Recommended Chess Books
Books current WCC committee members have enjoyed and recommend, grouped by where you are in your chess. We’re not endorsed by, affiliated with, or paid by any of these authors or publishers, these are just the books that have helped us. If a book that helped you isn’t here, send it to illawarrachess@gmail.com and we’ll add it.
Beginner
Play Winning Chess, by Yasser Seirawan
The friendliest possible introduction to the four principles every strong player learns early: force, time, space, pawn structure. It even starts by setting out the rules of the game from scratch, so it suits absolute beginners who have never played a serious game, as well as anyone who learned the rules years ago and never built on them. Easy to read, with clear diagrams. If you only read one chess book this year, this is it.
- Best for:
- Complete beginners, even if you have never played a full game. The book teaches the rules of chess from scratch before anything else.
- Anyone rated under 1200.
- Anyone who has never been taught chess principles formally.
Winning Chess Tactics, by Yasser Seirawan
The follow-up to Play Winning Chess. Walks through the tactical motifs (pins, forks, skewers, discovered attacks, double attacks, deflection, decoy) in the same plain style. Every chapter ends with positions to solve, increasing in difficulty. It finishes with full sample games full of tactics from some of the world’s most famous players, including Kasparov.
- Best for:
- Players rated under 1500 (U1500).
- Anyone who knows how the pieces move and wants to start spotting combinations.
- Why it matters:
- Roughly 90% of games under 1500 are decided by tactics.
- Pattern recognition is the fastest rating gain a club player can make.
Intermediate
Chess Structures: A Grandmaster’s Guide, by Mauricio Flores Rios
A pawn-structure-first approach to the middlegame. Each chapter takes one named structure (Caro-Kann formation, IQP, Hedgehog, etc.) and walks through the typical pawn breaks, piece placements, and where each side wants to attack. Best read after you’ve got basic tactics down. It bridges “I can spot a fork” and “I know what plan to follow when there are no tactics on the board.”
- Best for:
- Players around 1500 to 2000 who want to think more strategically.
- Why it matters:
- Most club games at the 1500 to 1900 level are decided by who chose the right plan, not who saw the deepest tactic.