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Rubinstein’s Chess Masterpieces : 100 Selected Games

Rubinstein’s Chess Masterpieces : 100 Selected Games

List Price: $8.95
Your Price: $8.06
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Excellent Book on Rubinstein
Review: Before you study any other players, you must start with Rubinstein. His openings, middlegames, and endgames are classical models of play. The annotations and comments by
Kmoch are excellent. The best way to learn from his games
are to play through the first few moves on your own board,
put the book down, and guess what Rubinstein's next move will be, and continue to do this for the rest of the game. This forced me to look at everything on the board, and noted the strengths, weaknesses,and threats in the position. When I actually played in my own games, I noticed a big improvement in my play. The annotations are descriptive notation (which all
players have to eventually learn anyway), but the diagrams
are fairly poor. But so what? A player who wants to improve
his or her game would go over the games on a real board anyway.
For the price, the book is a bargain!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Excellent Book on Rubinstein
Review: Before you study any other players, you must start with Rubinstein. His openings, middlegames, and endgames are classical models of play. The annotations and comments by
Kmoch are excellent. The best way to learn from his games
are to play through the first few moves on your own board,
put the book down, and guess what Rubinstein's next move will be, and continue to do this for the rest of the game. This forced me to look at everything on the board, and noted the strengths, weaknesses,and threats in the position. When I actually played in my own games, I noticed a big improvement in my play. The annotations are descriptive notation (which all
players have to eventually learn anyway), but the diagrams
are fairly poor. But so what? A player who wants to improve
his or her game would go over the games on a real board anyway.
For the price, the book is a bargain!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Rubinstein, the one and only.
Review: If you want to study one of the greatest players who ever lived, this is the best book to do it from. Period.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great player, games and annotation, but horrible notation
Review: Presumptive readers should be warned about the number of errors the author has committed in the notation which makes this book much harder to read. Page 14, move 34, there is 34 R(K)-K2 when it should be 34.R(1)-K2.
Next is note to move 40 line b looks like: [44...R-B2?] 45.R-B8ch R-B1 46. R(B8)-b7)-45.K-Kt3 R(B5)-B7 etc ,when it should look like this: (44-R-B2? 45.R-B8ch R-B1 46.R(B8)-B7) 45.K-Kt3 R(B4)-B7

When playing through the second game I noticed 3 more
1. 16.B-Kt2 should be 16.B-KKt2
2.Note to whites 20th move after "19-Kt-Kt3 (not 20. Q-Kkt3" forgetting to add 20. KtxKt before bracket.
3. 20-Kt(B)-R2 should be 20-Kt(1)-R2

Apart from that, Rubinsteins games are good and well chosen and I
would have given this book 5 stars if it wasnt for the notation errors

Matthias

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not very good.
Review: The diagrams are bad although after a few games
i did get used to them, and the annotations! they are just
terrible! but i guess you get what you pay for. although
usually [these] books are a bargain, i am questioning whether
this is!! its just too bad that the only other books on
akiba cost [more],so if you want to learn about a great
masters moves you really need to go elsewhere.
unless youre rated around 1500 and above and you dont mind doing
youre own notes. ( I did give the book 3 stars only because
of akiba's games)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but .....
Review: This a Dover reprint. Usually, Dover does not make changes to the format of its reprints, but this one needed it, and badly. The diagrams are small and old-fashioned and the moves are in descriptive notation. This usually does not bother me. Though I cannot tell you why, it bothers me here. As to content, Hans Kmoch's annotations are a bit skimpy in places. He assumes a knowledge level beyond a beginner's so be warned. The games are vintage Rubinstein: crystal clear strategical plans, superb middlegames and faultless endings. Should you wish for a book on this Polish genius and you have deep pockets look for the volumes by John Donaldson. If on a budget this present book will suffice.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Book deserves 5 stars
Review: This is a book of a truly great player's games by a truly great author. (by the way, the reviewer from Sweden who deducted 2 stars for a few very minor notation issues is out of line giving this bookk 3 stars). Rubinstein's games are wonderful teaching tools: his games have a clarity like those of Capablanca, but his opening repertoire is more in line with what the intermediate player might play. Kmoch gives plenty of variations to challenge you, and many of these games have liong endings. At the price, this is one of the most valuable books in chess literature. This book is relatively unknown, but it has been around a long time. Note that Hans Berliner credited a careful study of this book with his development of "The System." Not that Rubinstein or Kmoch are to be blamed for the idiosynacies of that book; but the point is to show that this book has influenced players and authors. It is a great book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fabulous content
Review: While this book may have an old-fashioned presentation, the content is first rate. As I went through this book I lost track of the number of times where I wondered "But what if Black plays PxB?" only to see a note saying "If PxB, then White wins with ...". The fellow seems to pitch his notes at a level that is reliably helpful to the average-to-good player.
Also, as far as I know, there are no poor Kmoch books. All of them seem to be lucid and helpful. Get this book-it's cheap! If you like it, then grab others by the same author, you won't be sorry!
When I read the book, I was rated about 1800 USCF, but even much higher rated players will be amply repaid from the study of this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fabulous content
Review: While this book may have an old-fashioned presentation, the content is first rate. As I went through this book I lost track of the number of times where I wondered "But what if Black plays PxB?" only to see a note saying "If PxB, then White wins with ...". The fellow seems to pitch his notes at a level that is reliably helpful to the average-to-good player.
Also, as far as I know, there are no poor Kmoch books. All of them seem to be lucid and helpful. Get this book-it's cheap! If you like it, then grab others by the same author, you won't be sorry!
When I read the book, I was rated about 1800 USCF, but even much higher rated players will be amply repaid from the study of this book.


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