Customer Reviews

My Best Games of Chess: 1905/1954 (Two Volumes Bound As One)

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At last count I have 350+ chess books, and probably 35 of them are games collections by GMs. My favorites are, in no order, "Secrets of Grandmaster Chess" by Nunn, Korchnoi's recent two-volume work, Kasparov's "The Test of Time," Tarrasch's "Three Hundred Chess Games", Timman's Best Games, Alekhine's Best Games, and Taimanov's Best Games. But over time, one book has emerged for me as head and shoulders above all of them, and this is Tartakower's "My Best Games of Chess, 1905-1954." It is a shockingly brilliant work, on every level that matters to me. It contains 210 games, annotated with brilliant wit, humor, and chess insight. Tartakower was so placed historically to have crossed swords with the old masters, the hypermoderns, and some of the modern Soviet era post-war players. He saw it all, and created some of it. His opening repertoire was varied and interesting. There are Catalans, Frenches, of course his namesake variation in the Queen's Gambit, Retis, Blumendfeld Counter-Gambits, Nimzo-Indians, orangutangs! (which he invented after 'consulting' with an orangutang during a pre-tournament visit to a zoo with other players), and many more. He talks often about static versus dynamic action, of critical moments, coordination of forces, outposts, etc., in a wonderfully instructive and enlightening manner. But it is his writing style that really stands out. One reads Alekhine's annotations and pictures this severe man, chain-smoking cigarettes, pounding the table to make his point. One sees Nimzowitsch as the slightly deranged mad scientist, fascinating but obscure. Tartakower comes across as the brilliant and kind professor, who holds you spellbound as you soak up everything he says. Many games collections ebb and flow. Sometimes I get bored with them or decide to only play through certain openings. This massive book (450 pages) has me glued to every game, not wanting to miss a thing. The games are introduced by little stories of the setting that shed humorous light on many figures in chess history. He gives personalities to many of the secondary lights, whose names we have only seen in books. For instance, check out his introduction to game 57 against Mieses (I have babbled enough and it is better to give you a sample of his writing): "As was said by the French master, Alphonse Goetz (who had come as a journalist representing several French newspapers) in a fine speech during the opening ceremony, one could not find a place more idyllically suited for a tournament than Baden-Baden. In the first week of this tournament, although I ran all sorts of risks, I only succeeded in drawing my first five games. Relying then, on this 'law of series,' Master Mieses facetiously apostrophised me on the eve of our encounter with these bantering words: 'Have you had sufficient preparation for obtaining your 6th draw?' These thoughtless words must have evidently provoked Destiny, who sleeps (according to a Homeric phrase) 'on the knees of the gods,' and here is how this anticipated 'draw' turned out." Here are a couple of remarks from that game: "7. QxP P-K3 Giving himself up to passive defence, Black shelters behind bastions that still seem intact."; "13. 0-0 B-Q2 Asthma-breathlessness-suffocation: as usually occurs, the germ of an incurable sickness does not stop spreading, and so gradually leads to catastrophe." The book also explores critical variations at length where appropriate. This book may be hard to find these days, but I cannot recommend it enough. It is may favorite chess book.

Tartakower had tremendous flair, as a player and as a writer. He played the hypermodern openings, but he was around before and after their heyday too. He saw it all and played it all. This book is better, in my opinion, than Alekhine's collection of games, but it is not as famous since Alekhine was a world champ. Tartakower was a tremendous writer who poured himself completely into his work. I consider this book to be an essential part of my collection, and I will never part with it. I am pulling it off the shelf constantly. Get it.

Dr Tartakower, poet, chess master, romantiicist, gambler(!) patriot, was born in Russia, migrated to Poland and then to France. This book brings his almost 50 years of top class chess together in one volume. Great Chess and a bargain price! You can build an opening repertoire here; get the sense of proper endgame play; and see how a Master plans to beat other Masters. Descriptive notation; plenty of good diagrams.

Excellent book, although standard notation. Went to my database to print algegraic notation and then went over games.