[[[ (capsula = Latin for "small box of books") ]]]

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14 BOOKS LISTED… and counting.
1. C.J.S. Purdy Art of Chess Annotation Vol. I – C.J.S. Purdy [ISBN 1888710195]
2. C.J.S. Purdy Art of Chess Annotation Vol. II – C.J.S. Purdy [ISBN 0938-650831]
3. C.J.S. Purdy Art of Chess Annotation Vol. III – C.J.S. Purdy [ISBN 0938650858]
4. Guide to Good Chess – C.J.S. Purdy [ISBN 1888710047]
5. Action Chess: Purdy’s 24 Hour Opening Repertoire – C.J.S. Purdy [ISBN 0938650793]

(Afraid you’ll find yourself stranded on a desert island ala Castaway? After you discover water in coconuts, you realize that you are glad you brought along at least these five chess books. When you’re rescued, you’ll look forward to doing okay in that first tournament thanks to Mr. Purdy’s excellent and practical insights into the game.)

6. Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953 – annot. David Bronstein
[ISBN 0486238008]

(If you own only one games collection, this one should be it. It’s also an excellent starting piece to a library full of games collections…)

7. Understanding Chess Tactics – Martin Weteschnik [ISBN 9197524425]

(THE BEST book available today on tactics, hands down.)

8. Questions of Modern Chess Theory – Isaac Lipnitsky [ISBN 9781906552039]

(The rediscovered masterpiece of Soviet chess literature. Fischer learned Russian to read it and here it is now from Quality Chess Publishing. Honestly, if I’d know about this book at the beginning, I’d have saved so much anguish getting some of ‘those others.’)

9. Chess Openings Lexicon – Roy DeVault [ISBN 0875682804]

(This is in the Top 10 because I find it very useful to have a simple Openings list… I find myself looking through this one nearly at every turn.)

10. Point Count Chess – I.A. Horowitz/G. Mott-Smith [Out of Print - D. McKay Publ. 1960]

(Kind of a silly idea, using a counting system as in Bridge for Chess, but the strength of this book is in it’s crystal clarity in explaining positional chess. If you can find this book in good condition for under $20 [pre-dollar collapse of course] then get it… it’s that good.)

11. Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur – Max Euwe/Walter Meiden [ISBN 0486279472]

(This perennial gem is in a lot of GM book lists, simply because it’s terrific in its concise explanation)

12. The Chess Instructor 2009: The New in Chess Compendium for Chess Teachers, Coaches and Parents – Jeroen Bosch [ISBN 905691247X]

(A series of articles by Chess Teachers that is actually useful… this isn’t a mere, “read once and put it on the shelf” kinda book, but one you’ll find yourself looking at periodically. It was worth the price.)

13. USCF Official Rules of Chess 5th Edition – Ed. Tim Just & Daniel B. Burg

[ISBN 0812935594]

(What bookshelf would be complete without the Official Rule book?)

14. The Chess Players: A Novel of New Orleans and Paris. – Frances Parkinson Keyes [1960, Publ. by Farrar, Straus, Cudahy: New York]

(I don’t have much time to read novels, but Ms. Keyes was impeccable in her research and if you like history and are interested in an albeit fictionalized life of Paul Morphy, this is a finely written book.)

… more to be added.