Studying Master Games

I enjoy going through games from anywhere, such as chess life and many, many books. But one thing I was wondering, in regards to my development, is if I should try to figure out the moves of each player before I look in the book, or if I should study the positions that are on the board and then see what moves they made after that.

This might seem like to sides of the same coin, so to speak, but playing through the moves is much faster than trying to figure out the best move, each move, for each side.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

I have seen many suggestions in regards to this question. Some of them say to just play over a lot of games, fairly quickly (less than 15 minutes), to help ingrain patterns. Some say to go over the games, study some of the positions, and alternate lines. There are some that suggest the guess the move option.

Some is just a combination of those things. I have read one option, combining to the first two; play over a game quickly (maybe even a couple of times). Then go through and take more time with it, trying varations if you are looking trough an annotated game, and studying the positions.

I haven't done a lot of any of them, though I have restarted some studying and for the most part I am just playing through the games collection/book I have. I haven't decided at this point if I'll go back over the same book or start on another game collection at this point.

One school of thought is to cover up the moves played, make your choice and then compare your move with the move of the Grandmaster. Keep score of how many moves you predicted correctly and come back to the game from time to time and try your skills again. The scores will, ostensibly, show your level of progress. Concentrate on games using openings and defenses that you prefer. Try to figure out why your choice was different from the actual game and what might have happened if the game had proceeded with your choice.

A huge fan of this approach! :)

I can't remember where I read it, it might have been one of Silman's books, but a suggestion is to try to predict where the game is going to go. Identify the key features of the position and treat it like a mystery.

"Okay, white's up a pawn but black has the more active rooks.  Which will prevail?" then try to predict and keep adjusting as you make each move.

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm anxious to hear more opinions.