500 Master Games of Chess

by Julius Du Mont, Savielly Tartakower, S.G. Tartakover

Book Overview

This compilation of 500 master games is the greatest standard collection of chess games ever published. Ranging over 150 years of master play, these games include masterpieces of every kind by such master players as Anderssen, Morphy, Blackburne, Pillsbury, Lasker, Marshall, Steinitz, Tarrasch, Alekhine, Capablanca, Spielmann, Tartaower, Rubinstein, R ti, Nimzowitsch, Euwe, Botvinnik, and many more. There are also once-in-a-lifetime matches, such...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486232085
• ISBN13: 9780486232089
• Release Date: June 1975
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 720 Pages
• Weight: 1.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

One of My All-Time Favorites

I believe I have heard more people choose this book as the chess book they would prefer to get stuck with on a desert island than any other. Next to David Bronstein's book on Zurich 1953, I'd pick this one. About the only "negatives" in this book are the same ones most people under the age of 50 complain about: 1) Descriptive notation. I figure it's worth it to spend 20 minutes learning DN, rather than look for an algebraic version at double the price. 2) Tartakover was unable to access a 21st-Century computer and come up with a ton of analysis, which would, of course, have lengthened the book by about 1,000 pages and tripled the price. If you can put up with those problems, you should find this book and probably 50 other Dover chess books worth your while.

Fantastic Collection of important games

500 MASTER GAMES OF CHESS contains a fantastic collection of lightly annotated games. The games are arranged by opening making it easy for you to concentrate on games using openings you are interested in studying. The games are all older and the book are not in Algebraic Notation. Though, with this in mind this book is a must for any series student wanting access to some of the most theoretically important games over a wide period of chess history.

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.

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!

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.