This post is an annual “chess books I’ve read” roundup, featuring a list of my favorite books I’ve read in 2020. You can check out the best chess books I’ve read in 2019 here.
2020 has been a very strange year in many ways. The global pandemic has affected multiple aspects of our lives. when it comes to books and reading, my habits have been no exception.
You are reading: Best chess books 2020
on the one hand, I read a total of 24 chess books, 6 more than the previous year.
On the other hand, I have only read 21 non-chess books, 21 less (50% less) than in 2019.
There are several possible explanations I tried to use to rationalize this:
- chess books are more demanding and take more time to read than non-chess books, so they take a lot of time
- I used to read a lot while commuting to work by public transport. once I started working remotely, I lost that habit.
- being forced to stay home in the middle of a global pandemic and having no set obligations/lack of routine actually leads me to read less, even though I apparently have more time
Although there is truth to all of these statements, I am fairly convinced that the third was the main factor. I’ve read numerous articles by people claiming that they had so many projects and plans that they finally hoped to tackle when things started to close, only to experience a complete lack of motivation to execute them.
This doesn’t necessarily refer to just reading. music producers, artists, designers, writers and even some chess players experienced the same effect, without clearly understanding what is happening. I think it’s easy to underestimate the extent of the trauma we’re all going through right now and how much it affects the smallest details of our lives.
Of course, that’s not to say that my switch to working from home presented a challenge in and of itself. it is also a fact that my habits and lifestyle have not kept up regardless of the pandemic and that there is a lot of room for improvement.
but okay, apart from that long digression, I actually managed to increase the number of chess books I read compared to last year. From those 24, I selected 10 titles that made the deepest impression on me and used them to put together a list of the best chess books 2020 and continue the tradition of writing annual books for the second year in a row.
you can find the list below.
I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.
Michiel Abeln – The Anand Files
What is the book about?
the anand files is a riveting behind-the-scenes immersion into Indian superstar viswanathan anand’s three world championship matches: vladimir kramnik in 2008, veselin topalov in 2010 and boris gelfand in 2012.
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After spending 7 years (!) interviewing anand’s seconds, analyzing games and putting the puzzle pieces together, abeln gives us a unique perspective on the process of preparing, making and ultimately winning the match by the world championship.
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
First of all, the book covers an important period of modern chess history that I have yet to see documented in a single volume before. it is not only an account of the actual events that unfolded on the board, but also an account of important scenes off the board. i found out1 that magnus carlsen played training games with anand before matches, that anish giri visited the camp, that kramnik basically acted as anand’s second during anand’s match against topalov, that kasparov phoned and offered to help, etc. .
but the book is much more than an ordinary “historical account”. The aspect where it really shines and where Abeln’s years of research and writing have their influence is the characterization of the main protagonists of these matches. The book dissects how a world championship team works before and during a world championship match in almost ridiculous detail: how the process of analyzing an opening works, how the work is organized, how many hours it takes, how many sleepless nights there are, what the members eat, when they eat, the dynamic between the team members, the atmosphere in the camp after the losses.
and much more!
By bringing the reader each game of each of the three encounters, abeln exposes all the fears, doubts, tensions and dramas anand’s team had to go through and demonstrates that the human factor plays a crucial role, even when It’s about chess. preparation.
when you also add the fact that the chess content is of the highest quality and that abeln basically presents us with a lot of anand’s preparation for the match and the fact that all profits made from the sale of the book are going to a charity, there really aren’t many reasons not to buy this book :).
Barry Hymer and Peter Wells: Chess Improvement: It’s All In The Mindset
What is it about?
The book Chess Improvement: It’s All in the Mindset addresses the difficult and somewhat controversial topic of chess improvement.2 The central premise of the book is that the most important tool for improving chess is having what psychologists call growth mindset.
