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What's a good book to (re)learn chess fundamentals?
Most people online seem to favor a practical approach to learning chess, but I tend to prefer something more structured, with a bit of theory, concepts, and explanations. I'd also rather use my physical board instead of an app. I already know how to play chess, but I'd like to give it another good and see if I can achieve a higher level than before, starting from the beginning. Any suggestions?
Tangentially related, but I have some friends who are fairly high elo and what they've told me is in the beginning what they did was just grind through a bunch of chess puzzles to develop that intuition, especially in the mid to late phases in the game, that can take a while to develop just playing games.
It's like drilling specific parts of sports during practice.
Yeah, absolutely. The thing about just grinding puzzles, though, is that it is really boring. I'd rather remind myself of a few abstract principles, have a better general view, and use the puzzles apps as extra training. Thanks.
Do you know what styles of puzzles your friends used?
Are auto-generated puzzles like on lichess helpful?
I think so- Lichess' puzzles roughly increase in difficulty in tandem with your ability level, though when you solve/fail to solve the puzzle it doesn't walk you through the steps of the solution the way some teaching books do.
There are some videos of expert players who play against novice players, and while the novice player is thinking through the next move, the expert player maps out the best play and their likely response.
It's not what you asked for, but I personally find books harder to follow than something visual.
Thanks, appreciate it. I'm better with books myself.
I always liked Bruce Pandolfini's books....
Cool. Any book in particular?
I used to play thru his Chessercizes books, and he has a lot of books either targeting beginners or specific aspects of the game.
I've never read it, but his Ultimate Guide sounds like what you're looking for.