i know the gm titles cant be achieved without reading countless books, however im curious of the degree of the amount they have. do they have 50 or 60? or do they possess like ten bookshelves filled with tons of chess books?
ofc im not planning to buy same amount of books that gm have or anything, i just want to know.
@Cs1xlly said in #1:
> ofc im not planning to buy same amount of books that gm have or anything, i just want to know.
If books matter, reading them matters more than buying them. Seems obvious but many people have a nice collection of unread books.
"To become a grandmaster is very difficult and can take quite a long time! ... you need to ... solve many exercises, analyse your games, study classic games, modern games, have an opening repertoire and so on. Basically, it is hard work ... It takes a lot more than just reading books to become a grandmaster I am afraid." - GM Artur Yusupov (2013)
www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/QandAwithArturYusupovQualityChessAugust2013.pdfchess books are for entertaining and for making money if you write them.
The information you read, you still have to implement it into your game. GMs don't need to read chess books, they know how to "get" the information by analysing chess games, databases, and so on. That is why Kasparov, when he got a chess database, was able to defeat an entire German team. He played through their games and found out what to play against it to create imbalances, etc.
Should you read chess books. Chess books are good for understanding positions, what plans to play in those positions, what tactics can arise, what endgames arise from those positions and therefore if you should strive for one plan or the other, etc.
If that is what you're looking for, then sure. If you like to be entertained by playing through interesting chess games and their history behind it, yes chess books are for you. There might be other reasons. If you have to ask if you should buy chess books, then probably the answer right now is no. If you don't know if you need them, then it is just an idea you got from somewhere, not an actual need of yours. It is for your to know what you want to do, achieve, and aim for.
"... Logical Chess [(Batsford edition by Chernev)] ... a collection of 33 games ... is definitely for beginners and players who are just starting to learn about development, weak squares, the centre, standard attacking ideas, and the like. In many ways, it would [be] a wonderful 'first' book (or first 'serious' book, after the ones which teach the rules and elementary mates, for example), and a nice gift for a young player just taking up chess. ..." - IM John Watson (1999)
theweekinchess.com/john-watson-reviews/assorted-recent-booksCheck out some of Danya Naroditsky's vids- his book shelf is full of various tomes.
I wonder how many Magnus read.
I guess I have more (even read more) than most GMs, just sayin‘.
decided to check my shelf:
8 books
Chess For Tigers by Simon Webb is the thinnest at 99 pages
The Mammoth Book of Chess by Graham Burgess is the thickest at 570 pages
Soon, it won't be how many books but how many $30-$70 Chessable courses do players have.
