the most recent edition? To be honest if we're discussing Tal's books I much prefer 'The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal' for "a good read", while for instruction value I think Nunn's book about Lasker, Anand's games collection and all of Franco's 'Move by Move' books are hard to beat.
I can see that it's really hard to rank books that may be very different from each other in many ways. For example, I like roast beef and I like blueberries, but how to rank them?
I have no idea why none of you even consider Laszlo Polgar's Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games, first printed in 1994, or The Soviet Chess Primer (simply Chess in Russian) by Maizelis. There is no need for a beginner to intermediate to buy much else.
David (On Kostya rating Art of Attack highly): I guess you should just be glad the millennial has read a book. Also David: Born in 1981. Interesting, I wonder what the cutoff date for being a millennial is... oh yea it's 1981!
@@scotthader705 lol. that was a joke on Jesse, not a joke on millenials. Interestingly, I never knew what a millenial was until just now, only that Jesse always talks about them.
To quote: Reuters also states that millennials are "widely accepted as having been born between 1981 and 1996." So IM Preuss, congratulations, you are a millennial as well, a borderline one, but still a millennial. :P
This was awesome it was so much fun to watch. You guys made me laugh so many times with the millennials comments. I could watch this for hours. I can't wait until the next book list comes. Shame Kostya was not there I hope he is doing well. Great stuff indeed!
It's amazing how divided strong players are with My System. People like GM Kraai think it's the best book ever. Some GMs are meh. Then there's GM Short who says, "'My System' is considered one of the greatest books of all time. I've no idea why."
I prefer to follow the suggestions of great coaches and writers like Dvoretsky, Yusupov and Aagaard, Who highly recommend "My System". In any case, reading and working with the book is the only way to have an informed opinion.
I never really 'got' Bronstein's 1953 book. He does a great job annotating, but only when he feels the spirit move him. He glosses over any number of interesting games.
Your rankings reflect your chess ratings. I don't have the Kasparov book. Four of your top five books are books with complete games only. They're all meant for advanced or higher players. I don't see the usefulness of your book rankings. You should have different lists for beginners, intermediate, and advanced players.
The guys were just trying to rank what they thought are the best classic chess books :) Good suggestion regarding making a separate list for beginner & intermediate players!
Hmmmm not slam the audience?! Thats the problem with Millennials, don't hurt their feelings, give out participation medals etc etc. He is giving them a taste of the real world. Keep in mind, this is about chess. If THEY can't handle this they won't be able to function in the real world.
@@alpulley4894 well in the "real world" "grown ups" care about their customers and their audience. I was looking at it from a marketing perspective, you don't want to alienate potential viewers. I am glad that you and others like Jesse can "tongue and cheek" poke fun at other generations. But for a channel dedicated to chess improvement having a pretty fixed generational mindset might hinder and not enhance your content.
@@bradleyreese5156 yes don't alienate , coddle perhaps. Lol That's the problem, YOU are owed nothing. NOTHING. Choose what you want to view. If you don't like it or feel hurt find something else that nurtures the soft at heart. Jesse is only displaying humor. He isn't trying to hurt someone's feelings. Seriously what is the world coming to when you cannot joke around.
Something funny about BF Teaches Chess: i am working with chess beginners since 23 years, and the only book that students work from cover to cover or at least consistently over weeks was this book. With only one diagram per page and no need to learn the notation it is easy to go through. And it is not bad for absolute beginners - at least they learn backrank mates 😅
The version of My System (21st Century edition) I saw has an introduction by Seirawan! "It is with the greatest of pleasure that I write the introduction to this edition of Aron Nimzowitsch's classic, My System. The effect of Nimzowitsch's writings and play has had a profound impact on chessplayers since his chess careeer began in 1904." ... "It is a book that provokes you to think differently about chess. It challenges you to consider a different approach and urges you to prove or refute Nimzowitsch's ideas. It is also a book that you can read and reread, each time coming away with different lessons and insights, leading to a deeper understanding of the game."
