Which chess books should you read? Find out.

Current rating?
Current rating? Any Below 800 800 - 1000 1000 - 1200 1200 - 1400 1400 - 1600 1600 - 1800 1800 - 2000 2000 - 2200 Above 2200
Playing style?
Playing style? any positional dynamic tactical theoretical
Biggest weakness?
Biggest weakness? any openings strategy tactics and calculation endgames
Target rating?
Target rating? Any 800 - 1000 1000 - 1200 1200 - 1400 1400 - 1600 1600 - 1800 1800 - 2000 2000 - 2200 Above 2200

Chess book reviews from a perspective of an improving player. The books on Chessreads are divided by category (opening, middlegame, endgame, etc.), and by difficulty (beginner, intermediate, advanced, master). That way you can filter them according to your current strength and according to what you think you have to work on the most. Each book is given two separate scores: readability and usefulness. The readability score represents how difficult it is to read the book without using a board. A book with 10/10 readability is a bedtime story, a book with 1/10 is a puzzle book full of variations. Readability doesn’t represent the quality of the book. Usefulness is a measure of how useful the book is for chess improvement within the topic it covers. Books with a high usefulness score should help you improve quicker than those with a low score.

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Latest article

9 Best Chess Books of 2025

Best Chess Books published in 2025 and 2024 every chess player would benefit from reading. There’s a bit of everything in the list – from hard problem books to easy reads for beginners. There’s even a bedtime story chess book thrown in there.

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Latest reviews

Chess book reviews from a perspective of an improving player. The books on Chessreads are divided by category (opening, middlegame, endgame, etc.), and by difficulty (beginner, intermediate, advanced, master). That way you can filter them according to your current strength and according to what you think you have to work on the most. Each book is given two separate scores: readability and usefulness. The readability score represents how difficult it is to read the book without using a board. A book with 10/10 readability is a bedtime story, a book with 1/10 is a puzzle book full of variations. Readability doesn’t represent the quality of the book. Usefulness is a measure of how useful the book is for chess improvement within the topic it covers. Books with a high usefulness score should help you improve quicker than those with a low score.