Get the Chess Books, Chess Sets and Chess Software you need!
Don't make the same mistakes for the rest of your life.
You should study good chess books. This is absolutely necessary to become a good chess player. If you read opening books and learn opening lines you will be able to play your first 12 moves or more in 2 minutes or faster. This will save you a lot of time in a serious chess game. Your opponent will wonder, why you don't even think.
I will recommend some of the best books and chess authors below. Why? Because I want that you get the best chess books for your money.
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Simple Chess Sets for analyzing
A chess player needs a Chess Set that has a simple design like this to analyze his games at home. A complex design will distract your mind and this slows down your thinking process while playing or analyzing.
Save 20% on Lev Alburt Chess Training books, regarded for creating strong chess players with premier chess books on beginner, intermediate, and expert chess training.
I recommend the following books for advanced players. There are many other good books around, but the following chess books are highly respected among chess players and myself.
It is commonly agreed among chess players that the following chess books from Jeremy Silman are very good to improve your chess. Why are these books so good? It is the way how chess positions are explained. Jeremy has a way to explain that makes you understand things very fast. This is a natural gift he has. Some writers have it and some don't. I recommend the books The Amateur's Mind and:
How to Reassess your Chess
"The Amateur's Mind is eminently readable and instruction-rich. Jeremy Silman never disappoints those who seriously wish to improve their game." Joel Benjamin, International Grandmaster.
Get Jeremy Silman Books here
Opening Chess Books
Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, GM Roman Dzindzichashvili teaches you his own variations of play against 40 of the most popular openings. This might interest you to learn the top lines in opening play and get Grandmaster instructions on DVD.
Get chess books from Grandmaster Edmar Mednis because he is a very experienced chess writer. But most importantly he is explaining complex chess positions the easy way.
Grandmaster John Nunn, who is explaining moves and plans very well, has written some outstanding chess books that are a delight for a chess players heart.
Chess Tactics
Polgar - 5334 Problems, Combinations & Games. This is one of the best chess books on Chess Tactics, which organizes 5,334 unique instructional positions! This book is widely known and has excellent reviews!
One of the best chess authors is Mark Dvoretsky, who is a well known russian chess trainer (Some say, he is the best in the world). His books are full of original ideas taken from his personal archives. You can't buy anything better than that. But it's hard work to study them and you should be a good player already.
Learn Chess Tactics and Chess Strategy
with John Watson, who is a well known excellent chess writer.
Top Chess Software
You need one of the following chess programs to test your opening variations, analyze your games or check which chess openings your opponent usually plays.
Good chess players use the Database from Chessbase OR alternatively the downloadable and excellent russian product Chess Assistant to study the opponents games to find his weaknesses.
Fritz
The most popular chess program is Fritz Chess. I am sure, that every chess grandmaster on this planet uses Fritz to help analyze his games or prepare opening variations or to check the database to find games of his opponent. You can analyze your games with Fritz to find mistakes. Fritz is a German chess program produced by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist. There is also a version that is called "Deep Fritz" and is designed for multi-processing.
Rybka
Rybka is getting more and more popular. This program is known for its outstanding playing strength and it plays like a human, so you have a very natural feel to the game. Rybka is the strongest program available, I believe. See ranking list at Computer World Chess Championsship