I find a few classic books missing:
Modern ideas in chess - Richard Reti
Zurich 53 - Michael Najdorf
The Middlegame - Max Euwe
World Chess Championship 1948 - Paul Keres
Keres' best chess game - Paul Keres
Masters of the Chessboard - Richard Reti
Dynamic Chess Strategy - Mihail Suba
Endgame virtuoso - Vassily Smyslov
Bent Larsen’s Best Games - Bent Larsen
The Art of Analysis - Jan Timman
Chess Middlegame Planning - Peter Romanovsky
Kombinationen - Kurt Richter
Mastering Chess Middlegames - Alexander Panchenko
Modern Chess Strategy - Ludek Pachman
Lasker's Manual of Chess - Emmanuel Lasker
The Art of Sacrifice - Rudolf Spielmann
Have you thought of doing a Dojo Talks about My System? I see so many arguments about it - is it a perfect first book on positional chess? Is it for experts only? What does it have that's still unique when there are so many other books on positional chess? Is "overprotection" actually a thing? Is "discovered check" really one of the eight key elements of chess strategy? Is it the greatest chess book ever written, or should it be banned, like Nigel Short says? It might be good to hear it broken down in detail.
For my part I kind of agree with Kostya in that I find that reading it is like panning for gold. I get the occasional flash of insight, but also spend a lot of time just sifting through stuff that just seems completely irrelevant or unhelpful - like metaphors that are harder to understand than the points that they're illustrating, or terminology that he doesn't really define, or long explanations of how revolutionary his ideas are and why everyone else is wrong.
28:53 (Think like a Grandmaster)
There is an interview where Vishy Anand says almost those exact words: That's not how any grandmaster thinks!
where?
you guys set a new standard on chess book reviews. amazing!
Thanks!
I am confused about Think Like a Grandmaster. Everyone simplifies it only to calculation trees and never checking second time. But Kotov covered many more topics and his book is actually awesome. Maybe the problem is with translations - he actually written series of books Think Like a GM, Play like a GM etc. I had translation in Polish where they were merged and some topics were shortened. Maybe most valuable parts are in other volumes. But his books basically says that GM must practice 4 essential skills - evaluating positions, finding plans, finding tactical motives and calculation. It remains true during opening, middlegame and ending. He provides many examples and excercises. He introduced candidate moves technique, he emphasized how evaluation impacts the decisions. He covered learning openings by ideas, not move by move. He even covered topics like handling time trouble, daily regime during tournaments, when to sacrifice for initiative and when not. Some aspect of the game covered by Kotov are not analyzed elsewhere and still he is constantly criticized for one thing - calculation trees.
reading tournament books without knowing who won sounds like a toooonn of fun I gotta try that.
Brazilian players will rate Ludek Pachman’s trilogy on strategy as very high. The book is great, but I think the reason why this book is considered great in Brazil is because there were not a lot of good books on strategy published in Portuguese in the 1970s and 80s.
I suppose I'm an old timey person but I LOVED reading 'My System'. The Old world writing and humor weren't lost on me. As an intermediate player I find Silman to be more of a TEACHER than many GMs, who's comments are often over my head, even the ideas that are 'simple' and 'basic' to them just doesn't come across to me at all. When I was a plateaued advanced beginner someone suggested "Logical Chess Move By Move" and that one really sraightened some improper thinking that was holding me back. With these books my progress was steady from then on.
Lol my copy of ‘my system’ has an introduction by Yasser Serawain. It is strange to hear that he would not actually like the book as he speaks very highly of it in this intro.
Interesting! He's definitely railed about it on the STL broadcasts
Yall should do more of these. Loving it!
It's interesting that you don't rate Chernev's Logical Chess highly at all, but you put his less well known book about Capablanca's endings in your training program. You must rate his endings book much higher!
Spielmann Art of Sacrifice; Smyslov Endgame Virtuoso; Larsen Master of Counterattack
I am with Kostya about "My System", I rather prefer much more "Chess Praxis" ...and I am definitely not a millenial...::)) No doubt whatsoever that Nimzowitsch was one of the real seminal genius of modern chess, perhaps the greatest
Sielecki’s criticized Zürich a lot. He said that a lot of key positions are not mentioned. He showed some random examples and it was really weird. Sielecki didn’t use engines in his review, only his knowledge as an IM.
There is a book on Zürich 1953 written by Euwe, with opening analysis by Keres. It is interesting to go through a game by reading first one of the books, and afterwards again with the other one. Afterwards you can go again using an engine to see if both guys get the critical positions.
Great video. At the end you mention a lot of less famous but nonetheless great books that weren't considered.
How about a similar discussion on this sort of book. A pre-2000 "Solid, Underappreciated Chess Books" list?
great idea. best books you may not have heard of or not been told to read. i vote we do it.
What you think about Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy - John Watson ?
Wonderful stuff by two highly knowledgable and entertaining dudes
I really enjoy the book art of attack, the list turned out to be amazing
I'm also happy that tal was number 1, I love how he plays, so fearless
I didn't get much from either My System or Think like a GM. You mentioned Art of the Middle Game (Keres/Kotov) that should have been here.
