What are some of the most controversial or unique chess books?

@MoistvonLipwig It takes more than insight to become a strong player: you need strong nerves, stamina, physical condition, ability to travel... Some players can have strong understanding, but be unable to concentrate for hours over the board, be prone to blunders etc. The controversial book by Moody is backed up by correspondence games, engine analysis and talks to his friend grandmaster Lev Alburt. Alekhine was famous for listening even to ideas of weak players. I do not recommend the book, but think it was worth it for its chess content.

Mein System by Nimzowitsch is suitable for beginners. He starts by explaining the center, an open file, development of pieces...

@hellSp4wn "Chess RAM Rashid Ziyatdinov
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Seems to be similar to what what the author of ".....think later" is saying and a good choice to read after that one.

I started reading "move first, think later". he does seem to have some good points but would like to hear someone with some counter arguments to what he is saying.

I guess I was looking for some shorcuts, some guide on how to think when it comes to chess. Still not convinced there are none.

p.s. I am reading what everyone here has to say.

It seems that most strong players who look at it from a scientific point of view tend to come to the same conclusions as the author of "Move First, Think Later" since I haven't come upon any direct counter arguments against him yet.

And no, while there are good books and all, there's no shortcut to becoming a strong player. If there was then everyone would be Grandmaster. I recommend you just play some games (lichess is a good site for that :) ) and develop your own way of playing chess. Not only is it probably more effective, it's also more fun. ;)

I see you played against Stockfish a lot. Why not against humans? Play some games against humans, then analyze them with opponent or engine. If you play rated games you will see how your rating develops so you will also be able to see when you make progress. Additionally you can use the excellent Chess Insights feature here which can show you what your strengths and weaknesses are.

#22 Some sort of shortcut is "Think like a grandmaster" by Alexander Kotov. It presents a guide on how to think.

A guide on how to think is also provided by replaying annotated grandmaster games, preferably annotated by the players themselves.

The book of Kasparov on his world's championship matches against Karpov springs to mind and as well My 60 memorable games by Fischer.

Unfortunately, theoretical disputes in chess is almost over. The most controversial is the list of the top 10 players in the history of chess compiled by Fisher. Whether it has something to do with the theory of chess?! I doubt it.

@MoistvonLipwig For me "move first,think later" is a shortcut. there are always shortcuts like that in every area of life.

I have spent a LOT of years in one sport, just to realize that the things I learn where not only NOT good but even bad. So if you are lucky to find a better way to learn something that it becomes a huge shortcut.

I know what you mean. You still have to put in hard work but at least that hard work will lead you where you want to be.

At the moment I play against Stickfish only ( primarily on another browser where i am not even logged in ). At the moment i prefer playing Chess in person and online against AI. Stockfish 8 moves are beautiful to me.

I would like to analyze my games but with something like power chess 98 that has natural voice analysis youtu.be/C3g7qsoYhPg?t=169

All analysis I see on sites are just a bunch of fx7, Kx8,o-o,?! jhk"@/<

After "..think later" book "de La Maza, Michael - Rapid Chess Improvement" seems like another good book to read. You know of it. Does seem like it has some useful "shorcuts" techniques to teach.

@tpr
Any good videos on youtube where someone explains in detail why they played the moves they played?

I do not mean some general principles but concrete reasons like "I moved that pawn in order to retreat the bishop there if necessary"

I watched several hours of some game chess teaching where he talked how you should not do this, and you you should do that and after all that he played chess games where he did the opposite of what he was teaching.

That is why "move first....." seems to be a great book to me.

@ujcn MFTL is controversial for me. it goes against what the majority is teaching and to me it seems like he has some good points. That does not mean he is correct.

Always a good thing to hear the opposition, but for now I cant find it.

You can also listen to commentary of live events (which usually is done by GMs). Unfortunately on chess24 one can't listen to their live commentary anymore (unless one pays money which I won't ;) ) but I think afterwards one can still watch it on youtube.
If you do that, go for those games commentated by Peter Svidler and Jan Gustafson, best commentator duo in the world, also very witty commentary even if the games are boring.

Ok I will check them out. For now I have a plan what to do.

One off topic question so that I do not have to open a new topic, can you change the depth of AI ( stockfish ) on this site and how?

Probably not but you can just download it yourself: http://abrok.eu/stockfish/
Then either use some GUI or in command line with "position setpos fen <position-fen>" followed by "go depth x".

@ #1

"...searching for a good book for a beginner"

Try "The Soviet Chess Primer" by Ilya Maizelis.

400 pages. Stuff to study for years.

The typesetting/layout is very good, it is not very expensive and it is written in a very "friendly" style.

An absolute classic. I wish i had "discovered" this book some years earlier.

Please see http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/231/the_soviet_chess_primer_by_ilya_maizelis/ for details.

For a good collection of some hundred games of a great epoch you might also take a look at en.lichess.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/openings-vs-endgames#9

This makes a minimal library to work through: just about 800 pages ;-)

Happy learning and best regards, Karl

P.S.: Listen also to www.youtube.com/watch?v=vee-b0kYinE