Another Morphy Game AND My Favorite Game Collections!

As with all of us, I sometimes get just a little tired of studying tactical puzzles, opening theory and about a bagillion different King and Pawn endings. Whenever I feel this way I do one of two things: 1) Forget about Chess for a day, or 2) Play through some annotated games without any educational motive whatsoever! I just enjoy the games for their aesthetic and sporting value. This almost never fails to get me excited and thus ready to hit the study trail again the very next day.

With that in mind I have created a list that ranks the game collections that I have finished. Many of these are collections of one player's games, usually annotated by that very same player. Some of them are instructional anthologies such as the various move by move books. There are other collections that I own, and even though I may have consulted them for analysis or read through some of the games, I am not including them on this list since I have not finished the entire book. I think it is only fair to rank a book if I have actually completed it. So there are all books that I have actually completed. I have ranked them in order from worst to first (sort of like Letterman's top ten list):

This is just my opinion, but I believe that all such game collections should be read while playing the moves out on a board.

12. A First Book of Morphy by Frisco Del Rosario

I have commented on this book many times so I won't beat it to death, but I really feel that this book is extremely over rated. The annotations are boring, uninspired, and also uninformative. This book almost put a premature end to my Chessic pursuits!!

11. 50 Essential Chess Lessons by Steve Giddins

This is a good book but I was not ready for it. So therefore it gets a lower ranking then it probably deserves. The Morphy book above DOES deserve it's low ranking. :)

10. Power Chess by Paul Keres

This is a very good book. And it is very cheap on Amazon. Keres' annotations are very informative and insightful. This has a lot of great games in it. Not essential reading but recommended nonetheless.

9. Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur by Max Euwe and Walter Meiden

Excellent book! Most of you probably know this one. A very instructive book! The games are not the most scintillating but they ARE instructive!

8. Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking by Neil McDonald

SUPERB move by move annotated game collection! The games are GREAT and McDonald's annotations are both entertaining AND instructive! I will read the other two in this series!

7. Best Lessons of A Chess Coach by Sunil Weeramantry

I LOVE this book! I wish all instructional anthologies could be this well written. The FM at my local chess club recommended it to me and WOW was he dead on. One of the few books I want to read again.

6. My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer

What's this? Fischer isn't first?? I LOVE this book! The games are beyond fascinating but over my head, yet that does not diminish how much I loved playing through them. Fischer's annotations are AMAZING when you use them for comparative analysis for your own or others' games. The only reason I don't have this higher on the list is that Fischer's annotations are not the most fun to read through when just playing through the game. This book is borderline indispensible!!

5. Capablanca's Best Chess Endings by Irving Chernev

I love Chernev and after this book I fell in love with Capablanca's artistry at the board. This is one of the few game collections that had an immediate impact on my actual OTB play. I need more Capablanca games in my life!! (Chernev does get carried away sometimes in his adoration for Capablanca but I still love the book. In fact, if Del Rosario had showed an ounce of Chernev's passion I might not beat up on his Morpy book so much!)

4. 300 Chess Games by Seigbert Tarrasch

Tarrasch was dogmatic, arrogant and fun as hell to read!! His games are a mish mash of attacking chess, positional chess and sometimes even boring chess. His annotations are surprisingly objective and VERY instructive. Great book!! I can't wait to analyze some of these games.

3. My Fifty Years of Chess by Frank J. Marshall

This book was a surprise to me! I was so used to seeing Marshall get rolled by the other great players of his day that I was never interested in his own games collection. Was I wrong!! These games are SUPER fun to play through. Marshall's annotations are good but not great. He is not as self-deprecating and objective as Tarrasch. Marshall sometimes seems like he is trying to prove something. All that being said, these games are a hoot to play through.

2. Tal-Botvinnik: 1960 by Mikhail Tal

All chess writers should take a lesson from Tal on how to write a games collection. This book has it all! Great games? Yep! Concrete variations in the Analysis? Yep! Clear verbal explanations? Yep! Details about the psychological aspects of the match? Yep! Opening plans? Yep! Some of the driest and funniest writing in any games collection you will ever see? YEP! 'nuff Said! If you like chess you will most likely love this book.

1. Logical Chess: Move By Move by Irving Chernev

I can hear the catcalls now! How did Logical Chess beat out Fischer and others?? Well, this was the first games collection I read through and it was the one that lit my fire to learn and explore this game of chess. Chernev's love for the game is palpable! And he is not as rule oriented as he is made out to be. More than once in the book he reminds people that the position on the board is more important then any rule he or anyone else may try to lay down as law! Whenever I think about this book I can still recall the excitement that I was feeling as I read through each and every game. This book started my love affair with the game so it must be first on my list!


So there you have it! My ranking of the games collections I have completed up to this point!

And now for your further enjoyment (I hope), I leave you with yet another Morphy game that I have analyzed!


Morphy-Anderssen.pgn


Have a great weekend!

Oh and fellow blogger Chess? is going to be the fourth person in my little mini-tournament at Chess.com! Once we get the games going I will start giving updates.