I just purchased the number 1 of the list, Kindle version. Thanks for the video.
I mean, I purchased the book Tal vs Botvinnik, I thought it would make number 1 in your list 😮
48:07
As a Russian, the way David pronounced it the first time is far closer to what it should be. For sure it's not "Alyoshin". Though it does not compare to what English transliteration did to Nepomniachtchi (dear god, how did you come up to spell it that way)
Great discussion! Btw the Mar Del Plata variation of the KID *is* in Zurich 1953 (Taimanov vs. Najdorf) and comes from the Mar Del Plata tournament earlier that year.
Invented by Gligoric himself!
RE: Endgame Strategy. Dvoretsky writes about it in the intro to his own endgame manual . IIRC he writes Shereshevsky based the book on a series of lectures that Mark had presented at seminars w/ his permission so I presume it's mark's examples and shereshevsky's writing. Dvoretsky also recommends the book in the afterward section of the endgame manual where he gives his thoughts on a wide variety of endgame titles. I have Endgame Strategy coming in the mail, it will be interesting to see what Shereshevsky writes in the intro.
Art of the Middle Game was Keres and Kotov.
Jesse where do you rank Art of Attack? thanx
46:50 oh that’s actually my favorite book ever…I just forgot
Lol, that was hilarious
I have a copy of the 37th USSR Championships from 1969 writing in old notation I'm still trying to decode it....
Emanual laskers manual of chess?
I'm not precisely a Millenial but I think I saw a pdf copy of "The Best Move" somewhere in the internet if you are still interested. Great video!
Nice opening joke Jesse! Great selection of books! One or 2 more more to add to my library! 🤗
Also do read one of them, don't just keep them as library collection.
@@VK-pd8zz That's the hard part buddy!!!
Where can we listen to your discussion of the 6 schools of chess? You mention it in passing but it sounds very interesting.
It should be included in the Dojo Talks playlist, with special guest GM Eugene Perelshteyn
The fact that Lasker's manual of chess isn't on this list is disappointing. One of the best book ever written on chess.
Sorry! I guess we haven't read it
What? You haven't read Lasker?
What is your opinion on Tal's winning chess combinations by mikhail tal and victor khenkin?
guys do one on greatest chess players of all time list top 50
great suggestion!
While I would watch such a video, I feel there is far too much emphasis placed on this. I would find a greatest games or greatest matches list much more interesting.
Top 50 would take too much time
The King by Donner is the most entertaining book ever, but I might be biased.
I miss alot of wonderfull chess books like sheresevsky book, Ludek Pachman, Dvoretsky, Karpov, Keres, Tarrasch,
We mentioned Shereshevsky!
@@ChessDojo Yeah of course, but i wanted to refer this book: The Shereshevsky Method to Improve in Chess !!
Oh gotcha!
Yes a lot missing that are pretty popular if you ask people for their favorite classic
Both Botvinnik 100 Best&Alekhine's Best
are the intellectual equivalent of watching
Michael Jordan playing basketball
Great video!
What?
How to beat your dad at chess, by Murray Chandler.
You missed this classic? Scandalous!
The Kasparov book is worth soooo much online!!!!
Would it have been possible to duplicate the ones you had already adjusted the size of? May have been a bit easier.
I heard that Alekhine is pronounced as a facial expression because the translated letter pairs are silent.
It's A-lee-ehin
Is Tal Botvinik 1960 suitable for a 1600fide player?
yes!
Probably the best chess you tube channel and unique in it's own way.. Chess dojo Goat 💯❤️
Thanks so much!
Lipnitsky's is a jewel, I had the russian version until the english one fortunately appeared
Can you do a video on the school of Alekhine?
Jesse - FYI. Hort's book is on Amazon
I recently watched this RUclips video. Jesse are you still interested in "The Best Move" by Hort and Jansa? I have a copy let me know.
1953 for the win!
Just what I was searching for...thanks....
Jesse:
1-10 Test of time
I thought Chess Praxis was much more accessible than "My System"
re Tal-Botvinnik 1960, does anyone know whether the serious translation issues pointed out at
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R30ONC0A3ANR8F/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1941270425
have been corrected in the most recent edition?
To be honest if we're discussing Tal's books I much prefer 'The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal' for "a good read", while for instruction value I think Nunn's book about Lasker, Anand's games collection and all of Franco's 'Move by Move' books are hard to beat.
I can see that it's really hard to rank books that may be very different from each other in many ways. For example, I like roast beef and I like blueberries, but how to rank them?
