Twelve Great Chess Players and Their Best Games [Paperback]

Irving Chernev (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 1995

Noted authority selects 12 greatest players—Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker, Fischer, Botvinnik, Petrosian, Tal, Smyslov, Spassky, Bronstein, Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch—and presents 115 memorable games that show these masters at their most brilliant. Games include author’s choice of the greatest game ever played. 12 photos. Indexes. Bibliography.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (July 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486286746
• ISBN-13: 978-0486286747
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #555,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Wonderful Book by the Best Chess Author Ever, June 17, 2005

By 

Nicholas T. Lesniak "Chess Addict" (Charleston, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Twelve Great Chess Players and Their Best Games (Paperback)

Irving Chernev is without a doubt the best chess author in my opinion. He generates genuine chess interest in his readers and his passion for the game is clearly seen when reading over his annotations.

This book, of course, is a book on twelve grandmasters and 9 games of theirs each, respectively. Since the book was written some time ago, the selection of chess greats excludes those of the modern era(Karpov and Kasparov for sure), although Fischer is included. That isn't to say that the selection is bad or that the games aren't instructive and great.

The grandmasters are presented chapter by chapter according to their rating among the top 12(according to Chernev). Each grandmaster is preseneted with a quality biography about the man, and then follows with nine gems(many against other GM's, not just NN{no name} victories).

The games themselves are of a very high caliber, and my limited analysis with Deep Fritz 8 shows that for the most part Chernev's annotation is right on. You have to remember that he wrote this book long before the Fritz age.

The book itself is quite large, but thin, which allows it to be held open very easily and makes the book that much more accessible.

Since the book is a Chernev, and it's old, it's written in descriptive notation. I've covered my feelings on this in other reviews, but to sum it up: Descriptive Notation is NOT a deal breaker. It's extremely easy to learn, and many of the best(and cheapest!) chess books are written in it. Don't let that keep you from owning this classic.

I would suggest anyone about to buy this book to read Chernev's two other classics first(Logical Chess, and Most Instructional Games, in that order). The difficulty level of the book is probably on par with his Most Instructional Games book, so if you enjoyed and got something out of that book, you should have a great time with this one.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overlaps many other collections, November 12, 2003

By 

C. Dunn "independent thinker" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Twelve Great Chess Players and Their Best Games (Paperback)

Being a "best of" book, the 115 games here are easy to find elsewhere. For example, all 10 of Alekhine's section are in 'Alekhine's Best Games', and only 4 of Capablanca's were not in 'Capablanca's Best Games' (and 3 of those are in 'The Unknown Capablanca'). And of course, there is some overlap with 'The Mammoth Book of The Greatest Games of Chess' and other such books.

So if you already have several collections, you probably do not need this book.

If you don't (yet) own several collections, then you would be happier with something else by Chernev. Beginners can learn much from 'Logical Chess Move By Move', and intermediate players would find more value in 'Most Instructive Chess Games of All Time'. The games in 'Twelve' can be quite subtle in their exactness, which is not very instructive.

Still, this is easily a 5-star book. So who would enjoy it? If you're interested in the question, "Who's the best player ever?", then you'll enjoy going through this collection of 12 of the top candidates.

Read in that frame of mind, this book is a joy, a sort of Tournament of the Century. If only it were a Top 20, instead of a Top 12! Missing are Reshevsky, Keres, Fine, Euwe, Reti, Steinitz, Anderssen, Morphy, and of course anybody after the publication date of the book.

[By the way, the break-down of games by each player provided by another reviewer only accounts for wins.]

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Large size: 28.5cm x 21.2cm x 1cm, May 11, 2000

By 

Jun Saito - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twelve Great Chess Players and Their Best Games (Paperback)

Players(their games) ; Nimzowitsch(9) , Rubinstein(9) , Bronstein(9) , Spassky(9) , Smyslov(9) , Tal(9) , Petrosian(9) , Botvinnik(9) , Fischer(9) , Lasker(9) , Alekhine(10) , Capablanca(15)

I hope this helps.