Game Collections
This is a famous games collection book with notes by extremely strong player David Bronstein. While he was never World Champion, he was strong enough to be in their circle.
This is a famous games collection book with game analysis by world champion Mikhail Botvinnik.
The first great American player. While Steinitz was the first world champion, Steinitz avoided playing Paul Morphy. I like to think of Paul Morphy as the unofficial first World Champion of Chess. HIs games are typical of the open-game attacking style of ear;ly masters and are a pleasure to view. This is a collection of his games with some analysis.
The second world champion teaches how to play chess. Good introductory book.
The third world champion teaches how to play chess. Capablanca is known as being a natural at chess and having great positional play.
This is a famous games collection book with analysis by world champion Alexander Alekhine.
This book is for advanced players. Highly technical book on pawn structure.
Classic book that explains move by move some games. I haven't read this book in many years and prefer some other game collections instead; however, if one was looking for a single chess book that had some good instruction in it, this may be a good fit.
Bobby Fischer is reported to have said in regards to a lesson to read this book, and for a second lesson to read it again. Now on the 15th edition, this book does not have quite as much impact as it did back in the day; however, it is still an important work.
This book is dense, but it is a famous endgame book from intermediate player to grandmaster.
This book is dense. There are easier books to read than this book, but this is a classic book. "A passed pawn must be kept under lock and key."
I recommend this to players who are below 1600 USCF who want to get over 1600 USCF. This is a good book that teaches about imbalances and also king opposition. I found it good for high school players and adults.
Mikhail Tal was a world champion player and this is an autobiography that also contains some chess games in it.
Note: I liked this book when I was in elementary school/middle school/high school. I recommend this for chess beginners and younger players who are looking for something fun to read. I have not read this book since then. This is probably in the 800-1300 USCF range, but apparently this is one of the favorite books of Wesley So (Top US Player).
I recommend this book for players in the 1600 to 2000 USCF range.
Note: I haven't read this one yet nor bought this one yet, but seems interesting!
Note: This may or may not be an instructional book; I haven't read this one yet nor bought this one yet, but seems interesting!
Note: This is a novel by Grandmaster Jesse Kraai.