A good chess book?

[Toonces]

Hello all.

I know the basics of Chess but I'd like to find a good book that teaches you how to play good Chess, from the fundamentals through the mid-level.  Like a complete Chess book.

I looked at Barnes and Noble today but the closest I saw to what I wanted was Chess for Dummies and I'm hoping for something a bit more substantial.  I couldn't find one that assumed you didn't really know the basics. 

Obviously Amazon has tons of books to choose from, but I'm hoping for a Grogheads recommendation before I wade in.  Any help is appreciated!

[Toonces]

This one looks like it could be what I'm looking for:  http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Chess-John-Nunn-ebook/dp/B007MQN6P6/ref=pd_cp_kstore_0

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I've found chess books very dull. I could not bring myself to memorize openings for example.  You might find the training in chessmaster more enjoyable.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Thx for making me look at new titles. I found this which seems to have a good process from scanning through.

[Toonces]

Cool- thanks for the heads up.

It turns out my library has a couple of very old chess books so I'm working through a couple of those.  I'm definitely going to need more better books if I decide I'm really into this, though.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

What got you going? Did your bright kid wax you?

[GDS_Starfury]

she waxed his ass like he waxes a surf board.

[JasonPratt]

Back when I was trying to get better at the game in college, my favorite teaching book was "Chess Traps, Pitfalls and Swindles", written by A. Horowizt back in... 1954, if Amazon can be believed. They have a number of editions.

http://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=chess%20traps%20pitfalls%20and%20swindles&sprefix=Chess+Traps%2Cstripbooks%2C250

It assumes you know very basically what each piece does, but despite the title it's an excellent introduction to thinking ahead in planning what you're trying to do, both short term and long term. I suck worthlessly at chess, and I've forgotten practically everything I learned from the book, but while I had the concepts in mind my game improved significantly.

Very much a Groggy chess book. :)

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Back when I was trying to get better at the game in college, my favorite teaching book was "Chess Traps, Pitfalls and Swindles", written by A. Horowizt back in... 1954, if Amazon can be believed. They have a number of editions.

http://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=chess%20traps%20pitfalls%20and%20swindles&sprefix=Chess+Traps%2Cstripbooks%2C250

It assumes you know very basically what each piece does, but despite the title it's an excellent introduction to thinking ahead in planning what you're trying to do, both short term and long term. I suck worthlessly at chess, and I've forgotten practically everything I learned from the book, but while I had the concepts in mind my game improved significantly.

Very much a Groggy chess book. :)

I had the same book!

[GDS_Starfury]

now we know what Toonces needs.

[vyshka]

Better than that is Patrick Wolff's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess. At one point Patrick was one of the better players in the US. Yasser Seirawan has a series of books that were originally printed by Microsoft and are now published by Everyman Chess that are pretty good. To learn about mating patterns, Murray Chandler's How to Beat Your Dad at Chess is good. Jeremy Silman's books are good, but are probably best tackled after some other things. If you do get into it, break down and learn to read Descriptive Notation in addition to Algebraic. There are a lot of older books that are available through Dover, or used that were never re-published in Algebraic.

* vyshka looks at his chess book collection, considers posting a picture, and hangs his head in shame

Edit: I haven't read Nunn's book listed above, but anything he writes is usually really well done and I have a number of his other books.

[GDS_Starfury]

Toonces need something along the lines of King to Kings level 3 o'clock.