Book Reviews

Before you run out and buy that latest chess book, take a moment to see if it has been reviewed.

John Watson at TWIC
Should it surprise us that one of the best chess writers is also one of the best reviewers? Watson tries to review a wide range of books and does so with some regularity. I have generally found his analysis to be first rate and very useful. Worth reading regularly.

John Elburg at ChessMail
Despite the mangled English (which is rather charming, actually), these are excellent reviews. Like Watson, Elburg often includes a game from the book itself with his additional commentary — which proves what a strong analyst he is. Worth reading regularly.

Chess Book Reviews
The name says it all. These reviews are very good, by strong players and coaches. Geared especially toward coaches and those learning the game, but there are a broad range of books covered.

Randy Bauer’s Revealing Reviews
Bauer writes for a number of online outlets. His website contains reviews and lots of other interesting stuff.

Chessville Book Reviews
A great collection of reviews, generally written by and for average to expert players.

Jeremy Silman and Friends
The reviews at Silman’s site are generally quite good and by strong players.

ChessCafe’s Book Reviews
The link above is to the latest review. You can find older ones in the Book Review Archives. They use a range of reviewers (some excellent and others less so), and they even invite readers to try their hand. If interested, write to books@chesscafe.com.

John Pugh at IECG
Though the reviews seem to drop off after 2002, they are all very useful and good and may cover books still on the market.

Seagaard ChessReviews (English)
Very smart, insightful, and unabashedly critical reviews.

Mike Donnelly’s Reviews
These are quite thoughtful reviews of books and CDs that don’t get a lot of attention elsewhere in many cases. The author seems to have sat down and written about all the recent books in his library. Wish more chessplayers would do that so the rest of us would know what to buy!

Exeter Chess Club’s Reviews
A good collection of reviews and links to reviews of somewhat older books — but reviewed by great writers generally.

GM Square Book Reviews
A great listing of book reviews.

British Chess Magazine
Brief and sometimes too uniformly positive, these reviews nonetheless are often informative and easy to search through if you are looking for something specific.