annotated game collections book focused on opening ??

That's what "Opening Books" are for, the opening!  First, you've gotta figure out which opening.

If you are a 1200 player that needs to learn "Opening Concepts", you need to be looking at books like Winning Chess Openings by Seiriwan.  That book is NOWHERE NEAR enough to succeed in any particular Opening, but it will give you the basic concepts at the 1000 level.

Shocked that ThrillerFan did not remember Wolfgang Uhlmann (1995) Winning with the French (also in other editions and languages) -- a collection of Uhlmann's games. Another good one is John Nunn and Peter Griffiths (1987) Secrets of Grandmaster Play -- a collection of Nunn's games. And two volumes by Paul Keres (1997) The Road to the Top , and (1997) The Quest for Perfection -- a collection of Keres's games.

All these have good annotations in the opening and are generally just well written and very good games overall.

Everyman Chess - Move by Move series.  Books by player and also by opening...

https://everymanchess.com/search?q=move+by+move

otherwise...

Good Chess Openings Books For Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-openings-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

Ya move by move series is best

Most opening books by Everyman chess (the publisher) usually contain complete games.

thanks all for the suggestions. I was looking for  game collections and the move by move series looks perfect. I've used John Emms' Discovering Chess Opening ( RussBell - I think i read about it on your blog last year.. so thank you! )  and till date its the only chess book i have read from start to finish.... DCO is probably all i need opening wise for quite a while but i wanted I like going through to master games, so was looking for ones with opening as the focus... thanks again folks!!!

Why do you say I don't "remember" that book?  Why would I recommend that book without knowing what opening he is interested in?

Just because I play the French does not mean the French is for everyone.  Against 1.e4, you either play the Sicilian, French, Caro-Kann, 1...e5, or you choose some inferior line and wind up regretting it when you have to start all over once you start facing respectable players.

If he finds the Sicilian, Caro, or 1...e5 easier for him to understand, I am not going to stop him.  If he starts showing interest in the Alekhine or Pirc or Modern, I would highly question his approach and warn him it will fail him later on when he faces players that actually are good.

NM Dan Heisman (at https://www.danheisman.com/recommended-book-lists.html) recommends, for annotated game collections:

• Logical Chess Move by Move - Chernev
• The World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book - Heisman
• Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking - Neil McDonald
• A First Book of Morphy by del Rosario
• Simple Attacking Plans - Wilson - contains a variety of master-master, master-amateur & amateur-amateur games
• The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played - Irving Chernev
• The Art of Planning in Chess - Neil McDonald

The Move by Move series is great for studying a particular opening, although often they push a specific repertoire (and, obviously, dedicated to only a particular opening and its variations).

At your level, however, I'd recommend to keep reading Instructive Game Anthologies (i.e., those game anthologies which are put together for the express purpose of teaching.

(There are a lot more books on that list -- go the website to see the rest of the list).

Best wishes!