Samuel Reshevsky: A Compendium of 1768 Chess Games, with Diagrams, Crosstables, Some Annotations, and Indexes

The book considers the entire game collection of SR from child prodigy to the 1990's. The book divides all of his games sequentially into the decades he played. The introduction to each decade is interesting in itself. A review of the book's contents suggests that his performance against the worlds top players was somewhat spotty. The interesting contribution of the book is his clear, logical playing style. Nothing fancy, just grit and determination. A very interesting contribution to the world' chess literature.

I have had this book for probably more than a year now. I have spent many hours perusing it ... and many, many more going over the games.First a word on the quality of this book: It really is superb. A beautiful hard-back, soft pages that are opaque, and a binding that has stood up to being bent in half ... more times than I care to admit.This book has virtually EVERY SINGLE GAME that the great Reshevsky ever played. Now Reshevsky is a true giant in American chess. He was one of the top players in this country from probably the late 1920's almost to the end of the 20th Century. He won the U.S. Championship many times ... and more tournaments than I care to count.This book is as lovingly and painstakingly done as any I have ever seen. (Period!!! Unbelievable accuracy ... I have found no errors in this book - despite about 50 spot checks of various games.) You get the complete score of each game, as well as a lot of useful information that other books and databases leave out. (Like exact dates - not just the year. Plus round number, things of that sort.) You almost always get a cross-table for each event as well. (Its great fun to see who played in what event. Many of the people are the legends of chess; far too many are no longer with us.)You also get quite a bit of biographical data. There is a lot of info here, enough for any chess hound or Reshevsky fan. There are nearly 2000 chess games, (1768); and much more useful features. You can find anything very easily the author has provided indexes by opponents, openings, and ECO code. Over 400 pages of interesting material.What are the drawbacks to this book? Its pretty expensive, you could buy a dozen used books for what this one tome costs. It is also dense, I would have liked to see much more biographical data and info and stories on some of the individual tournaments. The large majority of the games are NOT annotated. Many of the notes are those that were lifted from various periodicals of the time when the games were played. (I would have liked to see the author at least take a stab at annotating a few games!)OK ... so what's the bottom line here? Its a simple question: "If I have the money to spend, should I buy this book?" I think the answer is a resounding YES!! Why? I will give you a few reasons: # 1.) If you are a Reshevsky fan like me ... I saw him play in many U.S. Championships ... then you definitely want this book. # 2.) If you are a fan of the game and chess in general, then this is a great book. # 3.) Much of the material in here ... and the games themselves ... would have been surely lost to the sands of time without this book. # 4.) This is NOT a beginner's book ... but any beginner could surely benefit from a diligent study of this great Master's games. He was good in the opening, great in the middle-game, and simply fantastic in most endings!!! # 5.) Looking for a ... RESOURCE BOOK??? Put this on your shelf. There is more reference material here than you could ever use, and more chess games than most small {personal chess} libraries offer!! # 6.) Any serious student of chess history would kill to own this book. # 7.) Any student who wanted to see and be able to study LOTS of different openings, and ... the way they really work in master practice, could use this book. I could go on, but by now, I trust you will get the point.A large and hefty book that should last a chess lifetime. But I am an odd bird and love books, and never give one away or sell one ... ESPECIALY chess books!