How to Find a Good Chess Book ?

Before you start reading this article, I would like to thank the people that liked my posts and looked at my blog posts.

I didn't think you would like this that much, so I am thinking about creating a second post about which opening you should be playing in Blitz to get better and gain rating points.

Tell me what you think in the comments of this post, or send me a message per mail/insta and I'll answer you.

Thank you again !

Why Training Books and Manuals Are Better Than Theory Books in Chess

In the world of chess improvement, players often face a crucial decision: should they invest in comprehensive theory books or focus on training manuals and practical exercise books? While both serve a purpose, I strongly believe that for the vast majority of players, especially those below the master level, training books and manuals offer far more value than books dedicated solely to theory. Here's why:

Practical Application vs Theoretical Knowledge

Chess theory books often dive deep into opening systems, historical games, or elaborate endgame studies. While this knowledge can be fascinating, it's usually more theoretical than practical. For most club players and even advanced amateurs, the challenge isn’t a lack of theoretical knowledge but rather the inability to apply what they know under the pressure of actual games.
Training books, on the other hand, are designed to make you think and apply concepts in real-time. They are packed with puzzles, strategic exercises, and step-by-step explanations of typical middlegame ideas, forcing you to work through problems as they would appear in a real game. These hands-on exercises directly improve your ability to think critically during live play.

Retention and Learning by Doing

Let’s be honest: reading about an opening or a famous chess game won’t necessarily improve your play unless you spend countless hours memorizing sequences or understanding the deep reasoning behind each move. But how many players have the time and energy to go through hundreds of theoretical lines?
Training books offer a more active learning approach. By solving tactical puzzles or practicing positional exercises, you're engaging your brain actively. Studies in learning theory show that active engagement improves retention, as opposed to passive consumption (like just reading theory). Training books make you work on your calculation, visualization, and decision-making, which are the real keys to improvement.

For example, I created a short but simple tactical book based on the underpromotion.
All my chess manuals can be found here :
Underpromotion Checkmate Chess: A Beginner's Guide to Chess's Secret Weapon

Chess Training is About Identifying Weaknesses

Most club-level players have noticeable weaknesses—whether it's tactical awareness, endgame technique, or overall strategic understanding. The best way to tackle these issues is not by diving deep into theory, but by identifying these weaknesses and addressing them directly through specific exercises. Training books are curated with this in mind. They offer sections focused on improving your weakest areas, helping you directly target and correct your mistakes.
For example, a player struggling with defending against tactics will benefit far more from a training manual with hundreds of defense exercises than from a book explaining the history and evolution of the King’s Gambit.

Faster Improvement Through Repetition

One of the key features of training manuals is that they emphasize repetition. By repeatedly solving similar types of positions (whether tactical, strategic, or endgame-focused), you build pattern recognition. This pattern recognition is one of the core skills separating stronger players from weaker ones.
Theory books, by contrast, often present information without giving you the opportunity to internalize it. You might read about a famous game between two grandmasters, but unless you repeatedly see and solve similar positions, that knowledge will be hard to retain and even harder to apply.

It was a short but effective way to explain to you how important it is to use chess manuals/training books rather than theory books.

Thank you

Contact :

YouTube : Chess - FM Loris - YouTube
Email : lorischesstrainer@gmail.com
Instagram : @chessloris