Games Books PDF Free Download – Indoor Games of All Kinds

Chess Strategy Books PDF – Collection

About 630 free online Chess books at the Internet Archive. Some books: Your First Chess Games, Comprehensive Chess Openings, A World Champion’s Guide to Chess, Three Days with Bobby Fisher, 200 Demanding Chess Puzzles, Improving Your Chess, Chess Self-Teacher, 639 Essential Endgame Positions, Chess Attack and Counterattack, many more.

Folkscanomy Chess Books – Collection – Games Books PDF Free Download

About 460 free online Chess books selected for this special collection at the Internet Archive. Some books: Elements of Chess Strategy, 64 Great Chess Games, The Unknown Bobby Fischer, What It Takes to Become a Chess Master, Simple Chess, How to Build Your Chess Opening Repertoire, Half a Century of Chess, How to Crush Your Chess Opponents, Mastering Chess Tactics, The Tao of Chess, Easy Guide to Chess, Chess for Amateurs, The Oxford Companion to Chess, many more.

More Free Books at Internet Archive on Games Topics

Adventure games

Board games

Card games

Dungeons and Dragons (Game)

Electronic games

Internet games

Puzzles and games

Video games

War games

My Best Games of Chess, 1908-1937 – Games Books PDF Free Download

Alekhine, Alexander

Dover 1985

World Champion from 1927-35 and again from 1937-46, Alexander Alekhine ranks as one of the four or five greatest players in chess history. A master of all phases of chess, his games were richly conceived and immensely complex. As Bobby Fischer observes in his writings, “He played gigantic conceptions, full of outrageous and unprecedented ideas.”
This unequaled collection reproduces Alekhine’s 220 best games, his own personal accounts of the dazzling victories that made him a legend. Filled with Alekhine’s own penetrating commentary on strategy and tactics, and enhanced by a revealing memoir, My Best Games is grandmaster chess at its most sublime.

Capablanca Chess Fundamentals

Capablanca, Jose

Harcourt, Brace

World Chess Champion José Raul Capablanca presents this classic work of chess tactics and strategy. Many regard it as one of the best books of chess instruction written in the 20th century. Capablanca demonstrates essential techniques for all game phases, including how to exploit a passed pawn, how to use knights for attack and how to win by indirect attack. Each piece’s strengths are explained and demonstrated in 14 illustrative games, and Capablanca includes a section on general chess theory that can serve as an introduction to the subject for beginning players. Special care is given to the particulars of endgame play, as well as the hidden powers of pawns.

The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book

Emms, John

Gambit 2000

It is generally agreed that one of the best ways for a chess-player to improve is by studying tactics – and the best way to do that is by practicing. This book provides a wealth of puzzle positions to test just about every facet of your tactical skills. The puzzles in this book have been selected by analysing games new and old in search of original puzzle positions.

Modern Chess Openings – Games Books PDF Free Download

Firmian, Nick D.

Random House 2008

First published over a half-century ago, this is a completely revised and updated edition of the book that has been the standard English language reference on chess openings. An invaluable resource for club and tournament players, it now includes information on recent matches and the most up-to-date theory on chess openings. Ideal for intermediate players ready to elevate their game to the next level or International Grandmasters who want to stay on top of recent chess innovations.

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess

Fisher, Bobby

Bantam 1972

Through practice problems and exercises, you’ll learn tactics and strategies to master the art of the checkmate. Perfect for all chess players beginner to advanced; from those just learning the game to experienced players trying to improve, every chess student will learn more about the game. This book is the definitive way to learn how to play chess, or to master more complex chess strategies.

U.S. Chess Federation’s Official Rules of Chess

United States Chess Federation

McKay 1987

In addition to rules, “also contains explanations of every legal move, a guide to calculating lifetime rankings, guidelines for sponsoring and running a tournament, and a lesson on how to read and write chess notation.”

Playing Cards Books – Collection

About 330 books from the Internet Archive free online on the subject of Card Games. Some books: World’s Greatest Family Card Games, Scarne’s Encyclopedia of Card Games, Official Rules of Card Games, Card Games for Smart Kids, Teach Yourself Card Games, The Penguin Book of Card Games, Crazy Eights and other Card Games, Book of Card Games for Little Kids, Ultimate Guide to Trading Card Games, 101 Unusual Things to Do with Playing Cards, Starting Out in Poker, many more.

Poker Collection – Games Books PDF Free Download

About 370 books from the Internet Archive free online on the subject of Poker. Some books: Secrets of Short-handed No Limit Hold’em, How to Win at Poker, High Stakes Poker, Learn Poker in 10 Minutes, How to Win at Poker Tournaments, Lessons from the Felt, Winning Poker Strategy, Basics of Video Poker, Seven Card Stud for Advanced Players, 7 Card Stud: 42 lessons, many more.

