Hello i have got a nice new book which was published in the 1950's. I would like to play out some of the games as they they are from the 1880's right through to the 1950's with lots of games from the 1920's to where hypermodern was starting. But the annotation is an old style which i dont understand. Can any one help or is there a way of finding these old games on the net

Can you give some examples of the notation? Then we can explain what they mean.

For now I can only guess and send you here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive_notation

Yes this shows the board i need but still real difficult to play out the games.

Here an example

French Defence

Paulsen v Tarrasch

Nurnberg Tournament 1888

1 P-K4  P-K3

2 P-Q4 P-Q4

3 P-K5  P-QB4

What would be really great is to find a data base with the games thk you for your time :)

Well, i don't think it will help you through your games, but i think i can explain it to you.  Capablanca's book uses the same stuff.  Obviously the first move is white, the second is black.  This stuff basically divides the board in the sense that from the king over (king bishop knight rook) are all king's pieces.  King's knight, king's rook, king's bishop.Hence king side, queen side.  The pawns in front of them are the corresponding king's pawns.  So, when you see pawn to king 4 (P-K4) that's e4.  Black's first move in the french is e6, which is pawn to king 3 (P-K3).  This notation doesn't seem to adress the board as a whole the way we do now.  e4, e6 d4, d5.  This addresses the board from each players perspective.  So, king's gambit might be notated as P-K4 P-K4, P-KB4.  Well, that's the basic idea (i think) maybe someone else will expand.  Hope this helps a little at least. 

What's the name of the book?

Btw, I find this post kinda funny...considering all the difficulty (and resistance) I went through having to learn algebraic way back when; times certainly change!

Hi the book is called Dynamic chess by R.N. Coles ive found the first 28 games on a data base at the address below.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1008456

Now i can use the data base against the the books comments and styles of play. If i get time ill put a favourite game with the books comments with it on this site  . thk you all for your help :)

I believe this style of notation is called Descriptive Notation (As opposed to Algebraic Notation).  This may help with search results.