Throughout 7 chapters, the authors address 7 key concepts related to the development and maintenance of the growth mindset, such as motivation, the role of challenge, deliberate practice, managing failure, the social aspect of the improvement of chess, etc.
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what makes this book stand out from all the literature on the similar topic 3 is that it is very scientifically based. each chapter is divided into two segments – in the first part dr. barry hymer 4 focuses on the theoretical basis and in the second half gm peter wells focuses on the practical aspect and tries to convey how theoretical concepts apply to various aspects of chess mainly by sharing his own stories and life stories real of other great masters of england.
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
I first heard about this book when Chessable CEO David Kramaley recommended it and offered to send it to everyone on the Chessable team.
Although the topic of chess improvement has always been something I’ve viewed with an (un)healthy dose of cynicism and sarcasm, I was fortunately self-aware enough to realize that I have a tendency to behave like a stubborn and ignorant imbecile. too often and that I could definitely have more knowledge and reading on the subject, so I requested to get my own copy of the book as well. 5
I’m so glad I decided to do it. I don’t remember when was the last time I came across a book that completely blew my mind and that had a lot of influence and changed my way of thinking.
First of all, there were a lot of things I didn’t/didn’t know from the purely theoretical side.
Secondly, I liked the way wells and hymer write and explain scientific concepts. Although the book involves a lot of scientific terminology and cites a good number of scientific studies, it is very accessible, readable, clear and concise.
but last and most importantly, the practical value of books cannot be underestimated. is full of useful information and practical advice for chess players, coaches and parents. I started implementing some of his advice into my own training and coaching and could see results almost instantly. 6
if you don’t know how best to give your child feedback as a parent, nurture their love of the game, what their attitude towards scoring looks like and the typical loss of fixed mindset and what can develop growth mindset in you and the people you advise, you will find guidelines or simple answers inside.
Honestly, I think this is a revolutionary work. even if certain things are „self-understanding“ 7 the mere fact that someone points them out so clearly and concisely is already a revelation in itself.
I would definitely recommend everyone (especially overly ambitious parents and coaches) to get a copy of this book.
I can only conclude this short review by inserting the quote from david that I 100% agree with:
„The distillation of the key lessons that science learning holds for us has the potential to have a greater impact on chess than alpha-zero.
a fundamental work.“
David Navara: My Chess World
What is it about?
The book is a compilation of blog posts from Czech nr. 1, grandmaster david navara, in which he gives an account of his life (in the tournament) and offers a selection of his best / most interesting games from 2001 to 2019.
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
gm david navara has established himself as one of the most personable and friendly grandmasters at the elite level. 8 when his book came out earlier this year, it generated a lot of buzz, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and see if the hype was justified.
As you may have already guessed, I was not disappointed at all. In the context of game collections, there are two things that are very important to me:
- how interesting/extensive/elaborate the stories and “unannotated” parts of the books are to read
- if the games themselves are well annotated and explained or contain a forest of computer variations with little or no textual explanation
david navara is a perfect example of a book that scores 10/10 in both categories. david is a very passionate and enthusiastic writer who not only gives us a very detailed and personal account of each tournament and each game, but also goes to great lengths to annotate his games and make them very accessible to the average club player 9
I thoroughly enjoyed david’s look at the life and regiment of a tournament player, his stories and his very open and direct way of expressing himself in a beautiful, almost poetic style of writing.
highly recommended.
Positional Decision Making by GM Boris Gelfand
What is it about?
The book is the first in a series of books written by former world championship challenger and one of the strongest players of the last two decades, Israeli GM Boris Gelfand.
Throughout the series, gelfand, with the help of his quality chess “ghost writer” gm jacob aagard, tries to cover different aspects of the game of chess (dynamic decision making, technical decision making) and increase reader comprehension by trying to explain how a strong player thinks.
