chess book with annotated games, for a 1500 rated plaer

I want to start with the study of annotated master games, to go along with my study of the steps method.

My dutch otb rating is somewhere around 1500. Do you have some advice which books are well suited to that level?

I'm gonna guess that the Irving Chernev book is gonna get a few recs.

Can't go wrong with Zurich '53.  Also, a really good starter is Reti's Masters of the Chess Board.  The Reti book has a great collection of classic games and his annotations still hold up very well: http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Chessboard-21st-Century-Edition/dp/1936490218/

Thanks for your advice. I was already interested in Masters of the Chess board. But I also heard good things about Zurich '53. Isn't that one for slightly higher rated players?

What books have you read already, and what do you think of them? This could make the advices you'll receive more appropriate for your needs and preferences.

Chess Master vs.Chess Amateur by Max Euwe

Yes, Bronstein's book may be a bit challenging, as the comments are very sparse, and the games are pretty high level. GM Davies doesn't recommend it for people U1700.

I think Reti's book recommended above is interesting, because the explanations are good, but also because you'll see a lot of different ways to play a chess game, from the romantic Anderssen to the meticulous Schlechter and the dynamic Alekhine. It gives a very good overview of how a chess game can be played.

I think that settles it. I'll go for reti's book. It also follows the recommendation of "study the classics". And although i don't understand why, i can 'feel' this is important.

I think that's a good choice.  As to why study the classic games; well, because they're the foundations upon which much chess skill depends.  As the Soviet school rose to prominance it was as a reaction to dogmatic classicism.  Now, if you want to understand the basis of dynamics, aka, Soviet play, then you have to have an understanding of what it is they evolved from:  The classics. 

Once you've digested Reti's book, another one to try and find that will round out the different styles and philosophies, the history of play, would be a copy of RN Coles's Dynamic Chess - http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Chess-Modern-Style-Aggressive/dp/0486216764 (unfortunately still only available in descriptive notation but has games spanning the 1915s to the mid fifties).

Best of luck.

I think Chernev is trash. He should start with books by Tarrasch and then move on to Nimzo or Tartakower ... maybe those two books by Reti.

I didn't think about that much. I suppose i will just play through the games, and try to understand as much as possible what's going on.

What is the best way to study this kind of games? 

I think the following authors have the best U1500 instructive annotated game books:

1. Steve Giddins
2. Neil McDonald
3. Irving Chernev

As for how to study them, I recommend playing guess-the-move with a clock and possibly a notebook (writing down variations, thoughts, etc.) or record yourself verbalizing your thoughts.  Afterword, go over the game with the annotations and compare your thoughts to the annotator's and be critical of what you missed, etc.

I like "Best Lessons of a Chess Coach" by Weeramantry & Eusebi. It only covers ten games but with lots of diagrams and commentary including Q&A with amateurs.

"Best Lessons" is much more targeted to U1500 than Zurich 1953 or some of the other books mentioned so far, but lacks the bragging rights.

Plus you can read it without a board, if you like.

"Guess the Move" is a great way to study games. Here's a great piece of software to make that easier:

https://sites.google.com/site/fredm/

Go to the bottom of the page, and find "guessTheMoveV3.26.zip" (or something like that) then click on the down-arrow at the far right of the same line.

Free!

Eh, I've always preferred the way Lucas Chess handles GTM.

I've used Fred's GTM software as well as Lucas Chess.  I actually prefer the Android App "Chess PGN Master".  I store pretty much everything chess related on a Google Drive, including pgn files made specifically for doing GTM exercises.  I can do them anytime, anywhere without having to be in front of a computer.  It's actually a pretty fair replacement to Chess Position Trainer for learning openings via GTM also.  

I've browsed the Lucas UI but haven't noticed a GTM. There is the Play Like a GM feature, but it doesn't allow me to pick an individual game to work with.

Perhaps I am missing something.

Yeah, you can pick individual games.  There are two ways to do it.

1) From the normal Play Like a Grandmaster section, make sure you've imported the games of the grandmaster you want (just click import and select the grandmaster and lucas chess gets a database of their games).  Then you can hit the "One game" button in the starting dialog and you will be presented with a list of games to choose from.  You can see this below:

If the game you want is not available from this method, you can import any game you want from the PGN viewer within Lucas Chess.  Here you can see where to find it in the PGN game selection dialog, which opens every time you open a new PGN:

If you need any more help or have other questions, let me know.

Lucas Chess always seemed unintuitive and "death by features" to me.