Written by a Swedish Grandmaster and translated with authoritative fluency, 'Chess and Chess Masters' by Gideon Strahlberg and Harry Golombek respectively, is a confident and interesting account of the great chess players which Strahlberg himself encountered and met. With a chapter on all the greats; Capablanca, Euwe, Botvinnik, Alekhine and Spielmann to name but a few, no chess library would be complete without it.

this book is in descriptive notation and it was written half a century ago by a swedish grandmaster who was a candidate for the world championship.the names are well chosen-alekhine capablanca nimzowitsch botvinnik reshevsky-all players the author knew and often played against.

the writer has been very well served by his translator grandmaster harry golombek probably the greatest stylist ever to write chess notes in english. the sketches are sometimes moving and poignant but always dramatic. the personalities really come to life.

the games are also a joy to play over and i like the notes which are literary gems in themselves. if you liked tartakower and dumonts 500 master games of chess you wil also want to read this book.

reti explains the evolution of concepts in paying chess( from 19th century to early 21st century).a player of cnsiderable repute,he is as excellent in explaining chess concepts.some of these are:combinations,open positions,positional play,close positions etc.,

This small book is essential reading for any chess player. Reti's understanding of the game and his ability to explain the concepts of it are unsurpassed. There's nothing else I can say. Get it.

A great read! Golombek delves into the controversial 1948 World Chess Championship and with personal insight adds a depth to the games that would not otherwise be possible. This edition published by Hardinge and Simpole.

botvinnik won the world championship in chess in 1948 but there were plenty of rumours that his main rival paul keres had thrown games to him. botvinnik was a staunch communist and the latter part of the championship was played in moscow-keres an esthonian had on the other hand played in tournaments in parts of nazi controlled europe during the war.

harry golombek the author of this book was present throughout the championship and it is fascinating to see how he describes the games between keres and botvinnik. without actually going so far as to accuse keres of throwing the games he makes it clear that many of keres moves against botvinnik were so bad as to be unbelievable.

golombek annotates all of the games with great detail and he also makes a thrilling drama out of the tournament as he covers each round with it ups and downs in elegant prose.

Having personally attended the World Chess Championships of 1954, '57 and '58 as a judge, Harry Golombek, OBE, was able to bring crucial insight and understanding to this collection of games in the first match between Botvinnik and Smyslov which occurred in 1954. As a result of this hand on experience, the book is unquestionably richer in dynamics and the tension that existed at the time. Here we see how Smyslov fought back bravely after a 3-0 loss, astonishing the crowds. An exciting analysis. Published by Hardinge and Simpole.

for most of the 1950s the world chess championship was fought over between the two soviet grandmasters mikhail botvinnik and vasilly smyslov. their first match was drawn-smyslov won the second but botvinnik got his revenge a year later-1958-thus staying on as world champion.

this book tells the story of their first match-botvinnik leapt into a 3 point lead and seemed on the point of annihilating smyslov both on the chess board and psychologically but the challenger fought back bravely and exploited botvinniks weaknesses- his slightly passive openings as white and his rather risky defences as black. smyslov also turned out to be especially good at endgames .

the author harry golombek was present thruout as an umpire and he had access to soviet notes as well as both players. golombeks notes always make a good read since he turns every game into a drama. i much prefer this style of writing to the contemporary telephone directory style of annotation where there are no words just streams of variations-a good chess game with good notes should tell a story and golombek does this particualrly well.

readers should note that this book is in the older descriptive notation.

Algebraic version of Capablanca's Hundred Best Games of Chess, with some notes and editing by John Nunn. Golombek's annotations are easy to understand.

A true chess connoisseur will prefer this to Reinfeld's 'Immortal Games of Capablanca'. A less obsessive person on a budget will prefer the less expensive alternative.

If you don't have Capa in your library, you do not play chess.

José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942) is widely regarded as one of the all-time great chess players, and possibly the greatest natural chess genius in history. World champion from 1921-1927, he is the only player to have won the world title by defeating the incumbent in a match without losing a game. His games were the greatest influence on the modern great world champions Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov. Mikhail Botvinnik (three times world champ) also related how much he learned from Capablanca, and pointed out that even Alekhine received much schooling from him in positional play, before the struggle for the world title made them bitter foes.

Once players have read all the introductory books about endgames, openings, tactics and basic strategy, to improve, they must study master games. Capablanca's crystal clarity of style makes his an ideal object of study.

Although not clear from the Amazon title, the games are annotated by Harry Golombek. His notes are very lucid, and he was one of Britain's best players in the pre-GM boom. He had the added advantage of knowing Capa personally. Capa's crush of Golombek features in the book, and made a deep impression on Golombek for seemingly effortless simplicity. There are places where Golombek's notes are outdated or just plain wrong, but this is rare. Definitely order the Algebraic version with John Nunn's editing. The book also has a detailed and sympathetic biographical sketch by J. Du Mont.

Hope this book is in stock soon, because it is almost a must for the improving player anywhere from club to expert level - chess coaches take note!

Well first of all we all know who is Reti,to read his thougts and ideas in his own books is someting and to read them on the board is a completly different thing because his words are very intresting but his games are realy full of simple winning chess.I played through his games more than once and every time i go back to them ,i would still have the same joy.and thanks to H.golombik the games in this book are realy well picked.Masterpeices needs masters to annonate...

between them botvinnik and smyslov dominated world championship chess in the 1950's. smyslov defeated botvinnik in 1957 but botvinnik roared right back the following year. this book contains all the games with deep notes from both matches by a grandmaster who was present in moscow throughout.