The basis of this book is positional play and this book is basically a collection of annotated games, mostly played by Gelfand himself and his idol, Akiba Rubinstein. from the preface of the book:
„I have overcome the youthful need to prove to others that I understand chess and I am ready to explain how chess is understood. so we have focused on how I think about chess, in the hope that it will help aspiring young players improve, as well as cheer up chess fans who simply want to enjoy the game more. and the cornerstone of my thought process was set by my role model, akiba rubinstein.” ~boris gelfand
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
I first heard about the book during the chess legends tournament. During his question and answer sessions, various strong players 10 highly recommended gelfand books. I also saw them recommended in other sources, so I decided to order a copy and give it a try.
I haven’t regretted this decision ever since. There’s a reason this book received so much praise: it’s absolutely amazing. Some of the things I like about positional decision making in chess are:
- everything said above about navara’s book is true here: gelfand writes a lot of text, gives a lot of context about each game, and gives us extensive and elaborate annotations.
- i don’t don’t remember when it was the last time I came across such instructive chess material. gelfand wasn’t kidding in the preface, he wanted to convey his thought process. it somehow manages to make game players at level 2700 easy and understandable for me without making them completely dumb (when i read the book i fully understood how he can play like that and i never had false hopes that he can play like that) , which I think is a hard sweet spot to find).
- gelfand is very frank, direct, and entertaining in his writing. i loved how he frequently dismisses computer chess engines and mocks the “engine” warriors among internet gossips in a very genuine and hilarious way.
- gelfand’s enormous enthusiasm and love for the game is evident on every page of the book. . the amount of respect he gives his opponents, old masters, like rubinstein and the game in general is enormous.
I bought three subsequent books that gelfand (and gm jacob aagard) wrote and can’t wait to dig into them in 2021.
I can recommend you, the reader, to start doing the same :).
p.s. I have a confession to make. I bought and read a physical copy of this book, although it is available on Chessable. I hope it doesn’t come up during my next performance reviews, but in case it does, I want you guys at chessable to know…
… I’m sorry!
the complete chess hustler: david smerdon
What is it about?
In a world full of opening, midgame, strategy, and endgame books, it’s very rare to stumble across a book that deviates from the “norm” and covers a new and unusual topic in a clever and compelling way.
the complete chess swindler is one of those books. in chess, “cheating your opponent” usually means winning (or drawing) an outright losing position, and is often dismissed as pure “luck” and/or “gambling”. In his book, the author of the famous “Smerdon’s Scandinavian” tries to prove that there is much more to being a successful “swindler” than being lucky.
Through a large number of examples, smerdon tries to make an extensive study of the subject and detect the key psychological and chess-related factors that make people fall for scams and the characteristics that make certain players have a lot of money. success in scams.
smerdon also provides the reader with key lessons based on those observations that should help them be more successful at scams. smerdon says that it is a skill that can be trained and improved, not a matter of sheer luck or accident.
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
because it’s clever, unusual, refreshing, and full of entertaining and never-before-seen examples of chess players ripping off their opponents in almost unbelievable situations.
Whether we’re talking about unexpected situations, cunning traps, perpetual checks, strengths, or just amazing and beautiful tactics, this book has it all. When you combine this aspect of chess with Smerdon’s entertaining writing, pop culture references, and the overall “tongue-in-cheek” style present in the book, I don’t see how you can go wrong buying this book.
p.s. This book is not only available on chessable, but I have “read” it 11 in its entirety on the platform.
I hope that’s enough to redeem me from the slip up from the previous one!
jennifer shahade – chess bitch: women in the latest intellectual sport
What is the book about?
In Chess Bitch, Jen Shahade takes us on a fascinating journey into the world of women’s chess, blending her own experience with stories from famous (and less famous) chess players.
