 | The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess, Third Edition by Patrick Wolff
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $6.49 Written by a Grandmaster who is a two-time US Champion. I wish I had started with this book, by far the best chess book for beginners. Aside from the basic rules, Wolff discusses the principles of opening, middle-, and endgame play. Each chapter includes many helpful problems, with solutions. It is key to work the problems: chess skills are built up by experience more than reading.
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 | Simple Checkmates by A.J. Gilliam
Buy new: $13.50 / Used from: $5.46 After getting an overall sense of the game with Wolff's book, it is time to hammer into your head how to mate your opponent. This book is wonderfully formatted with two checkmate problems per page. They start out very simple (mate-in-one problems) and end up with more complicated mate-in-two problems.
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 | Chess Tactics (Batsford Chess Book) by Paul Littlewood
Buy new: $17.06 / Used from: $10.28 Tactics, or the art of stealing material from your opponent, is the deciding factor in 99% of novice games. Littlewood's little book is a wonderfully succinct and clear introduction to this crucial skill. Each chapter describes a basic tactical pattern, and reinforces it with multiple problems.
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 | Chess Tactics for Beginners
This program will anneal the knowledge gained in the previous two books. It includes 1300 simple tactical problems divided into five levels of difficulty (from one-move mates to combinations). If you get a problem wrong, it will give you hints before showing you the answer. Once you can solve all these problems, you will have a solid basis in tactics, the most important skill for beginners.
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 | Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master by Jeremy Silman
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $16.38 The best beginner book on endings that I own, and I own too many. The endgame is extremely important: what good is a middlegame advantage if you cant turn it into a win? This book provides the secrets to the endgame in a readable, comprehensive, and unique format. Silman arranges the material by skill-level rather than topic so you can add knowledge of many facets of the endgame at the same time.
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 | Weapons of Chess: An Omnibus of Chess Strategies (Fireside Chess Library) by Bruce Pandolfini
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.88 Strategy is the art of choosing a move when there are no tactics present in the position. Each brief, easily digestible chapter presents a basic strategic idea with examples. This book will nicely complement the strategic wisdom in Wolff's book.
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 | Discovering Chess Openings: Building Opening Skills from Basic Principles by John Emms
Buy new: $19.46 / Used from: $8.49 Emms tidy little openings book stresses the importance of the principles of the opening so that you will be able to find the right moves without spending hours memorizing a repertoire. I put the opening book last in this list because beginners tend to spend way too much time studying openings while 99% of their games are decided by tactics in the middlegame.
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 | Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur by Max Euwe
Buy new: $8.76 / Used from: $2.68 A book of annotated games, by a previous world champion, to help consolidate all the knowledge you have gained from the previous books. These books will provide a basic grounding in the major dimensions of chess, from the opening to the endgame. Once you finish them, your friends will be asking you for advice about the game because they can never beat you.
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