ChessCafe.com Book of the Year

ChessCafe.com

Twelfth Annual
ChessCafe.com
Book of the Year

It's Time to Vote

Round One

It's time to begin the first round of voting for the ChessCafe.com 2011 Book of the Year. Voting in this round will remain open until January 15, when the three highest vote-getters will advance to round two.

Round two will then be open for voting from January 18 until January 29. The title then receiving the highest number of votes will be the ChessCafe.com 2011 Book of the Year. The winner will be announced February 1, 2012.

Email your nomination to info@chesscafe.com

Nominees to Date (listed alphabetically):

1001 Deadly Checkmates by John Nunn

Chess Lessons by Vladimir Popov

Very instructive and helpful for analysing your own deficits.

The Complete Hedgehog, Volume 2 by Sergey Shipov

Counterplay by Robert Desjarlais

The most interesting chess book I've seen all year.
Very interesting, but not exactly a "chess" book.

The Grandmaster Battle Manual by Vassilios Kotronias

Grandmaster Chess Strategy by Jürgen Kaufeld & Guido Kern

Grandmaster Repertoire 8 and 9: The Grünfeld Defence by Boris Avrukh

This book is not just the best in 2011, but also the best opening book ever published.

How to Reassess Your Chess, 4th ed. by Jeremy Silman

A player who doesn't improve after reading this book just isn't trying.
The best chessbook I have ever read!
Was a great book, even better now, and most of the material is new.
Silman took a classic and vastly improved it ...Wow!

Invisible Chess Moves by Yochanan Afek & Emmanuel Neiman

It shows that blunders are made at all levels and that even grandmasters can overlook moves.
It makes me search deeper and gives me greater creativity when thinking what to move.

Karpov's Strategic Wins 1 & 2 by Tibor Karolyi

The explanations are written with clarity and precision, the depth of the analysis is incredible, the production is outstanding, and the game examples are as enlightening as they are entertaining.
You cannot make a better choice than these two volumes.
They are really wonderful books.
The most instructive commentary on games I have ever come across!

Lessons with a Grandmaster by Boris Gulko and Dr. Joel R. Sneed

Might just be the finest treatise ever written on the nuances and dynamics of positional play.

Modern Chess Move by Move by Colin Crouch

This book has been thoughtfully and carefully treated as a whole, and the whole is outstanding.

My Best Games (Updated Edition) by Victor Korchnoi

This grand old man has written an exellent book.

The New Old Indian by Alexander Cherniaev and Eduard Prokuronov

Interesting repertoire with excellent verbal explanation, as well as variations and games.

Understanding Chess Middlegames by John Nunn

Previous ChessCafe.com Book of the Year Winners

2010
Chess Duels
by Yasser Seirawan
Everyman Chess

2009
Chess Strategy for Club Players
by Herman Grooten
New In Chess

2008
Forcing Chess Moves
by Charles Hertan
New In Chess

2007
Silman's Complete Endgame Course
by Jeremy Silman
Siles Press

2006
Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics
by G.C. Van Perlo
New In Chess

2005
Learn from the Legends
by Mihail Marin
Quality Chess

2004
Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions
by Pal Benko & Jeremy Silman
Siles Press

2003
Chess Strategy in Action
by John Watson
Gambit Publications

2002
Excelling at Chess
by Jacob Aagaard
Everyman Chess

2001
Understanding Chess Move by Move
by John Nunn
Gambit Publications

2000
Shady Side: The Life and Crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker
by John S. Hilbert
Caissa Editions

Readers' Responses

Michael from the USA – What a stellar year this has been for chess books! You have (1) arguably one of the greatest ever chess books in history getting a makeover (Silman's 4th edition of RYC). You have (2) the two Karpov books (Which should be treated as one entry in my opinion), arguably the best material ever written on the 12th world champion and his positional style. And then (3) the wonderful Lessons with a Grandmaster by Gulko - a sort of modern-day version of Best Lessons of a Chess Coach by Weeremanty. Any one of these books could have won a 'book of the year' title easily in a previous year. It will be a tough task choosing between them. Whoever wins, this year will undoubtedly be reflected upon as a victory for the chess book reader/collector.

Kenneth from the USA – I own five of the books nominated, and think the list is just excellent, perhaps the best year for chess books since I returned to the game fifteen years ago.

Chess Duels
by Yasser Seirawan

Purchases from our
chess shop help keep ChessCafe.com freely accessible:

Chess Strategy for
Club Players
by Herman Grooten

Silman's Complete
Endgame Course
by Jeremy Silman

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