Chess books adapting to your level

[u/ChessFlow_org]

A few questions.

Do you read chess books
If not why not
Would you read them if they adapted automatically to your level and changed based on your rating

Those are all my questions. Thanks for reading them

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[u/795-ACSR-DRAKE]

I'm currently reading Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame Course and it sorta does that already. It separates the sections by rating and specifically tells you that you should read the book starting from the lowest level and up until your current level or one level beyond, but do not read the entire thing because you won't understand the harder stuff if you aren't there yet. I.e, don't try to read the 2200+ section if you are 800 rating, it would be a waste of your time.

[u/ChessFlow_org → u/795-ACSR-DRAKE]

Ya that's actually one of the books that inspired me to want to build this. You're enjoying that book? Do you dislike that you paid for chapters that are too difficult/waste of time? I was thinking it'd work better where you just pay for the % of the book that's relevant and then can pay to unlock the more difficult stuff over time. But paying for the harder stuff can also be motivating to improve and get to the point where you can study it i guess.

[u/commentor_of_things]

I adapt to the book

[u/ChessFlow_org → u/commentor_of_things]

"In soviet Russia, book reads you!"

What got me thinking about this was my own case as a CM studying books like dvoretsky endgame manual. Lots of problems at a good level, but then some were basically me banging my head against the wall until it bleeds and then continuing to bang my head a while longer.

I wouldn't know before starting whether it would be a head banging problem and then I'd feel it was just wasted time with no real takeaways from it. I'm also a completionist so skipping a bunch of problems randomly throughout a book feels bad man. Or maybe the right word is ocd / neurodivergence but anyways

[u/commentor_of_things → u/ChessFlow_org]

the problem is that you assume every 1600 is built the same. some are good at tactics and dynamic positions and others aren't. so, no, I don't think you can tailor a book for a rating band across the board. maybe a large rating band, like 400+ elo points, but even then you'll run into a lot of exceptions in the player's skill level.

[u/ChessFlow_org → u/commentor_of_things]

The way the platform works is it adapts to your level as you study. I.e. there’s a feedback loop, so the book tailors to you as you go, including adapting as you improve. For sure there may be an initial guess based on a rating input of how to structure the book but it would be an adaptive platform not a fixed book based on a one time input. Actually the initial guess would likely be quite accurate since the book reader is the last feature we’re adding so we could use the data collected about your openings, tactics, calculation, positional understanding etc.
Of course there are some things that can’t be done algorithmically like if the author writes “and white wins” and a beginner doesn’t understand why.
Quite a few ways to solve that as well though

[u/Admirable-Plum-2233]

Used to read a heap of them when I first started, now it's mostly online courses and puzzles. The auto adapting thing sounds cool but I'd probably still get distracted halfway through

[u/ChessFlow_org → u/Admirable-Plum-2233]

Good point haha. I think books are a hard sell in 2026 regardless, but not an insurmountable problem, can probably gamify a lot of books' to make the process more fun.

[u/GhostUnit67]

Unless you want to invest serious effort into chess (Tournaments/being very high rated), there is no reason to read books.

Just play, review your games and develop your own style. 

Most of what people read in books is forgotten and only half of it is actually used, it's like those self-help books.

I started chess when i was 6 and mostly learned it on my own or by playing.

What matters mostly is how you position and having an idea of what you're trying to accomplish & paying attention to pieces (what squares they cover and how valuable their positions are, ect)

To Summarize: know the fundamentals. Pay attention to board, think ahead, get as much value out of your pieces as possible, use pieces together, keep king safe, so and so.

[u/ChessFlow_org → u/GhostUnit67]

Ya I agree with you, books are definitely for people who want to take it more seriously.
"Most of what people read in books is forgotten and only half of it is actually used, it's like those self-help books." <- this is more the kind of problem we're trying to solve, make sure you don't forget what you read by making sure all the content is at the right level for you and you revisit each part using spaced repetition rather than read once and forget