The book offers a unique insight into “behind the scenes of chess tournaments” and talks about the ups and downs of constantly traveling, participating in tournaments and trying to strike a balance between fun and professionalism (parties and playing chess) .
jen addresses several important issues related to the position of women in chess, such as:
– constantly present and widely accepted sexism that comes in many forms
– cultural (and other) obstacles preventing more women from participating (mainly through the lens of the lineage of successful Georgian chess players, coming from a very traditional society)
– the role of women-only competitions and women-only titles 12
– whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that female chess players draw attention partly because of their looks and your thoughts on some female chess players taking advantage of that
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
after reading several excellent posts by mr. greg on the topic of women in chess on his blog in early 2020, I realized how fallible my thought process is on this topic and how ignorant and prejudiced I am despite pride in being enlightened and progressive. so i decided to let myself be enlightened by another member of the shahade family and read jen’s book.
this book made me more aware of the magnitude of the obstacles female chess players face, that I have been very ignorant about the history of female chess players and that there is much merit to the feminist “but you haven’t experienced this as a man’s argument white”.
the only drawback is that the book was written in 2004. I would be very interested to hear your opinion about the last 15 years and hear stories about the new generation (yifan, goryachkina, ju wenjun) and the new times!
See Also: 10 Reese Witherspoon Book Club reads for your 2022 reading list – including her latest pick | HELLO!
but despite this, I can’t remember the last time I read a book with such interest and I would definitely recommend it to everyone.
especially to all those angry men in the comments section of the lichess article titled Invisible Pieces: Women in Chess.
david klass – grandmaster: a novel
What is the book about?
grandmaster: A novel is a story about a high school boy who joins a chess club and is invited to a father-son tournament, only to find out that his father is a grandmaster who has not played chess for over 30 years (and who ever told you that).
Throughout the book, we discover the reasons why he stopped playing and why he never told his son that he was a chess player. The boy then manages to convince him to come out of retirement and participate in a weekend father-son tournament, where his father has to face his old enemy and wrestle with his old doubts and fears. him.
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
I really liked this book.
It is by far my favorite chess novel and I found it much easier to read and less pretentious than other novels I read this year, including Walter Trevis’ famous queen’s gambit.
the main reason? The book doesn’t follow the modern “Netflix” trend of making the main character or plot as unique and special as possible. The boy Daniel Pratzer is not an alcoholic, orphan, exceptionally gifted, depressed – or an outlier. he is also not involved in a grandiose scheme of „america against russia“, he does not want to conquer the world.
he just wants to have a more committed father and participate in a “simple” chess tournament. the development of the father-son relationship is a leitmotif that runs throughout the book and is beautifully done.
I also really enjoyed writing: the dialogues are light-hearted and fun, it’s very easy to read, and the book can literally be “digested” in a single day.
Finally, I liked how the book traces and touches on various other topics related to growing up as a high school student and to current affairs and age:
- being a stranger in high school and spending time with popular and more successful students
- being confused and shy around girls
- having a father who works and is gets too wrapped up in working to spend quality time with his children
- the stresses and dangers of participating in chess tournaments and the life of a professional chess player
- that eternal question of whether your life would have been better if you made different decisions
It was really refreshing to read a book in which no special attempts were made to “sexify” the characters or the plot.
please netflix can you include this in your catalog too?
Sasha Chapin -All the Wrong Moves
What is the book about?
When this book was published, it caused quite a stir in the chess community (considering that the author was not particularly well known in chess circles). 13
is a very funny and entertaining biographical read from the pen of a skilled freelance writer where he talks about how he got infected with the chess virus a bit late in his life and how he completely outgrew his life for a couple of years . .
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
It was really fun and hilarious to read about events that every chess player can relate to. the author openly writes about his struggles and the effect that the “chess virus” had on his life in a very entertaining and up close way.
From doing an all night blitz session after which you feel like a degenerate to being completely devastated after the loss and feeling completely uncomfortable when facing up-and-coming young players, we’ve all been there. however, not all of us have the same ability or courage to present it on paper.
