I wondered what a reading list based on the 16 world champions would look like. The 25 books in the slideshow probably contain approximately 1,800 games. I imagine that a person who actually studied all of them could not avoid reaching a playing strength of international standard.
Although chess is lucky to have a rich written legacy from its lineage of champions, it is a shame that there are deficiencies in the list. For instance, there is no definitive book on Spassky, and Euwe's book on his own games has been out of print for 30+ years.
Although chess is lucky to have a rich written legacy from its lineage of champions, it is a shame that there are deficiencies in the list. For instance, there is no definitive book on Spassky, and Euwe's book on his own games has been out of print for 30+ years.
I've read only 1.5 of the books in the slideshow: Capablanca's Best Endings by Chernev and Alekhine's My Best Games 1924-1937-- though I've read portions of Lasker's Manual and Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals. I've also read The Art of Attack by Vukovic, which is essentially a treatise on the middlegame methods of Capablanca and Alekhine. (Vukovic wrote that no master up to the time of publication, 1965, contributed anything to his subject that was not already fully developed by Capablanca and Alekhine!)
I can also give honorable mention to other worthy books along the same lines:
I can also give honorable mention to other worthy books along the same lines:
- Beim, Paul Morphy: A Modern Perspective
- Spielmann, The Art of Sacrifice
- Keres, Road to the Top & Quest for Perfection
- Bronstein, Sorcerer's Apprentice
- Larsen, Master of Counter-Attack
- Korchnoi, My Best Games
- Marin, Learn from the Legends
- Kasparov, MGP series
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