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Studying Chess Classics

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alesjakk

Hi

Every strong player say that you should know the classics and study them, but I don`t know of any good resources/books where I can find these classics and study them. I have The Mammoth Book Of The World`s Greatest Chess Games but I don`t know if it is good or of any other resources/books. Can someone please help me. 

 

BTW I am approximately 1800 FIDE Rating.

madratter7
Assuming your estimated rating is accurate, Chessbase 15 would be a worthwhile investment and is a good way to do this.
kindaspongey

The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233403/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review782.pdf

Great Games by Chess Legends, vol 1

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708112104/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review711.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104818/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review697.pdf

Great Games by Chess Legends, Volume 2

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708234322/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review734.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092313/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review620.pdf

Great Games by Chess Legends, Volume 3

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090408/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review831.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708100445/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review933.pdf

Modern Ideas in Chess by Richard Reti

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233433/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review317.pdf

Masters of the Chessboard by Richard Reti

http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/2012/4/1/book-notice-richard-retis-masters-of-the-chessboard.html

The 100 Best Chess Games 0f the 20th Century, Ranked by Andy Soltis

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708234327/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review246.pdf

500 Master Games of Chess

https://www.chess.com/article/view/my-bookshelf-quot500-master-games-of-chessquot-by-savielly-tartakower-and-j-du-mont

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/

alesjakk
madratter7 wrote:
Assuming your estimated rating is accurate, Chessbase 15 would be a worthwhile investment and is a good way to do this.

I am thinking about buying ChessBase 15, but how will it help me to study the Chess classics?

BonTheCat

Nothing wrong with ChessBase, but you want well-annotated (plenty of verbal explanations, not just loads of computer-generated analysis). kindaspongey have given you a number of great books there. Well-annotated game collections of older games by the players themselves is often the best, but there are other biographers who've done a sterling job, too. '500 Master Games of Chess' by Tartakower and du Mont is one such example, and 'The Development of Chess Style' by Euwe is another collection where you'll find a good selection of well-annotated classical games. Hans Kmoch's 'Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces', 'Lasker's Greatest Chess Games' by Fine and Reinfeld, Reinfeld's 'Tarrasch's Best Games of Chess', Tarrasch's '300 Games of Chess', Reinfeld's 'Hypermodern Chess by Aron Nimzovich', Alekhine's 'My Best Games of Chess 1908-1946' (a three volume set, the last one written by C.H.O'D Alexander, published by separately and in an omnibus volume), 'Capablanca's 100 Best Games' by Golombek, 'Capablanca's Best Endings' by Chernev (or Capablanca's own 'My Chess Career', 'Chess Fundamentals' and 'Last Lectures'), 'My Best Games of Chess 1905-1954' by Tartakower (can also be found as a two-volume set), 'Keres' Best Games of Chess' by Paul Keres (this has been published under various titles: 'The Complete Games of Paul Keres' [ = 'The Early Games of Paul Keres' + 'The Middle Years of Paul Keres' + 'The Later Years of Paul Keres']. The list could be made nearly endless, but these should keep you busy for a little while :-D

Start with the first chapters of 'Development of Chess Style', before you move on to Rubinstein and Tarrasch. After that I'd suggest making a jump to Paul Keres, before turning back and looking at Alekhine and Capablanca etc.

kindaspongey

The Development of Chess Style

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708095110/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/chestyle.txt

kindaspongey

Paul Keres

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105827/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/pkeres.txt

kindaspongey

Alekhine

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/My-Best-Games-of-Chess-1908-1937-79p3751.htm

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/My-Best-Games-of-Chess-1908-1937-79p3771.htm

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/My-Best-Games-of-Chess-1908-1937-79p3793.htm

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5856bd64ff7c50433c3803db/t/5a5296bcc830256b61a7b94d/1515361980898/mbgexerpt.pdf

kindaspongey

Tartakower https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5856bd64ff7c50433c3803db/t/5a5299a10d9297f9a59ec04c/1515362722214/tartexcerpt.pdf

kindaspongey

Capablanca

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486242498.html

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/capablanca.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708101418/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review564.pdf

Loudcolor

mr cut n paste

SeniorPatzer
PardonMyBlunders wrote:

As Mikhail Tal said "For improvement study the games of Tarrasch,Keres and Bronstein. Then you will surely speak chess."

 

I wonder what Tal's score is against Keres and Bronstein. 

OldPatzerMike
SeniorPatzer wrote:
PardonMyBlunders wrote:

As Mikhail Tal said "For improvement study the games of Tarrasch,Keres and Bronstein. Then you will surely speak chess."

 

I wonder what Tal's score is against Keres and Bronstein. 

According to chessgames,com, Keres beat Tal with a lifetime score of 8 wins, 5 losses and 17 draws. Bronstein lost to Tal 8 wins, 12 losses and 19 draws. Though Korchnoi is not mentioned here, he also beat Tal, and by a wide margin: 13 wins, 4 losses and 27 draws.

madratter7
I would have agreed with Bon the Kat before CB15. But they now have a training mode that is a guess the move format. That is active training and in my opinion a great way to go through games.
madratter7
alesjakk wrote:
madratter7 wrote:
Assuming your estimated rating is accurate, Chessbase 15 would be a worthwhile investment and is a good way to do this.

I am thinking about buying ChessBase 15, but how will it help me to study the Chess classics?

 

ChessBase 15 now comes with a feature called replay training. Basically, you try to find the best moves as you go through a game and it scores how you are doing. It compares what you play to both the best engine move in the position, and what the original player did.

It comes with 186 games that they feel are interesting to explore this feature. But it can be used with ANY game, even your own.

Usually when you buy ChessBase, you also buy it with an accompanying database with millions of games. Many many of the classics are in that database. Depending on the version you get, they may be annotated (although as mentioned above, most of the annotations are by engine).

It is very convenient if you are playing through a game in the book, to look up the game in the database and work with it in ChessBase. You can do your own annotation of the game, then compare to the book, etc.

I highly recommend it for people of my strength or higher. You do NOT need to be a master or even expert level player to get good use out of ChessBase. I use it pretty much daily. I really debated whether I should get it or not. I'm very glad I did.

There are free alternatives out their such as SCID vs PC. I personally much prefer the Chessbase interface, but Your Milage May Vary. There are some very strong players (such as IM pfren on this site) who use SCID vs PC.

Here is a screen shot of the replay training in CB15.

null

ed1975

I wish they'd put a timer with it though

madratter7
ed1975 wrote:

I wish they'd put a timer with it though

 

I totally agree with this. Although in practice, I tend to spend too little time looking for the moves rather than too much.

Goram

You can try books written by Max Euwe,former champion,his examples are very rich in quality and lucid but no nonsense language.

pdve

1953 Zurich Chess Tournament by Bronstein

1948 World Chess Championship Tournament by Paul Keres 

are both good

Taffa64

I second Zurich 1953. Should keep you busy for quite a while.