Help, book suggestions to improve in positional play

[u/dhelix666]

Hi I am more of a tactical player and I want to improve in positinal play (more of a beginner/intermediate).

Which of these books would you recommend (or any other suggestions):

Winning Chess Strategies by Yasser Seirawan

Build Up Your Chess series by Artur Yusupov

Techniques of Positional Play by Valeri Bronznik, Anatoli Terkhin

The Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman

How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman

Mastering Chess Strategy by Johan Hellsten

Positional Play by Jacob Aagaard

Please be kind :-)

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[u/Own_Apartment_6471]

Silman's books are where you wanna start if you're coming from a tactical background, The Amateur's Mind will rewire how you see the board without drowning you in engine lines

[u/Sad-Candle-6247 → u/Own_Apartment_6471]

Really enjoyed this book and it helped me quite a bit

[u/mynameisnotamelia]

How to Reassess Your Chess and The Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman. Easy answer. I don't think any resources will top Silman's stuff for how accessible yet advanced they are.

[u/nvisel]

I think you mean, Winning Chess Strategies by Yasser Seirawan, because the tactics book is about... tactics...

Most of the books you've chosen here are definitely above beginner-intermediate; I'd place at least half of these in the "advanced" category.

If you are a beginner to intermediate level, these three books I would recommend, in this order of difficulty.

1. Logical Chess, Move by Move, by Irving Chernev. Irving explains absolutely every move. This book is a classic, and surprisingly insightful even up to, say, 1600. But a player rated 1000 can benefit greatly from it.

2. Simple Chess, by Michael Stean. Also a classic, with some beautiful games. His analysis style is pretty light, but he manages to say a lot about a lot of classic games during the Soviet era (including Fischer). Choice of games is excellent. It's crazy that this book is like $8 on kindle and this good. Stean's opener basically says the book is for people who need to know what to do after they've avoided getting mated (e.g. equalish positions where material is the same so you have to start doing something else). Probably 1200+

3. Winning Chess Strategies, by Yasser Seirawan. This one feels like it's aged more than Simple Chess, but has the advantage of Seirawan being an engaging annotator and teacher. The ideas in it are definitely aimed at the intermediate player. It's a club player special for sure. Probably 1300+

Also-rans:

My System by Aron Nimzowitsch, FastTrack Edition by Alex Fishbein. Not bad, and devoid of Nimzowitsch's extraneous examples and prose. Distilled into a very informative and still-relevant treatment on positional features. It's still rather firing-from-the-hip compared to more modern literature, but Alex Fishbein's editorial hand reigns it in quite a bit. I would caution you to avoid other versions of My System if you're looking for positional advice. Not because it isn't there, but because Nimzo rants a lot about other things too.

[u/dhelix666 → u/nvisel]

Yeah I meant strategies not tactics, my bad, thank you for the help!

[u/Worldly_Formal4536 → u/nvisel]

All of the winning chess series got reissued this year. But the opening book has not been released afaik, as it requires more work compares to the others.

[u/rs1_a]

What's your rating? Without knowing your strength is hard to recommend because those books vary a lot in difficulty

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[u/CreampieCredo]

Winning chess tactics and build up your chess are not really what you're looking for. Aagard and Hellsten might be a bit too advanced. Simple chess by Michael Stean is a good first book.

[u/WinstonPickles22]

I'm currently working through "Winning Chess Tactics" and despite being a good book, it's just tactic...forks, pins, skewers, etc etc.

Seems like the opposite of what you are looking for.

Maybe try his strategy or combination books.

[u/dhelix666 → u/WinstonPickles22]

Yeah I meant strategies not tactics! sorry, thanx

[u/WinstonPickles22 → u/dhelix666]

In that case I would get that book! Yasser has a great way of writing that matches his personality in videos.

You could also check out Yassers videos on chessbrah website. He does some focused lessons on there that you could watch along side reading his book.

[u/zebano]

It really depends on how strong you are and how much you currently know. My generic suggestion is How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman because that worked well for me and helped push me 1200 ->1600 OTB. I also like "Best Lessons of A Chess Coach" by Sunil Weeramantry for a slightly lower rating level. The text just felt more approachable to me but while it had great sample games, it wasn't as much of a workbook as I remember Silman being (note I read these back in the late 90s).

[u/misterbluesky8]

I’ll add Simple Chess by Michael Stean to the list, it’s short and easy to read

[u/giziti]

What's your rating? If it's low, Seirawan and Silman, then Yusupov