Customer Reviews

The Games of Wilhelm Steinitz, First World Chess Champion

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having all of Steinitz' games, in this beautifully produced book, is such a chess joy. His games were always so entertaining, hard fought contests, lots of open games, yet he was a positional player. His competition was fierce, Anderssen, Zukertort, etc. I play lots of his openings, so this book is a real boon to me. It is filled with Vienna's, Ruy Lopezes, and Dutch Defenses. This is an essential book.

Steinitz annotated his won games in various books and magazines, and this is a worthwhile attempt to collect everything in a single work. However, we do not get the actual prose Steinitz wrote. What we get are the variations he gave, with his own punctuation marks (!, ?, !?, ?!, ??) after some moves, and his own evaluations (+=, -+, unclear, etc.). All in all, we get everything Steinitz wrote, but translated in Informant style. Also, this book contains almost 500 games played at odds, in simultaneous or blindfold exhibitions, in consultation, and by mail.

A worthless book. It is nothing but a collection of Steinitz games which you can get from any chess game database. The "annotations" are only variations interspersed with the moves of the game. There is no text explaining the approach, goals, strategy, etc. A complete waste of money to buy it and paper to print it. I have about 250 chess books, and I can't think of one I would rate below this book.