I have a collection of physical chess books, many of which I also own in digital formats, either Kindle or PDF. They contain annotated games, diagrams, variations, and valuable analysis, but everything is locked inside static pages.

I wanted to turn these books into interactive ChessBase databases without manually entering hundreds of games and positions.

The solution combines Python, OCR, a Large Language Model (LLM), Stockfish, and my old ChessBase 15.

A Python program reads the PDF page by page. OCR extracts the text, while the LLM identifies games, moves, variations, and comments. Chess diagrams are converted into FEN positions, and games are reconstructed in PGN format, preserving the original annotations.

Stockfish checks the legality of moves and helps detect errors in the reconstructed positions.

Once the material is processed, a Python bot controls ChessBase 15, imports the PGN files, and organizes everything into a CBH database.

The result is a chess book transformed into an interactive study tool.

Instead of looking at static diagrams, I can replay games, explore variations, analyze positions with modern engines, and compare the author's ideas with current evaluations.

The interesting part is that none of these technologies needs to be reinvented. Python connects the components, AI interprets the content, Stockfish validates the chess positions, and ChessBase provides the study environment.

A chess book written fifty years ago can now be explored using today's technology.

This is a practical example of how AI can give new life to existing knowledge and software.

Sometime ago I asked for recommendations in books and/or courses to improve at chess. But now, when im about to start, I realize that I have no idea how to actually study chess. Do I have to read/watch the course and take notes or something like that? This might sound stupid to some but I never really studied chess on my own

I have a long work commute. Perfect for audio booking. I recently got interregnum which I thought was quite good. Are there any other recommendations for similar such books about chess (especially the experiences and personalities of modern chess era) and that are available in and suitable for audio format. I'm aware of dark squares, but I'd rather focus on the top professional players.

1. Rabinovich – The Russian Endgame Handbook
2. Grooten – Chess Endgames for Club Players
3. Mednis – Rate Your Endgame
4. Nunn – Understanding Chess Endgames
5. Flear – Improve Your Endgame Play
6. Hawkins – Amateur to IM
7. Müller & Lamprecht – Fundamental Chess Endings
8. Keres – Practical Chess Endings

Struggling to pick an endgame book, im 2000 rated in lichess almost solely from casual playing so i now feel like iv come to a point where theoretical backing and learning fundamental concepts to build upon will help me a lot... I know very little theory (2nd rank rooks, opposition, K vs KP endgames, basic mates) and wanna improve fast, I dont have a lot of time so appreciate books that dont waste too long pondering and philosophizing chess.

It seems like I'v gotta pick 2 books, one for theory and one for practical stuff/strategy or one beginner one that covers both and another that builds upon it... Im very confused on what to pick for my purposes and what the different books specialize in or how they compare.

Any help's appreciated

I'm looking to improve my positional/strategic play, I'm 2100-2200 elo in rapid lichess. Any recos?

iv got very little free time and i enjoy chess, im rated 2000 on lichess classical from playing chess for fun but now i kinda feel like i dont have the conceptual backing to grow my skill at the rate i would otherwise... ive got the bare minimum of positional knowledge for my rating, and what really keeps me into chess is really cool, unique and dynamic positions rich in possibilities. initially tals games got me hooked and when my interest started wavering i discovered alpha zero's alien playstyle which got me back into chess very recently... heres what i want out of a book (actually i kinda would like 2 books recommended):

Book 1:

- something that isnt too basic, i loose interest quick, i know my fundamentals are lacking but id prefer a book that takes more complex positions to demonstrate fundamentals and to really get me thinking and learning
- really dont like when chess authors decide to go on tangents or philosophizing chess musing over its intricacies, mostly because iv got very little time and wanna improve my conceptual understanding
- a buncha concepts in one book, i do a lot better when i rotate between concepts and grow them together, as opposed to mastering one, then moving to the next, mastering that, then the next....
- i love dynamics, complications, imbalanced chess, so if that could factor in thatd be great

Book 2:

- besides that one book im looking for, i also want a really good endgame book, the idea of being an incredible endgame player that can squeeze drawn positions or can exploit imbalanced positions even if its completely equal has always seemed rly cool to me, magnus esque or nodirbek like

sorry if this post is rly clutter brained, im really sleepy, thanks for giving this a look

Are any previous year or mock test papers available for Senior National Arbiter's examinaton , India ?

