Best Book . . .

Thank you. =)

I spent two years of my life in Class A carrying Tal's "Life and Games" with me. Looking back, it didn't do a thing for me, and I'm pretty sure every other class-level player who's studying Tal is similarly kidding himself.

Morphy's games are instructive examples because he had an explicable style. Tal and Alekhine, just the opposite. Chessplayers can enjoy their games, but they're not going to learn much.

Yep, kinda what i thought.  I thought to myself, man, i'd have to be a 2200+ player to be able to do these things.

   Holy cow, i just realized that YOU wrote First Book by Morphy.  I look forward to getting my copy.  Really love your cover - as most authors use lousy covers for their books. 

I love it, too. The cover is truly the best thing about the book. I'll pass your comment on to the artist. :)

Wow.  Most teachers and coaches all say that Alekhine's games are a must study (yes after Morphy, Capablanca etc.).  I can see where Tal might lead some people astray.  But Alekhine's own annotations are very instructive.  One of the most instructive books I have ever read was Spielmann's Art of the Sacrifice.    And a lot of that was speculative but it was very educational.

A couple years ago I copied part of Rudolf Spielmann's "Art of Sacrifice," putting the examples in a viewer ----> HERE

Nice!  I truly love that book.  Really well written and the games are awesome.

I'm a huge fan of Tal.  I've read The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal four or five times now, and lately, I've been developing more of an appreciation for Attack with Mikhail Tal.  He has a very interesting take on attacking play with a lot of insights that can help you in your own games I think.

A new algebraic edition of Study Chess with Tal by Mikhail Tal and Alexander Koblencs has just been published (Batsford, 2013). I've just started reading it.

At some point I want to read the Attackk With Tal book.  Don't think I am quite ready for it yet.  :)

That might be cool!  Is it an annotated games collection?  Still doesn't seem available at Amazon yet.  Thanks for the heads up!

You're welcome. I bought my copy from The Book Depository.

To answer your question: yes, it's essentially a collection of Tal's own games. This is what it says in the intro...

"The raw material for this book was gleaned from my training diaries, which contain the output of every training session with the ex-world champion Mikhail Tal. They are mainly made up of his game analyses, carried out immediately after the games whilst the chess and psychological impressions were still fresh and clear. We also used annotations done either by Tal or myself, which appeared in the Soviet press.

Here is a list of the games. In each game, at key positions, the authors insert a line of asterisks to indicate that the reader should try to figure out the best continuation. In addition, the editor (John Littlewood, I think) has replaced many of these with specific questions "ranging from elementary to advanced" with answers at the back of the book. Each chapter/game has a fairly substantial text introduction.

1. The Uncastled King - a Pawn Cocktail: Tal - Tringov, Interzonal tournament, Amsterdam 1964 (King's Fianchetto Defence)
2. War is about Communication: Tal - Klaman, USSR Championship, Moscow 1957 (Sicilian Defence)
3. A Surprising Knight Move: Tal - Uhlmann, Alekhine Memorial, Moscow 1971 (French Defence)
4. The Rook in Ambush: Tal - Mukhin, USSR Championship, Baku 1972 (Sicilian Defence)
5. The Battering Ram: Tal - Larsen, Interzonal tournament, Portoroz 1958 (Sicilian Defence)
6. Errors in Opening Strategy: Tal - Suetin, Tblisi 1969 (Sicilian Defence)
7. Invasion Squares: Tal - Bilek, Interzonal tournament, Amsterdam 1964 (Sicilian Defence)
8. The Knight Fork: Tal - Donner, Wijk aan Zee 1973 (English Opening)
9. By Hook or by Crook: Tal - Tolush, USSR Championship, Leningrad 1956 (Sicilian Defence)
10. The Troublemaker: Tal - Fuster, Interzonal tournament, Portoroz 1958 (Caro-Kann Defence)
11. The Highest Ideal: Tal - Donner, Wijk aan Zee 1968 (French Defence)
12. The Trojan Horse: Tal - Plougayevksy, USSR Championship, Tblisi 1959 (Sicilian Defence)
13. A Relatively Weak Point: Tal - Zaid, Simultaneous Game, Moscow 1972 (Sicilian Defence)
14. Boomerang: Tal - Simagin, USSR Championship, Leningrad 1956 (Irregular Defence)
15. Threats from Beneath the Surface: Tal - Furman, Riga 1956 (Sicilian Defence)
16. Misjudging the Character of a Game: Mukhin - Tal, Moscow 1972 (Nimzo-Indian Defence)
17. Transgressing an Opening Principle?: Tal - Botvinnik, Game 1, World Championship match, Moscow 1960 (French Defence)
18. The Elements of an Attacking Game: Tal - Tolush, Moscow 1957 (King's Indian Defence)
19. Three Eggs in One Basket: Tal - Mohrlok, Chess Olympiad, Varna 1962 (Sicilian Defence)
20. contd.: Tal - Koblencs, Riga 1957 (Sicilian Defence)
21. contd.: Tal - Stoltz, Telegraph game, 1959 (Sicilian Defence)
22. First Come, First Served: Honfi - Tal, Sukhumi 1972 (Sicilian Defence)
23. On the Edge of the Precipice: Tal - Larsen, Candidates match, Bled 1965 (Sicilian Defence)
24. A Whole Bishop for a Attacking Tempo!: Tal - Smyslov, Candidates tournament, Bled 1959 (Caro-Kann Defence)
25. The Bewitched Square f7: Tal - Unzicker, Stockholm 1960-61 (Ruy Lopez)
26. Correct or Incorrect? That is the Question: Tal - Johannessen, Riga 1959 (Slav Defence)
27. Preventing Simplification: Tal - Filip, Moscow, 1967 (Caro-Kann Defence)
28. Explosion on g7: Tal - Vasyukov, USSR Championship, Kiev 1964-65 (Caro-Kann Defence)
29. The Problem of the Spanish Bishop: Tal - Holmov, Moscow 1969 (Ruy Lopez)
30. Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal!: Tal - Gurgenidze, USSR Championship, Alma-Ata 1969 (Caro-Kann Defence)
31. Bloody Revenge: Tal - Portisch, Candidates match, Bled 1965 (French Defence)
32. Pawn Chain Strategy: Larsen - Tal, Candidates playoff for 3rd place, Eersel 1969 (King's Indian Defence)
33. A Thorn in the Flesh: Tal - Andersson, Stockholm 1976 (Sicilian Defence)
34. On All Fronts: Spassky - Tal, Tallinn 1973 (Nimzo-Indian Defence)
35. An Exploding Centre: Thorbergsson - Tal, Reykjavik 1964 (King's Indian Defence)
36. From Poetry to Prose: Tal - Hecht, Chess Olympiad, Varna 1962 (Queen's Indian Defence)
37. Saved in the Nick of Time: Koblencs - Tal, Riga 1957 (Dutch Defence)
38. With Open Visors: Ljubojevic - Tal, Las Palmas 1975 (Sicilian Defence)
39. A Difficult Draw: Tal - Botvinnik, Game 3, World Championship match, Moscow 1960 (Caro-Kann Defence)
40. A Positional Struggle: Tal - Botvinnik, Game 11, World Championship match, Moscow 1960 (Reti Opening)

I hope this list is useful.