My Best Games

Jan Timman is one of the greatest chess players never to win the world title. For many years ‘the Best of the West’ belonged to the chess elite, collecting quite a few super tournament victories. Three times Timman was a Candidate for the World Championship and his peak in the world rankings was second place, in 1982. For this definitive collection, Timman has revisited his career and subjected his finest efforts to fresh analysis supported by modern technology. The result is startling and fascinating. From the games that he chose for his Timman’s Selected Games (1994, also published as Chess the Adventurous Way), only 10(!) made the cut. Some games that he had been proud of turned out to be flawed, others that he remembered as messy were actually well played. Timman’s Triumphs includes wins against great players such as Karpov, Kasparov, Kortchnoi, Smyslov, Tal, Spassky, Bronstein, Larsen and Topalov. The annotations are in the author’s trademark lucid style, a happy mix of colourful background information and sharp, crystal-clear explanations. Once again Jan Timman shows that he is not only one of the best players the game has seen, but also as one of the best chess analysts and writers.

The best games of one of the best players in chess history. 220 games with Alekhine's own accounts. Spans 30 years of tournament play.

The Genius of Alekhine In chess literature, there have only been a very few chess books that have immediately - and permanently - established themselves as classics. Lasker's Manual of Chess by Emanuel Lasker, Masters of the Chessboard by Richard Réti and Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual by Mark Dvoretsky are three that come to mind. There are of course others, among them My Best Games of Chess, 1908-1937 by the fourth world chess champion, Alexander Alekhine. The original English edition, published three-quarters of a century ago, used English descriptive notation, contained one photograph, no crosstables and was released in two separate volumes. This new 21st-century edition, presented with modern algebraic notation, has combined both books into a single volume, added more than three dozen archival photographs, crosstables, Alekhine's complete match and tournament records, a foreword by Russian grandmaster Igor Zaitsev, as well as many more diagrams. A comprehensive computer-assisted analytical supplement has also been prepared and is available for download at no extra charge, so that, if you wish, you may compare Alekhine's impressive notes with the preferences of the silicon monster. Whether you feel as if you are revisiting an old friend, or being introduced to this splendid game collection for the first time, you will marvel at how Alekhine's games and works remain in many respects extraordinarily consonant with the modern approach. And you will not fail to be impressed by the genuine genius that is Alekhine.

The Unique Genius of Tartakower! One of the most creative grandmasters ever to play the Royal Game was Savielly Tartakower. His combination of bold play and fascinating writing has long endeared him to chess aficionados worldwide. His classic work of best games has never been available in English algebraic notation. Until now. “Tartakower’s annotations are unlike any other master of his time. He repeatedly stressed the psychological nature of chess, for example. Another ‘Tartakowerism’ is: ‘An attack is against a castled position, weak pawns and, most of all, against the mind of the opponent.’ What he reserves for a footnote, like what conditions are present to make a game a work of art, other authors would need pages to articulate, if they addressed the matters at all. “This book was meant to do what all great annotations do: instruct, explain, and entertain. And it succeeds spectacularly.” – Andy Soltis in his Foreword Experience the unique genius of Savielly Tartakower in this 21st Century Edition of his games collection – 201 games, 49 game fragments, all deeply annotated and quintessentially Tartakower!

Bent Larsen (1935-2010) was one of the greatest fighters chess has ever seen. In his rich career the great Dane defeated all World Champions from Botvinnik to Karpov. He was a Candidate for the World Championship four times and became one of the most successful tournament players of his time. His uncompromising style and his unorthodox thinking made him popular with chess players all around the globe. In 1967/1968 Larsen won five international elite events in a row, a truly spectacular achievement. His successes were such that Bobby Fischer let him play first board in the legendary match Soviet Union vs. the World in 1970 in Belgrade. Bent Larsen also was a highly original chess writer and an extremely productive chess journalist. Not surprisingly the first chess book that Magnus Carlsen ever studied was written by the strongest Scandinavian player before him. This collection brings together more than 120 of Bent Larsen’s best games, annotated by himself. His comments are lucid, to the point, instructive and humorous. Together, these games are a tribute to his genius and a continuous joy to read and play through.