The only one of your first 4 choices I've read is #2, and it's awesome.
Best Annotated Games Collection
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500 Master Games of Chess - Tartakower & Du Mont
Absolutely in a class of its own, but sadly only available in Descriptive Notation, I think.
I see it's available as a free pgn download at chessgames.com, but only for premium members.
If you love " logical chess move by move " then there is a good news for you : " Chess , art of logical thinking " by Mc Donald is by far the best twin for that book , and just one step above it. With great annotations ....other " move by move type" books :
2- Modern chess move by move by (Coulin Crounch) a great tome which proceeds to high level games of new melenium champions ,devoted 14 pages for each game !
3- Most instructive games ever played...( again by Chernev). some people believe that this is his best book !
4- unbeatable chess lessons
5- more unbeatable chess lessons
6- 50 essential chess lessons ( steve Giddiness)
7-Winnig chess birilliance ( Yasser Seiravan)
8-Twelve great chess players and their games (chernev)
9-Amateur vs Expert ( Max Euve)
10-best lessons of a chess coach
11-Road to chess mastery (max Euve).
12-Grand masters' chess move by by move ( John Nunn)...level 2000+)
13-simple chess (Emms)
14-more simple chess (Emms)
15-Analyse your chess( Coulin crounch's new book)
.......and in your list number 1 and 4 are GEMs !
........also there are other " annotated game collectins" which are not move by move type but Great books of chess history . among them :
1- My best games ( Alekhine) in two volumes , the most superior game collection in the world.
2- Kasparov's fighting chess ( 2 volumes)
3- One hundred selected games of Capablanca
4- My best games ( korchnovi ) ( 2 volumes) new edition
5-Instructive modern masterpieces ( Soltis )
6-Improving annotator ( Dan heisman)
7-My road to top ( Paul keres) (2 volumes)
8- Chess duels ( Yasse Seiravan's new book ) with excellent quality
9- Diary of a chess queen ( Alexander Kosteniuk)
10 - Tal- Botvinic 1960
11-New york 1924
12- life & games of Mikhael Tal
13- my best games ( karpov)
14- Avro 1938
15-Alekhine's heritage ( by Kotov) (4volumes)
16-Sorcerer's Apprentice ( David Bronstein)
17-Golden treasure of chess
18- World's Greatest chess games (Rueben Fine)
19-My best games ( Anand)
20-judit polgar , prince of chess
21-best games of Joe Spilman
22-My best games ( Smyslov)
23- Spassky's 300 wins
24- 200 brilliancy of chess
25- My 90 memorabale games
29-Morphy's chess games
30-Art of positional play ( samuel Reshevsky)(61 games)
31-Rubinstein's chess masterpieces (100 selected games)
32-Bent Larsen's 50 best games
33-Great brilliancy prize games of chess masterpieces ( Fred Reinfeld)
34-Alexi Shiro's "Fire on board"
Check out NM Dan Heisman's recommendations at http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Events_Books/General_Book_Guide.htm
Look at my list. They are probably the best of the bests in chess history , selected very carefully. ofcourse for every level you can find more than one appropriate book.
I'm no expert but I'd say that Nunn's Understanding Chess Move by move is the closest to Chernev's Logical Chess: Move by Move. Maybe a bit more advanced. I don't have either book though, so I could be wrong.
Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games, which I own, is a pretty good book. It's a bit over my head in several parts of the book, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. You can really get a sense of Fischer's chess style (and his humor).
Zurich 1953 is, based on what I've seen on the Internet, probably one of the greatest game collection books ever. I don't have it, but if I were to buy just one more book, I'd buy that one. My guess is that it has pretty advanced stuff, but I'm sure even a patzer like me can get something out of it.
Finally, we come to the Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games, which I also own. It's definitely a great book, but it's also pretty darn advanced. The annotations are very substantive, even more so than in Fischer's book, but sometimes, I get lost in the forest of variations that the authors plow up. Obviously, more advanced players will find the mountain of analysis at critical points in the games very useful, but for me, reading "Line 3c2" just makes my head spin. Nonetheless, the games are all very interesting and I always put the book down feeling like I've learned something new (whether I have indeed learned something is another story). I'd recommend this over Fischer's book, but not by much. And it's just my own personal opinion.
So, in summary, if you want something similar to the Chernev book, go with Nunn. For more advanced reading, you can't go wrong with any of the other three. I believe that Chernev has another great games collection book. 62 Chess Masterpieces, or something like that. That's probably an easier read and it'd probably be easier to get something out of it.
I hope I helped.
Pika ,
very honest post. thanks....
but the closet to logical... is Mc Donald's book: " chess , art of logical thinking".... be sure. I have all of them.
@aidin299: Yes, I would have to agree with you there. I was actually referring only to the four books that the OP mentioned.
Pika,
as you said the Mammoth book is more advanced.
1- are your copy producted from cheap paper too ?
2- can you absorb 70% of it's material almost ?
Thanks for your feedback everyone! Almost TOO much!
Now I'm torn between:
1) My 60 Memorable Games
2) Understanding Chess move by move
3) Chess, art of Logical Thinking
4) Zurich, 1953
If Logical Chess Move by Move is at the level that you find useful, then many of the books listed above are too advanced for you. Fischer's 60 Memorable Games and Zurich 1953 are great books, but the notes are not aimed at unskilled players.
