There are all valid points, which might even lead us to the conclusion that chess opening books should be avoided altogether. A tool like Chessbase is more helpful and relevant in tracking recent opening trends and being up to date with the state of the opening theory. Since opening theory changes fast, opening books get outdated quite quickly.Opening books are often not objective in the evaluations of the positions because it is easier to sell a book that „solves all your opening problems“ instead of the book that „finds certain lines problematic and urges the reader to analyze on his own and/or employ the variations at his own risk“.Opening books rarely take this into account. Tournament practice of 1700 rated player sees different 20% lines than the practice of a 2300 rated player. Moreover, the relevance of certain lines depends on the player’s rating.Opening books make it rather difficult to identify that 20 % of the lines. In practice, the Pareto principle is very much valid: 20% of the lines appears in 80% of the games. Chess opening books often don’t make a clear distinction between relevant and less relevant lines.But I have to say the article resonated a lot with me as Greg raised some very good points. Now, Greg is known to be very vocal about his controversial ideas (such as „speeding up“ the World Championship Cycle). IM Greg Shahade – always outspoken and controversial with his opinions The premise of the article is that the majority of the chess opening books is useless.
Quite recently, I stumbled upon an old article by International Master (and current Pro Chess League Commissioner) Greg Shahade dedicated to the topic of chess opening books. THE ROLE AND PURPOSE OF CHESS OPENING BOOKS? What is the role and purpose of chess opening books?“.Aren’t technological tools like databases worthy alternatives?.Aren’t there many problems connected with their quality, presentation of material and the fact they get outdated rather quickly?.„ Are chess opening books worth it at all?.However, before we get to the actual list, I’d like to digress a bit and provide my answer to some questions that have been irking me for quite some time and that is getting more and more relevant in the day and era of technology:
Below, you will find the list of best chess opening books (divided by the opening they cover). This is what I will try to do in the upcoming months (years?!). This is when I got the idea that perhaps it would be helpful if somebody 4 tried to solve this problem by creating an overview of best chess opening books and divided them on the basis of the opening they cover. I also realized it may be also a problem for other players – especially beginners new to the game, who have even less experience with chess books and find it even harder to orientate themselves among the vast amount of information we get bombarded on a daily basis. I realized that, if I had this problem with the opening books about the Grünfeld, I’d probably have it with other openings I am interested in.
But the whole episode made me realize that the navigation through the chess opening literature can often be difficult and confusing, due to the reasons mentioned above (differentiating good from bad books and finding a book on a specific line you are interested in). We did manage to detect a worthy resource. I had to seek help from more experienced (and stronger) players. It was very difficult to find a good resource and to start studying it. However, as I started searching, I realized finding a good Grünfeld book for is not so straightforward, to begin with (especially from White perspective), let alone finding a good Grünfeld book on a specific line (which was not even one of the main-lines in this particular instance).Īs someone who has never played the Grünfeld with either colour, I have never followed which books about this opening have been released throughout the years. I remember saying something condescending 3 and patronizingly explaining to him there are these beautiful tools called Chessbase and chess books and embarked on a quick Google search to find a good book about the variation at hand. „Vjeko, how exactly do I „work“ on my chess? How do I even begin studying an opening or a certain line?“ We started talking about a certain line of the Grünfeld defence (for White) he was interested in 2 and he half-jokingly asked me: He is one of those guys who have an innate talent for the game, yet who never got down to study chess seriously (or who at least claim so), but who recently got the motivation to improve his game.