Contract Bridge – Collection

About 440 books from the Internet Archive free online on the subject of Contract Bridge. Some books: Begin Bridge with Reese, Winning Swiss Team Tactics in Bridge, The Elements of Bridge, Better Bidding in 15 Minutes, Bridge Conventions, Defenses and Countermeasures, Complete Book of Bridge, Precision Bridge for Everyone, Championship Bridge, many more.

Patience: A Series of Games with Cards

Cheney, Ednah Dow Littlehale

Lee and Shepard 1869

Numerous variations of the one-person card game(s) often known as “Solitaire”.

Complete Hoyle – Games Books PDF Free Download

Foster, Robert Frederick

Stokes 1914

A complete encyclopedia of all indoor games, such as auction bridge, mah Jong, poker, Russian bank, and all the other card games, backgammon and checkers, chess, billiards, and pool, bowling, dice games, and dominoes. It gives suggestions for good play, illustrative hands, and all official laws to date. First edition published in 1897.- A.L.A. Catalog 1926.

Foster’s Auction Bridge Up to Date

Foster, Robert Frederick

Stokes 1910

“Contains the official laws of auction bridge as adopted by the Whist Club of New York, revised to October 1010, and includes material on methods of play and the tactics of the game.” – A.L.A.Catalog 1904 – 1911.

Hoyle’s Rules of Games

Morehead, Albert H. and Mott-Smith, Geoffrey

New American Library 1983

Not only how to play games but also how to win them, with expert advice on strategy and authoritative information for settling disputes over any number of fine points.
Bridge — Poker — Rummy — Stops — All fours — Triumph — Hearts — Oh hell — Pinochle — Skat — Cribbage — Klaberjass — Casino — Card games played by children — Banking and gambling games — Solitaire — Dominoes — Board games — Dice games — Parlor games — Scrabble.

Scarne’s Encyclopedia of Card Games

Scarne, John

Perennial Library 1995

This is the essential, all-inclusive guide to today’s card games, including poker, bridge, baccarat, solitaire, and dozens of others, as well as histories and variations in the games, odds, and tips on how to detect cheating.

Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker – Games Books PDF Free Download

McManus, James

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2009

Cowboys Full is the story of poker, from its roots in China, the Middle East, and Europe to its ascent as a global—but especially an American—phenomenon. It describes how early Americans took a French parlor game and, with a few extra cards and an entrepreneurial spirit, turned it into a national craze by the time of the Civil War. Cowboys Full shows how what was once accurately called the cheater’s game has become amostly honest contest of cunning, mathematical precision, and luck. It explains how poker, formerly dominated by cardsharps, is now the most popular card game in Europe, East Asia, Australia, South America, and cyberspace, as well as on television. It combines colorful history with firsthand experience from today’s professional tour.

Positively Fifth Street

McManus, James

Picador 2004

Rough sex, black magic, murder, and the science-and eros-of gambling meet in the ultimate book about Las Vegas
James McManus was sent to Las Vegas by Harper’s to cover the World Series of Poker in 2000, especially the mushrooming progress of women in the $23 million event, and the murder of Ted Binion, the tournament’s prodigal host, purportedly done in by a stripper and her boyfriend with a technique so outré it took a Manhattan pathologist to identify it. Whether a jury would convict the attractive young couple was another story altogether.
McManus risks his entire Harper’s advance in a long-shot attempt to play in the tournament himself. Only with actual table experience, he tells his skeptical wife, can he capture the hair-raising brand of poker that determines the world champion. The heart of the book is his deliciously suspenseful account of the tournament itself; the players, the hand-to-hand combat, and his own unlikely progress in it.

Poker as Life: 101 Lessons from the World’s Greatest Game

Schreiber, Lee Robert

Hearst 2004

Where else but at the poker table can you discover all in one place the principles of finance (money management, risk and reward); mathematics (probability and odds); sociology (getting along with disparate, sometimes odious, personalities for the good of the game); literature (playing by the book); and, above all, psychology (in which the perceptive, intuitive, and observant student of human nature will usually be materially rewarded). Poker As Life is a primer for success. If you lie but never cheat, play the hand you’re dealt, and make your own luck, then you’ll never go bust.
As a bonus, there are dozens of entertaining and edifying life lessons provided by poker pros and other famous folk.

Educational Games Collection

Numerous free online books at the Internet Archive, resulting from a search for books on “Educational Games”. Some books: Thinking Games, Dell Book of Logic Problems, Teach Your Child with Games, Educational Games for Fund, Playtime Learning Games for Young Children, Active Learning: games to enhance academic abilities, Games to Increase Your Natural Intelligence, Games to Play with Toddlers, 77 Games for Reading Groups, many more.