Hey everyone,

I have started to play chess again after so many years. Currently my elo on Chess.com is 100. When it comes to chess strategy, it mixed bag for me. The game starts strong, but then i lose focus, and my middle game and end game falls apart. I hear great things about winning chess series. However, I am curious if there are other books you would recommend I should read through. I am all ears.

Aniolel.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

A book is in the works about Claude F. Bloodgood (1937-2001): the convicted murderer and chess Senior Master whose litany of enticing but often over-the-top tales about his life have mesmerized countless reporters from both chess outlets and mainstream media outlets over the years.

Ben Graff, a UK journalist who is co-authoring the book with the widely published chess writer IM Cyrus Lakdawala, reached out to me recently upon learning that I have a cache of handwritten letters from Bloodgood. Those letters came to me during my senior year of college. In a column I was writing for a small postal chess club, I had placed a note asking club members to submit their games for me to annotate in the column. Bloodgood, a prolific correspondence player while serving a life sentence for violently killing his mother in a fight over money, sent me a letter with a game he’d played against a British politician named John Walker.

Instead of publishing Bloodgood’s game, I challenged him to a pair of postal games with me, to which he readily agreed. I’m sure you’d love to see a critical position from one of our contests, and/or a replay link to the annotated games… but Reddit mods, sadly, prefer that you not see them. With a well crafted search string you should be able to find them on the web.

While relaying his chess moves, Bloodgood’s letters conveyed colorful tales of various adventures and misadventures both in and out of chess. But I view many of his claims with a tablespoon of salt. For instance, he told me he’d delivered weapons to Fidel Castro’s forces in the Cuban Revolution that concluded at the beginning of 1959. He also wrote that he’d played blitz with Humphrey Bogart when the actor’s USO tour visited a military base where Bloodgood was stationed within the U.S. That one I believe… but he also told interviews that Bogie then invited him to a cabana several times to play chess with a bevy Hollywood stars – sounds like a fish story to me.

A more consequential story involved his 1974 escape while outside on a chess-related furlough. Bloodgood and a fellow inmate turned the tables on their prison guard and took off with his guns. They were captured a few weeks later. In typical blame-anyone-but-me fashion, he blamed his escape on the guard! “I testified against a popular prison official, e.g., George Winslow, for attempting to use me to pull robberies while out on chess trips,” one of his letters to me read. “… The escape came when Winslow put guns in our hands. The choice was rob or no chess trips, and neither appealed to me. So….”

Many years later, Bloodgood’s U.S. Chess rating became a source of high-profile arguments when it reached the 2700s amid an endless series of USCF-rated OTB tournaments inside prison walls that Bloodgood organized and played in. There were unconfirmed allegations that he rigged in-prison events by plotting for some inmates to regularly throw games to others to help accelerate his own rating advance. Bloodgood denied that, noting instead that he’d repeatedly warned federation officials that closed player pools such as prisons can distort ratings even without deliberate manipulation. He did concede that his actual strength never much exceeded 2400; I and most others who played him assessed him as more like 2100-2200, at best.

I found Bloodgood to be an adept, engaging writer. That no doubt aided his visibility and (mostly misplaced) credibility among the many journalists and others who interviewed him.

I built a browser-based edition of My System using Philip Hereford’s 1929 translation.

You can read alongside an interactive board, replay the illustrative games and passage examples, and explore your own moves. It works on phones, requires no account, and saves reading progress locally.

https://yencarnacion.github.io/my-system/

It’s a working transcription rather than a fully proofread edition

The code is at
https://github.com/yencarnacion/my-system

I'm looking for good chess books, especially endgame and opening books.

Note: I've already read Logical Chess by Irving Chernev, Tactics Time 2, and Learn from Your Chess Mistakes by Chris Baker

I’ve known how to play chess for a long time. But I have zero strategy. My brain processes things in such a strange way, I’m not sure I’ll ever fully understand the actual strategy of the game. There are certain people, who think like me, that I play with and we have a blast. But put me with a different brain comparatively, and I feel like my brain became my left hand and was asked to write a sentence (I’m right handed. My left hand can barely wave correctly..). I’ve tried to teach myself strategy but none of it sticks. Am I alone? Is this really that difficult of a game for certain brains? Any resources you guys have used that helped make the strategy part click?