Learning chess
Mission statement
Section titled “Mission statement”Here I’ll be journaling my efforts to learn chess.
Initial purchases
Section titled “Initial purchases”Websites
Section titled “Websites”- Chess.com subscription
- Lichess.com account
- Listudy.com account
Basic library
Section titled “Basic library”-
Chess Steps manuals and all workbooks for levels 1 and 2
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Yasser Seirawan books
- Play Winning Chess
- Winning Chess Tactics
- Winning Chess Strategies
- Winning Chess Openings
- (Winning Chess Endings)
- Winning Chess Brilliancies
- Winning Chess Combinations
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The Amateur’s Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery, Jeremy Silman
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Weapons of Chess: an Omnibus of Chess Strategies, Bruce Pandolfini
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The Woodpecker Method 1&2, Axel Smith (ebook on chesstempo.com)
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How to Beat Your Dad at Chess
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Best Lessons of a Chess Coach
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Simple Chess, Michael Stean
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Logical Chess, Irving Chernev
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Chess: 5334 Problems, Lazslo Polgar
Courses
Section titled “Courses”Noel Studer
- Beginner Chess Mastery
- Simplified Chess Improvement System
Everyone’s First Chess Workbook, Peter Giannatos (chessable.com, recommended by Studer to do before the Steps books)
Equipment
Section titled “Equipment”Deluxe Chess Set: triple weighted pieces, vinyl board, carrying bag
YouTube channels
Section titled “YouTube channels”Notes on initial purchases
Section titled “Notes on initial purchases”I first signed up for a free chess.com account, did a few lessons and puzzles, decided I would use the site enough to make a basic membership worth the money. Since then this is my most visited site. I regularly do a few lessons, a few puzzles, and a game or two against the coach.
lichess.com is the free competitor to chess.com. I like them both, but the graphic design of the latter is more pleasing. I will probably make more use of it as I progress.
I forget where I first saw listudy.org mentioned, but it may be helpful for additional training (openings, tactics, endgames, visualization).
Looking for beginner chess book recommendations, I found (probably on Reddit) repeated mentions of the Yasser Seirawan books, especially about his engaging and accessible style. (No, actually those came from a Youtube video.) I bought them all through abebooks.com. If I do the work — and I plan to do it —these should last me several years.
I’m looking forward to studying The Amateur’s Mind, in which Silman writes about getting beginner students to describe their thinking, then contrasts it with how a skilled player thinks. Very relevant to my goal for this project — I am not interested in competition or rankings or ratings, but understanding how to go about learning and improving a complex skill, as well as experiencing the process. This should help!
The other two are recommendations that looked good. Weapons of Chess is a compendium I’ll look through at some point. Woodpecker Method is a highly recommended set of puzzles (the method itself is controversial and not something I’m interested in trying out). Those are available as printed books but basically the same price as interactive books on chesstempo.com, so I thought I’d try them out there.