For your level, the two game collections I would recommend that have the most instructional value that you can use right away would be "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played" edited by Chernev and "Masters of the Chessboard" by Richard Reti. Please trust me on this. If I was stranded on a desert island I would take the Reti book.
"How to Be a Class A Player" by Alex Dunne is also surprisingly good; he talks directly to you in everyday language.
If you want to study some great attacking games with easily understandable and fun notes I would recommend "Keres Best Games of Chess 1931-1948" edited by Fred Reinfeld and "Frank J. Marshall's Best Games of Chess" by Marshall.
Good luck.
@aidin299: I wouldn't call the paper "cheap", as that depends on the taste of the reader, but my book (the most recent edition, with 125 games) looks like it was printed on recycled paper.
I'd honestly be surprised if I could absorb 5% of the book. A fun read, but certainly not an easy one by any means.
I like NM Splane's post above. I would recommend taking a look at the books he recommended, as he pretty much confirmed what I already observed.
Godspawn asked why I recommended How to Be a Class A Player.
It contains 35 games. Every game features an A player against a B player so you get to see games by the kind of players you face everyday.
It talks a lot about the mental preparation side of the game, how to psych yourself up. This type of discussion is highly unusual in chess books and I thought it was quite useful.
Most games in the book are decided by some kind of stupid move, so you get a lot of lessons in punishing blunders, again unlike collections of GM games where the mistakes are subtle.
He also talks a lot about opening preparation, discusses the opening in each game, and talks about the aims you should have in mind when choosing your own opening repertoire.
I've read through the entire book five or six times. I think it is most useful for me, as a master, in redeveloping an eye for tactics whenever I've taken a long layoff from chess.
Some points : 1- Pika , ....yes , the paper of " Mammoth book of world's greatest chess games" is not normal . What a pity for such a great book....
2- absorbtion : 5% ?! I wonder why you proceed to read a tome that only 5% of it's material is absorbable for you ! in this way you can't improve or apply those knowledge in your games properly.This is the reason why Experts so much emphasize on reading chess books that match with your level.
3-NM Splane , .....thanks for your ideas ....but the book that you have introduced is not an ideal book for an " average player". though it's a wonderful book , But the Author starts from a high level ( near mastery ) , (at least 1800) , and though he has done a great job in well explaining the complex things and psychologic aspects, the whole material is somewhat above an average chess players' mind. my point is that assuming that 60% of this sites audiances is below A&B level , they will have a hard time in digesting it. Furtonately I have a solution for this paradox. If the student firstly prepares him self with Max Euve's excellent two books :"Amateure vs Expert" and " Road to chess mastery" , then he can go toward Alexandre Dunne 's book and work it out easily since I think these two books fill that Gap very well.
Splane wrote:
Godspawn asked why I recommended How to Be a Class A Player.
It contains 35 games. Every game features an A player against a B player so you get to see games by the kind of players you face everyday.
It talks a lot about the mental preparation side of the game, how to psych yourself up. This type of discussion is highly unusual in chess books and I thought it was quite useful.
Most games in the book are decided by some kind of stupid move, so you get a lot of lessons in punishing blunders, again unlike collections of GM games where the mistakes are subtle.
He also talks a lot about opening preparation, discusses the opening in each game, and talks about the aims you should have in mind when choosing your own opening repertoire.
I've read through the entire book five or six times. I think it is most useful for me, as a master, in redeveloping an eye for tactics whenever I've taken a long layoff from chess.
Thank you for the recommendations, NM Splane. I actual struggle with the kind of thing you mention frequently. For instance, an opponent may make an error in the opening or a positional concession later in the game, and I recognize that I've got the upper hand. There are times when I'm not able to "convert" it to a meaningful advantage. "I'm winning... I know it. Now what do I do to exploit it?" takes up more of my time than simply getting there in the first place. Perhaps the inner dialogue of a similarly (or slightly higher) rated player would be of more benefit.
Unfortunately I don't see the Dunne book on Amazon, so I'll have stalk it on ebay/used b-stores. Meanwhile, I'll grab the other Chernev book.
@aidan -> I'll save your list and use it as reference for further studies too! Thanks for providing it.
mrsultcase wrote : [ There are times when i'm not able to convert it to a meaningful advantage....I'm winning ....I know it...]. I have a good suggestion for you : Please read the book " How to win a won game." another Consept that you can utilize and is well established is the " Imbalanse" consept in Jeremy Silman's books. try them out.
mrsultcase wrote :[ perhaps the inner dialouge of a similarly or slightly higher rated player would be more benefical....]. I agree with U completely on this !
Fwiw, I understand that Nunn's book is relatively advanced. I would recommend Neil McDonald's "the art of logical thinking" as a follow on to Chernev and then his subsequent books. All are very instructive and you can work up through them as their target level increases.
voted and Confirmed : " chess, art of logical thinking " as the next step. :-)
I just read through Logical Chess Move by Move by Chernev, and this has really lit a fire under me for more annotated games. I really enjoyed the splendour of the games presented. Time to buy another games collection!
So, if you had to have only ONE annotated games collection, would it be
1) Understanding Chess Move by Move (John Nunn)
2) My 60 Memorable Games (Bobby Fischer)
3) Zurich International Tournament, 1953 (Bronstein)
4) The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games (Burgess, Nunn, Emms)
5) something else?