Puzzle Books – Collection

About 3,600 Puzzle books are here, online and free. Types include Crosswords Puzzle Books, Brain Twisters, SuDoku, Kids’ Activities, Mazes, Logic Puzzles, BrainTeasers, I Spy, Picture Puzzles, Mensa Challenges, MindBenders, Kids’ Games, Optical Illusions, Whodunits, Su Doku, Travel Games, Scrabble, IQ Challenges, Rubik’s Cube, Op-Art Mazes, and Labyrinths.

Crossword Puzzle Books PDF – Collection – Games Books PDF Free Download

About 430 free online books at the Internet Archive, resulting from a search for books on Crosswords Puzzle Books. Some books: Crossword Puzzle Dictionary, Inside the Crossword Puzzle Word, The Crossword Obsession, Complete Crossword Wordfinder, A to Z Crossword Puzzle Solver, Crossword Puzzler’s Handbook, Crossword Shortcuts, 200 Mind-Bending Challenges, Highlights Puzzlemania, Word Hunt, Bible Crossword Puzzles, many more.

Picture Puzzles Books PDF – Collection

About 1,100 free online books at the Internet Archive, resulting from a search for books on “Picture Puzzles”. Some books: I Spy Fantasy, Can You See What I See, Football Frenzy Spot-it Challenge, I Spy Treasure Hunt, Picture Puzzles for the Super Smart, Crosswords puzzle books pdf, Life Picture Puzzle, Hidden Pictures, What’s Wrong at the Winter Carnival?, many more.

Riddles Books – Collection

About 1,200 books from the Internet Archive free online on the subject of Riddles. Some books: Riddles of Many Lands, More Mind Teasers, Riddle Me This, The World’s Best Conundrums and Riddles of All Ages, Chuckles and Grins, Ten Copycats in a Boat and other Riddles, Complete Book of Insults, Boasts and Riddles, Real Science Riddles, many more.

Word Games Books – Collection

About 400 free online books at the Internet Archive, resulting from a search for books on “Word Games”. Some books: A Book of Puzzlements, A to Z of Word Games, Oxford Guide to Word Games, More Fantastic Word Puzzles, The Incredible Science Puzzle Challenge, Brainteasers and Mindbenders, Word Pursuit, The Literate Puzzler, One-Minute Brainteasers, Mammoth Book of Astounding Word Games, many more.

The Handbook of Conundrums

Ordway, Edith Bertha

Sully 1913

A collection including the best of the old familiar conundrums and many new ones. Topically arranged. – A.L.A. Catalog 1926.

The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems – Games Books PDF Free Download

Gardner, Martin

Norton 2006

Martin Gardner was Scientific American’s renowned provocateur of popular math. His yearly gatherings of short and inventive problems were easily his most anticipated math columns. Grouped by subject and arrayed from easiest to hardest, the puzzles gathered here, which complement the lengthier, more involved problems in The Colossal Book of Mathematics, have been selected by Gardner for their illuminating; and often bewildering; solutions. Filled with over 300 illustrations.

Arcade Game Manuals – Collection

Over 2,000 manuals, circuit diagrams, cheat sheets and other materials related to the operation of arcade game machines. These were vital for installation and operation of the machines. Some games: Borderline, Cosmic Guerilla, Haunted Castle, Joust, Indy 4, Mortal Kombat II, Kram, Q’bert’s Cubes, Perfect Billiards, Armored Warriors, Battlezone, Maverick the Movie, Medieval Madness, many more.

Computer Game Manuals – Collection

User manuals for hundreds of computer games. Some game titles: Allied General, Battles in Normandy, Airport Tycoon 3, 007 Nightfire, Age of Wonders, Combat Flight Simulator 3, Caesar II, Capitalism II, Facemaker, Gettysburg Battleground 2, Heroes of Might & Magic III, The Cristal Key, Ultima I, Ghostbusters II, Command & Conquer Red Alert 2, Dark Fall 2, Castles II, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, many more.

Computer Games Collection

About 780 free online books at the Internet Archive, resulting from a search for books on “Computer Games”. Some books: Designing Character-based Console Games, Computer Games Designer, Game Programming for Teens, A Parent’s Guide to Computer Games, Ultimate Game Design, Awesome Game Creation: no programming required, Game Interface Design. Also numerous manuals and strategy guides for specific computer games.

Handheld Game Manuals – Collection – Games Books PDF Free Download

Over 200 manuals for electronic handheld games, popular from the 1970s to the 1990s. Some titles: Space laser Fight, Air Traffic Control, Alien Attack, Zaxxon, King Kong, Split Secon, Soccer & Space War, Head to Head Baseball, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Pinball, Computer Bowling, Cosmic Combat, many more.

Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter

Bissell, Tom

Pantheon 2010

A volume of essays about video games, by a writer who plays a lot of games. “The first truly indispensable work of literary nonfiction about society’s most lucrative entertainment medium. Bissell’s commentary is marvelously astute and his enthusiasm for games makes even his words on the printed page feel positively backlit.” Paste.

