[.ca] 500 Master Games of Chess (ISBN 0486232085)

Why is this a good book??:
Here's why! Chess games have come a long way since the 19th century, and in my opinion recent GM games have most of its charm. But the games from this book are 50+ years old, and the players varied. We have Stenitz the defensive master, Blackburne and Anderssen's attacking games, Capablanca's simplicity, and Sultan Khan's positional masterpeices. Not to mention Lasker, Morphy, Botvinnik, Charousek, Pillsbury and a host of others. In essence it is a complete book, which includes the most well known games. And the most important reason why this book is good? Because it brings the art back into chess, playing the game for the love of it!! Will it improve your rating? Dunno! Will it improve your understanding and love of chess? Surely!!

Throughly enjoyable, really fun collection!:
I played through darn near every game in this book, and if I missed a couple it wasn't because I meant to! I found Tartakower's annotations to be extremely helpful and fun to read. By the time you finish this great book, you'll have a complete openings course! They're all of course old variations, and I'm sure that if you used a computer (or are yourself a grandmaster) you'll probably find errors or that many lines are sub-optimal. However, I found some of the neglected lines absolutely inspiring, and I loved the selection of very exciting games, lots of beautiful combinations. If you want to see how the "Old Masters" played the game, I recommend this very entertaining and refreshing text!

Lacking in detail:
"500 Master Games Of Chess" is a reissue of a little-known 1938 book in three volumes that covers a large number of interesting games of chess played up to the time of Alekhine. The book classifies its games according to the opening, and because it deals with large numbers of early games many involve openings unfamiliar to the present-day chess player. As to how good the choice of games is it is most difficult for me to judge, but many of them were already familiar to me from reading on Chess as a child. What really makes this book by no means ideal to increase one's knowledge of chess, however, is the fact that none of the many games included are annotated or analysed with anything like enough detail to permit the casual reader with little time on his/her hands to understand exactly what went on during the course of these games. Thus, the games feel to the reader who knows anything about Chess to be merely recorded. Never is analysis of critical moves or mistakes given with an understanding of alternative routes the games shown could have taken. What annotation exists does little for the games at all. On the whole, this is more a collection of games than a book, and can best be described as of moderate value only.

A great collection of annotated games:
I bought this book when searching for a collection of annotated master games, so that I could study and improve my own games. This book is a treasure trove of fabulous chess games, carefully annotated by a grandmaster that was legendary in his time and by a chess editor that has a lot of experience under his belt. The annotations are very clear and concise, highlighting themes and individual combinatoral genius as it occurs. It is on par with the annotations made by Alekhine in his two volume set "My Best Games of Chess". This book was written in the age of descriptive notation. So, you will not find algebraic notation in this book anywhere. It is easy enough to translate between the two, and readers who are willing to make the translation will be rewarded with the masterpiece of a game as they play through it. Of course, there are databases out there that have these games in algebraic notation, should the reader be put off by such activity. This book is a 3-volume set bound into one cover, categorized into open games, semi-open games, and closed games. This makes this book not only a great value (can't beat the price with a stick!), but it makes finding specific TYPES of games easy. In addition, the table of contents goes one step further by stating the opening used in each game. Some of the openings have fallen out of vogue since the publication of this book, but they still provide an excellent study in classical chess. This book is a great value, essentially giving the reader three books in one cover for the cost of less than one single volume. Sure, the notation is an old style system, but it's more than outweighed by the quality of the games, notations, and cost. This book is an absolute bargain.

A book with soul:
Tartakower wrote a masterpiece to remain forever. 500 completely anotated games from the past is a treasure. Forget about the fact that computer programs can trash these games and think about those days when people actually played chess over the board. The collection of games is classified according to the openings and is presented impecably so that the reader can browse the book in specific sections. The players index also facilitates studying games from a particular master from the past. I very much enjoy using this book because one of the advices that I received from a very strong player long time ago is that I must emulate a classical player and understand his game completely to incorporate his ideas on my game 9Simple enough, I copied the openings repertoire of a very strong player and literally studied all of his games.) Dover produces excellent books and this one is no exception.