I think "Simple Chess" by GM Michael Stean (once a second/analyst for Viktor Korchnoi) is very instructive, conveying important middlegame concepts with well-chosen examples, all clearly explained.

This book also has the great virtue of being quite short!

By the way, there is an English version of Tarrasch's "300 Games", but I found many mistakes in the translation, some quite serious.

ReneDescartes wrote on 10/09/22 at 00:38:59:

So, for an intro to strategy, you've recommended Silman's "How to Reassess Your Chess". Do you have any other recommendations for introductory books on strategy? Is My System good as an intro?

ReneDescartes wrote on 10/07/22 at 02:51:59:


Is Tarrasch's The Game of Chess any good for an introduction to strategy? It apparently has a chapter on middle game.

I agree completely with Dink Heckler. Watson is inappropriate to learn strategy initially. What book would I use instead?

Depending on your level, you could learn the strategy and positional-play chapters from the Yusupov Orange Series books (those chapters are deliberately not adjacent, but Yusupov states the book's chapters don't have to be done in order).Silman's Reassess Your Chess is excellent--either the third or fourth editions. Hellsten's Mastering Chess Strategy is a little more advanced, but he's also a good teacher and writer). Sakaev is still more advanced; he says his book is for 2000+ FIDE players. I haven't read Grooten.

You can't do better than Tarrasch's Die Moderne Schachpartie, which is an annotated game collection with comments designed to be maximally instructive for amateur players (unlike his 300 Games of Chess, annotated for better players). It doesn't matter that computers occasionally find a hole in Tarrasch's line--they usually don't, and even when they occasionally do, Tarrash shows what a good player thinks about strategically and tactically. As for My System, Nimzovich's writing is even more brilliant, with many unforgettable formulations that will stick in your mind ("the passed pawn is a criminal who must be kept under lock and key"), and many ideas, such as rooks on the seventh rank, blockading passed pawns, overprotection, etc. that have now become common currency. He also shows a lot of useful typical maneuvers. The game subvariations are problematic, though, and not just because computers can refute them: he sometimes wrote fantasy lines to illustrate his concepts. So maybe skip the detailed analyses but go through the main lines for the ideas and striking formulations--that's what is recommended by Shereshevsky.

Smyslov said Tarrasch's book made a tremendous impression on him as a young man and credits both it and Nimzovich's book with helping to form his style. The best Englisn translation of My System by far is the New In Chess edition, also available for their electronic reader with live board. Incredibly, Die Moderne Schachpartie has not been translated into English--I've even thought of doing it myself.

One more thing. If it's not a rarity that you blunder pieces by hanging them or losing them to very simple tactics, then even correctly learning strategic concepts will distract you from the fundamental and difficult, skill that is the foundation of being a competent chess player: learning to falsify your move. That means "sitting on your hands" (Tarrasch) and looking for ways your opponent can refute the move you are about to make, before touching the piece--every single time.

Scarblac wrote on 10/06/22 at 12:46:31:

Is Watson's book good as an introduction to chess strategy? Or do I need to read something else first?

It should pay out to read Nimzowitsch first (likely available in free pdf or epub), since he uses many strange expressions that have become chess lore, such as Prophylaxis, Minority Attack, Leucopenia...

EDIT: My System is now free of rights, you can check it here:  https://archive.org/details/my-system-2020