In addition to his own fights, the book also includes a good number of anecdotes and funny stories involving other people from the world of chess. Especially notable is the appearance of Ben Finegold whom Sasha hired to be her trainer for a short period.
when you also consider that chapin’s writing is beautiful and full of humor 14 , it is worth reading his impressions on the world of chess.
grigory levenfish – soviet outcast: the life and games of grigory levenfish (translated by douglas griffin)
What is the book about?
soviet outcast: the life and games of grigory levenfish is an autobiographical book by the legendary (and somewhat forgotten) soviet master grigory levenfish, translated by the great chess enthusiast david griffin. 15
In the book, Levenfish talks about the tournaments and key moments of his career and discusses several of his own games.
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
It should be noted that this book may not be to everyone’s liking. I personally found this amazing because I love reading about the history of chess, especially the Soviet era and the long-forgotten Soviet masters, so buying this one quickly after it came out was a no-brainer for me.
levenfish is one of my favorite “tragic” heroes from the soviet era (who got sidelined because of botvinnik). I found his biography fascinating and the games very interesting, although some of the evaluations (especially in more complicated positions) were not approved by modern computing engines.
however, levenfish’s annotations are elaborate, instructive, and fun, and manage to convey the spirit of the times and describe what it was like to live and play in pre-Soviet times, and how to do it as an “outcast”.
a great book and a big thank you to douglas for all the work he is doing!
david shenk: the immortal game: a history of chess
What is the book about?
This is simply a comprehensive attempt to provide an overview of the history of chess, beginning from its earliest origins in ancient Persia, to the present day.
See Also: Best of 2020: The top books by African writers | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera
Why have I included it on this list?
Although I read a lot about chess and chess history, in 2020 I realized that I had never read anything about the general history of our game and that I have quite a few “holes” in my knowledge about it.
So this year, I finally decided to change it and looked for a good book on the history of chess. after doing some research, i stumbled upon this one.
There are several reasons why I really like this book. First of all, David Shenk is very enthusiastic about the game, and this enthusiasm radiates throughout the writing of it (especially in the conclusion, coda, and appendix sections of the book).
Second, the book is extremely interesting. even ignoring the fact that it had big “holes” in my knowledge, a lot of what i read was new to me and i really felt like the book had taught me a lot.
Last but not least, the book was full of sources on all the other steps, from ancient sources to 20th century news articles. it’s amazing how much credibility it gives when you know that every historical statement/claim can be backed up by hard evidence.
of course, there are still some sources that I found questionable (for example, when talking about rubinstein’s state of mind, the author refers to bill wall’s website. 16
but despite those minor niggles, I found the book very enjoyable and would recommend it to everyone, especially people affiliated with chess history
- or I reminded myself.
- quite shocking, I know.
- not many, to begin with
- a renowned psychologist and one of the last employees of chessable 🙂
- not to mention refusing a gift from your general director is not a move you should make lightly :p
- not important results, but certain positive reactions from my students or a change in my way of thinking that made me rekindle some of the passion for chess again. Of course, big changes cannot happen because of a single piece of advice overnight.
- such as “obsessing over your rating and constantly playing the same opening because you fear losing is not beneficial to your chess and is a trait of a fixed mindset”. all the but he was never the elite comment it’s true he was never a consistent number in the world top 10 but anyone with a top rating of almost 2750 counts as elite in my book.
- as is clear from the number of pages – 611.
- kramnik and/or svidler, I believe
- trained using chessable’s movetrainer technology
- I got into a heated debate on twitter about the need for the latter before reading this book. if i learned anything from shahades it’s that me discussing that topic and stating my opinion hasn’t really helped anyone
- i was even a guest on the perpetual chess podcast
- it’s very obvious that he has been practicing his craft for quite some time
- and has a blog dedicated to the history of soviet chess where he translates a ton of material published in the soviet union. he’s also very active on twitter and you can also hear him on an episode of everyone’s favorite perpetual chess podcast
- and we all know that chess websites, especially chess blogs, should be taken cum gran salis.