Gamer Theory

Wark, McKenzie

Harvard Univ. 2007

“For Wark, video games are worth studying because they offer insights into contemporary society and culture. [He] devotes complete chapters to particular games and the key concepts they clarify. The book is about gaming ambience – that is, gamespace – as the kinetic field within which game players exist.” PopMatters.

Console Living Room Games Collection

Not books, but actual video games. “The Internet Archive Console Living Room harkens back to the revolution of the change in the hearth of the home, when the fireplace and later television were transformed by gaming consoles into a center of videogame entertainment. Through use of the JSMESS emulator system, which allows direct access to these programs in your browser with no additional plugins or settings, these games can be enjoyed again. Simply click on the screenshot or “Emulate This” button for each individual cartridge, and on modern browsers the games will just start to run.” See the full intro at the website. Over 23,000 items here, as of November 2023.

Indoor Games Collection

About 280 books from the Internet Archive free online on the subject of Indoor Games. Some books: How to Entertain Your Guests: a book of indoor games, The Rainy Day Book, Party Games You Will Play Again, Charades & Party Games, 50 of the Finest Adult Party Games, Parlour Games, 50 of the Finest After Dinner Games, Outrageous Party Games, Quick Crowdbreakers and Games for Youth Groups, Game of Knowledge, many more.

Byrne’s New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards – Games Books PDF Free Download

Byrne, Robert

Harcourt Brace 1998

The author explains the rules of pool and billiards and offers advice on strategy with diagrams of various shots. How to play pool better. Over 400 illustrations.

Playing Off the Rail: A Pool Hustler’s Journey

McCumber, David

Avon 1997

“The author plays financial backer to a sharp-tongued player named Tony Annigoni, and takes him on the road across North America in search of highstakes games … This is a terrific book.” New Yorker.

VINTAGE BOOKS – Best Books on Games

Church Sociables and Entertainments Illustrated

Curtis 1898

From the Ladies Home Journal Religious Library.

Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium – Games Books PDF Free Download

Bancroft, Jessie Hubbell

Macmillan 1909

“Largely the result of original research on the part of the assistant director of physical training in the New York City schools. Contains a varied collection of games for playgrounds, gymnasiums, summer camps, children’s parties, seashore, etc.” – A.L.A.Catalog 1904 – 1911.

Folk-Dances and Singing Games

Burchenal, Elizabeth, ed.

Schirmer 1909

“Music (with words) and description of 26 folk dances of 10 European countries. Crampton’s Folk dance book (Barnes, 1909) contains a larger number of dances (42) The descriptions are clear but not illustrated. Crawford’s Folk dances and games (Barnes, 1908) is better adapted for teachers already having a knowledge of folk-dancing. Bergqulst’s Swedish folk dances (Barnes, 2d ed. 1910) gives music and full description for 23 Swedish dances.” – A.L.A.Catalog 1904 – 1911.

Ice-Breakers and the Icebreaker Herself

Geister, Edna

Doran 1922

A collection of games for large and small groups; musical games, stunts, and girls’ athletic games, compiled by a YWCA. secretary for war-time parties. Many were used successfully where large groups of soldiers were being entertained. First published in 1918 under the title Ice-breakers, this edition adds suggestions on recreation leadership. – A.L.A. Catalog 1926.

Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games

Kingsland, Mrs Florence

Doubleday 1904

“Excellent collection for all ages and occasions, with suggestions for special days, dinners, dances, tableaux and wedding anniversaries. Games mainly with apparatus.” – A.L.A.Catalog 1904 – 1911.

The American Girl’s Book, or, Occupation for Play Hours – Games Books PDF Free Download

Leslie, Eliza

Munroe and Francis 1831

Chapter headings are: – Sports and Pastimes, – Plays with Toys, – Little Games with Cards, – Riddles, – Amusing Work – Pincushions, – Needle Books, – Reticules, – Varieties.

Singing Games and Drills

Marsh, Chester Geppert

Barnes 1925

A recreational program of games, action stories and callisthenic drills for use in the schools of rural districts, and small towns having no graded system of physical education. The games may be used for entire school group play; they include posture tests, and May pole dance, with air of the music, and words. There are separate indexes of singing games, action stories, and running games. – A.L.A. Catalog 1926.

The Book of Games and Parties for All Occasions – Games Books PDF Free Download

Wolcott, Theresa Hunt, ed.

Small, Maynard 1919

Published by the Ladies Home Journal.

These Century Past Pages May Be of Interest

Books about Recreation and Outdoor Activities

Entertainment Magazines

Games Magazines

Hobbies and Crafts Magazines

Movies, TV, and Radio Magazines

Music and Music Industry Magazines