This is a list of books recommended by grandmasters.
The list is sorted according to the frequency of the number of times the books were recommended by grandmasters.
For each book you will find a list of which grandmasters have recommended it.
You can find the links to the original sources for each book and grandmaster by clicking on the link in the [square brackets].
And now without further ado here is the list:
My Great Predecessors by Garry Kasparov
The series of books is about chess history, which has been edited by world chess champion Garry Kasparov. The five volumes of the series are based on annotated games of the great players who preceded Garry Kasparov beginning with the first official World Chess Championship.
I grew up with Garry Kasparov’s book 'My Great Predecessors,' a bible for chess players, and I think that might be the reason why my intuition is so strong.
Recommended by: Magnus Carlsen [magnus2], Wang Hao [hao], Jan-Krzysztof Duda [duda], Vladimir Kramnik [kramnik], Jan Gustafsson [gustafsson], Boris Gelfand [gelfand].
Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953 by David Bronstein
The book by David Bronstein is about the second Candidates Tournament in Zurich in 1953.
As the runner-up, Bronstein gives in the book a unique perspective on the games of the tournament.
Without doubt Zurich 53 by Bronstein! That’s a totally unique book. Not only are the ideas described with words and not simply variations, but it was also unprecedented for a player at his level, number 2 or 3 in the world, to reveal his ideas like that, with great sincerity. It’s a deep and honest book.
Probably the best book for endgames.
Not only is the book mentioned by many grandmasters as one of their favourite books, but many grandmasters generally praise Dvoretsky as one of the best chess book authors.
Recommended by: Vladimir Kramnik [kramnik], David Navara [navara], Lê Quang Liêm [liem], Boris Gelfand [gelfand], Sam Shankland [shankland].
My 60 Memorable Games is a chess book published in 1969 in which the chess grandmaster and later world champion Bobby Fischer presents a selection of his games from the years 1957 to 1967.
My system is a chess textbook by Aron Nimzowitsch. It was originally published in 1925 and 1926.
The work is one of the early works on hypermodern chess and introduced many concepts which were new at the time.
Recommended by: Wesley So [so], Lê Quang Liêm [liem].
Tal-Botvinnik 1960: Match for the World Chess Championship by Mikhail Tal
At the 1960 World Chess Championship Mikhail Tal replaced Mikhail Botvinnik as World Chess Champion by winning the match against him.
This book is therefore a great insight into the match.
Recommended by: Yasser Seirawan [seirawan], Peter Svidler [svidler2].
Viswanathan Anand recommends the books of Capablanca [anand].
While Vidit Gujrathi is recommending the books of Garry Kasparov, Anand, Gelfand, Carlsen, Dvoretsky and Aagaard [vidit].
And even Anatoly Karpov says that the books of Garry Kasparov are good books [karpov].
About this list
I wanted to try to find out which is the best chess book.
Since I can’t read through hundreds of books and therefore can’t do this rating myself, I thought about how I can still figure out a rating.
And this gave me the idea to compile the reviews of grandmasters to find out which book was most often recommended by grandmasters.
As of course grandmasters are most concerned with chess they should have found out which is the best chess book.
And maybe it wouldn’t even be that far-fetched to assume that they have read hundreds of books.
I hope this list helps you as much as it helped me to find the next chess book to read.