When The Queen’s Gambit was released on Netflix last year, the drama was a must-watch roaring success. Within a few days of the show coming out, people were already addicted to the idea of chess; eBay reported that searches for chess sets were up massively. If you’re one of those people who hopped on the chess train straight away, you might have already explored some of these best chess books. But if you were slower to the party, or if you’re just interested in how there is so much more to this game, then this list of the best chess books has you covered.
The Best Chess Books
1. Birth of the Chess Queen: A History – Marilyn Yalom
Birth of the Chess Queen is a fascinating non-fiction book which examines the queen piece in chess and the wider political and social history in which the piece emerged. When it was first introduced, the queen was a weaker piece, and evolved over time to become the most powerful piece on the board.
Yalom discusses the rise of the queen piece’s power in relation to European female monarchs through about five hundred years, starting during the Holy Roman Empire. For anyone with an interest in chess history and how it fits into the wider contexts of history in general, this is an ideal book.
2. Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess – Bobby Fischer, Stuart Margulies and Don Mosenfelder
Another non-fiction book now, Bobby Fischer should definitely be a name that anyone with even a passing interest in chess recognises. As a grandmaster and the youngest ever US champion, he’s someone who has gone down in chess history – and any book that could help people to play like him must be regarded as one of the best chess books.
The book is meant for beginners, so it’s a clear introduction to the game from one of the best. Stuart Margulies is also a chess grandmaster, so the pedigree of the teaching you would get from this book is very clear.
3. Chess: A Novel – Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig’s novella (otherwise known as A Chess Story) is getting on in years now – it was published in 1943 – but it remains one of the best chess books, without a doubt. Zweig was a real master of the short story and the novella format, so anyone reading Chess: A Novel is in for a treat. They probably don’t even need to be that interested in chess to find it a good and intriguing read.
On a cruise ship bound for Argentina, the world chess champion is challenged to games by the other passengers, but there is one mysterious amateur who might be able to beat him. This is a story that is as much about totalitarianism, and the prices of genius and obsession as it is about chess.
4. Chess Bitch: Women In The Ultimate Intellectual Sport – Jennifer Shahade
Back when this non-fiction book was published in 2004, there was a distinct gender bias in chess – and honestly, going by the number of chess books written by women even today, it can be argued that the bias is still there and going strong. It is an unfortunate truth of the game so often dominated by men.
In Chess Bitch, Shahade gives an insight into the history and trials of the women’s game. She interviewed and had discussions with many female players, so the stories presented here are personal as well as full of interesting facts.
5. Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual – Mark Dvoretsky
Mark Dvoretsky, like Bobby Fischer, is a big name in the world of chess. He was an International Master, and for a time was regarded as perhaps the best in the world. But he gave up playing himself to become a chess trainer, and Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual is a book acknowledged by pros and amateurs as one of the best chess books.
It’s a pretty technical book, full of insights into endgame principles, and absolutely something that anyone who wants to take their chess game more seriously should look into exploring. It might just change you for the better.
6. The Eight – Katherine Neville
If you like your chess books to have a dash of high-stakes and fast paced action, then The Eight is definitely for you. if you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, or any other puzzle solving, global conspiracy kind of novel, then The Eight is a book that you should pick up.
In the 700s, the Moorish governor in Barcelona gives Charlemagne a chess set that has the power to change history. In the 1790s, two cousins desperate to flee their oppressive religious order life have to scatter the pieces of a powerful chess set throughout the world. In the 1970s, Catherine Velis must retrieve an important artefact from somewhere in Algeria.
The intrigue in The Eight is right up there, and it is a cracking great read.
7. How to Reassess Your Chess: Chess Mastery Through Imbalances – Jeremy Silman
Jeremy Silman is another chess celebrity; he is an International Master, and won the American Open, the U.S Open and the National Open. He is also, like Dvoretsky, a world class teacher.
His book is a little more advanced than Fischer’s, aimed at those rated at Class C and above. It focuses on helping players at this level to master all of their imbalances, and give themselves a foundation that could lead on to master level playing. If you’re serious about chess and already working hard at it, then this is one of the best chess books for you.
8. The Luzhin Defense – Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov’s style of writing, full of allusions and metaphors, populated by individuals intent on their own individualism, lends itself well to chess – a game where forging your own path is the only way to true success.
In The Luzhin Defense, Luzhin in an International Master, a chess player who discovered his gift as a child and rose through the ranks. He’s a strange character, but one that readers can’t help but warm to. When he comes up against an Italian Grandmaster, Luzhin uses his own defence for the confrontation.
This is early work by Nabokov, but it’s full of the imagery that he would come to be famous for.
9. A Partial History of Lost Causes – Jennifer DuBois
Jennifer DuBois was given a ton of accolades when A Partial History Of Lost Causes published in 2012, and it’s easy to see why; the novel is engaging and intelligent, as well as incredibly emotional. The chess content is less obvious in this one, but if you are looking for a great novel and have a passing interest in chess, then this one will keep you happy.
In Russia, world chess champion Aleksandr Bezetov launches a presidential campaign against Putin, knowingly putting himself in danger. In the US, Irina Ellison is living in fear of the genetic disease that killed her father when she finds a letter that he wrote to Bezetov. On a whim, she goes to Russia, bringing together their lost causes.
10. The Queen’s Gambit – Walter Tevis
As the novel behind the Netflix drama that started this resurgent interest in chess, it would be remiss if The Queen’s Gambit wasn’t on a list of the best chess books. Luckily, the books are just as compelling as the TV show, and just as likely to keep you up reading as binging the series would interfere with your sleep too.
Orphan Beth Hannon, quiet and sullen, suddenly finds herself thinking more clearly and feeling in control after she starts to play chess. At sixteen, she is competing for the U.S Open Championship, but finding that the walls are closing in around her as she becomes more isolated and battling higher stakes.
Tevis is a great writer and even if you think you know Beth’s story, you’d be remiss if you didn’t check out his writing.
11. The Queen of Katwe: One Girl’s Triumphant Path to Becoming a Chess Champion – Tim Crothers
A biography of one of the most inspirational chess players of recent years, The Queen of Katwe follows the life of Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan child who was introduced to chess at the age of nine by Robert Katende, a missionary who wanted to empower children through chess. Phiona turned out to be a bit of a whizz and by aged 15, she was Uganda’s national champion.
Phiona wants to become a Grandmaster, but the book also highlights the difficulties of emerging onto the international circuit from a country as troubled as Uganda, and it doesn’t hesitate to outline just how difficult Phiona’s journey has been – or how it will continue to be so.
12. The Squares of the City – John Brunner
First published in 1965, Brunner’s The Squares Of The City was Hugo-nominated, and remains as one of the acknowledged best chess books even now. It is a very smart work of speculative fiction, one which forces the reader to think just as much as a chess game actually would.
In the fictitious South American country of Aquazul, a young city planner is brought in to solve some problems in the capital city. What follows is a creepy and believable dystopia, in which every character is taking on the role of a piece in a chess game – and it isn’t until the end of the book that we truly realise what’s been going on in the city.
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