Get 2 friends and have them rank roast beef and blueberries with you 😊
What do you guys think about "Python Strategy" by Petrosian?
Petrosian was the man!
Where is the art of the checkmate??
Hey Jesse, I'm not a millennial but I can send you that book by Hort! ;)
I have no idea why none of you even consider Laszlo Polgar's Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games, first printed in 1994, or The Soviet Chess Primer (simply Chess in Russian) by Maizelis. There is no need for a beginner to intermediate to buy much else.
Jesse is a big fan of 5334 and Kostya really likes the SCP 🙂
David (On Kostya rating Art of Attack highly): I guess you should just be glad the millennial has read a book.
Also David: Born in 1981.
Interesting, I wonder what the cutoff date for being a millennial is... oh yea it's 1981!
Haha, David is a Millennial!!
@@ChessDojo Somebody better break the news to Jesse that he's surrounded by millennials :)
@@scotthader705 lol. that was a joke on Jesse, not a joke on millenials. Interestingly, I never knew what a millenial was until just now, only that Jesse always talks about them.
This video would have been less easy to get lost on if you made each book bigger during its section.
1:00:00 it was at this moment, I knew Jesse was a troll
To quote:
Reuters also states that millennials are "widely accepted as having been born between 1981 and 1996."
So IM Preuss, congratulations, you are a millennial as well, a borderline one, but still a millennial. :P
About ,, test of time " from Garry , I got it in bulgarian for 3 euros :D
This was awesome it was so much fun to watch. You guys made me laugh so many times with the millennials comments. I could watch this for hours. I can't wait until the next book list comes. Shame Kostya was not there I hope he is doing well. Great stuff indeed!
I think you have the wrong book by Silman, not the workbook.
It's amazing how divided strong players are with My System. People like GM Kraai think it's the best book ever. Some GMs are meh. Then there's GM Short who says, "'My System' is considered one of the greatest books of all time. I've no idea why."
I prefer to follow the suggestions of great coaches and writers like Dvoretsky, Yusupov and Aagaard, Who highly recommend "My System". In any case, reading and working with the book is the only way to have an informed opinion.
Is it How to Reassess Your Chess or How to Reassess Your Chess Workbook? You say the first but show the second.
We were definitely referring to the main book, not the workbook
57:50 wait what David? Garry is no 2 all time? Who is no 1?
I think you can guess.
David Pruess no who is it? Fischer? Carlsen? Morphy?
@@averagejoe5016 I think Carlsen, yeah.
If David thinks Kasparov is the second greatest chess player of all time then who’s number one?
I never really 'got' Bronstein's 1953 book. He does a great job annotating, but only when he feels the spirit move him. He glosses over any number of interesting games.
Tal was only allowed one book - which got top place
Bobby didn't write Bobby Fischer teaches chess.
Your rankings reflect your chess ratings. I don't have the Kasparov book. Four of your top five books are books with complete games only. They're all meant for advanced or higher players. I don't see the usefulness of your book rankings. You should have different lists for beginners, intermediate, and advanced players.
The guys were just trying to rank what they thought are the best classic chess books :)
Good suggestion regarding making a separate list for beginner & intermediate players!
who are these commentators and what are their elo's?
55:36 funniest thing ever
Wdym it's amazingly funny
Come on you can't say it's not funny
Jesse let the Millennial thing go, if you want to grow your channel, perhaps you should not slam your audience.
It's all tongue-in-cheek.
Hmmmm not slam the audience?! Thats the problem with Millennials, don't hurt their feelings, give out participation medals etc etc.
He is giving them a taste of the real world. Keep in mind, this is about chess. If THEY can't handle this they won't be able to function in the real world.
@@alpulley4894 well in the "real world" "grown ups" care about their customers and their audience. I was looking at it from a marketing perspective, you don't want to alienate potential viewers. I am glad that you and others like Jesse can "tongue and cheek" poke fun at other generations. But for a channel dedicated to chess improvement having a pretty fixed generational mindset might hinder and not enhance your content.
@@bradleyreese5156 yes don't alienate , coddle perhaps. Lol
That's the problem, YOU are owed nothing. NOTHING.
Choose what you want to view. If you don't like it or feel hurt find something else that nurtures the soft at heart.
Jesse is only displaying humor. He isn't trying to hurt someone's feelings.
Seriously what is the world coming to when you cannot joke around.
@@alpulley4894 I am owed nothing but your amazing replies. Thank you for explaining how the world works. Go and make America great again. Good day.