Rating: 
Summary: Burt Hochberg needs to learn descriptive notation
Review: ...because he certainly cannot convert from it accurately. After playing through game 2 of this book, I've decided to go through all 61 games with a pen and database and confirm the score before I even start to read the bloody thing again. Sometimes the errors are minor and inconsequential, such as "1. d4 Nf8" -- the move is obviously Nf6. However, sometimes the same move is made more than once in a row in the score, leaving the reader wondering what moves were actually played. White cannot play Kd3 if his King is already on d3!That said, the book itself is great, like most have already said, but the errors are very numerous and annoying. I'd recommend trying to get a copy of the descriptive notation edition instead. If you don't know descriptive notation, well...learn it. It's not that hard, and many classic chess books (i.e. My 60 Memorable Games, The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played) are only available in descriptive.
Rating:
Summary: Burt Hochberg needs to learn descriptive notation
Review: ...because he certainly cannot convert from it accurately. After playing through game 2 of this book, I've decided to go through all 61 games with a pen and database and confirm the score before I even start to read the bloody thing again. Sometimes the errors are minor and inconsequential, such as "1. d4 Nf8" -- the move is obviously Nf6. However, sometimes the same move is made more than once in a row in the score, leaving the reader wondering what moves were actually played. White cannot play Kd3 if his King is already on d3! That said, the book itself is great, like most have already said, but the errors are very numerous and annoying. I'd recommend trying to get a copy of the descriptive notation edition instead. If you don't know descriptive notation, well...learn it. It's not that hard, and many classic chess books (i.e. My 60 Memorable Games, The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played) are only available in descriptive.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Star book 2.5 Star Edition
Review: I purchased this book after seeing that GM Spragget thought it was "a truly great book." I completely agree with this assessment. The games and exciting and tactical, but the variations don't swamp the reader like those in books by Nunn and Stohl. That said, the function of "editor" Burt Hochberg seems to be to mangle every piece of chess literature he touches. For example, the first game alone has three errors in the main game score. So avoid this book unless you have a large chess database to confirm the correct score. BTW, Hochberg's revision of Fine's the middlegame is considerably worse--I prefer the descriptive notation version for accuracy.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Star book 2.5 Star Edition
Review: I purchased this book after seeing that GM Spragget thought it was "a truly great book." I completely agree with this assessment. The games and exciting and tactical, but the variations don't swamp the reader like those in books by Nunn and Stohl. That said, the function of "editor" Burt Hochberg seems to be to mangle every piece of chess literature he touches. For example, the first game alone has three errors in the main game score. So avoid this book unless you have a large chess database to confirm the correct score. BTW, Hochberg's revision of Fine's the middlegame is considerably worse--I prefer the descriptive notation version for accuracy.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Star book 2.5 Star Edition
Review: I purchased this book after seeing that GM Spragget thought it was "a truly great book." I completely agree with this assessment. The games are exciting and tactical, but the variations don't swamp the reader like those in books by Nunn and Stohl. That said, the function of "editor" Burt Hochberg seems to be to mangle every piece of chess literature he touches. For example, the first game alone has three errors in the main game score. So avoid this book unless you have a large chess database to confirm the correct score. BTW, Hochberg's revision of Fine's the middlegame is considerably worse--I prefer the descriptive notation version for accuracy.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent work by American champion
Review: I respectfully disagree with Mr. Rudel. I think Reshevsky's annotations are excellent, though I agree they are brief. The important point for me is that I feel that I am going through the game with Reshevsky. Somehow, this book grabbed me. And I like the way it is made, with an excellent layout and superior production. This is a very good book that has withstood the test of time and has recently been reprinted.
Rating: 
Summary: good book, nice layout, but oh the errors!
Review: I'm referring to the McKay algebraic paperback edition here. I like the book a lot, it has some real nice games, some nice annotations, and the games are organized by theme and illustrate the concepts greatly. In fact, i might give the book 3/5 or 4/5 if it were not for the errors. There is atleast one error in every game i've looked at. I don't know if the errors exist in the original or if the problem was the conversion to algebraic, but it's really a problem. You've almost got to get the games from the internet just to follow the book, since the score in the book is so full of errors. Based on the errors I see, I suspect it's a matter of conversion to algebraic, and the problems probably do not exist in the descriptive edition, but that's just a guess. Almost makes me want to get the descriptive edition and find out...but not quite.
Rating: 
Summary: Very instructional, immediately useful.
Review: I've had this book for 7 years and keep going back! Reshevsky was a tremendous player from childhood and played for 77 years. He presents the concepts of positional play as the foundation of the game and as the vehicle for all his tactics. The book shows the positional emphasis within the real game setting. While this is not the clearest textbook I've ever seen, It is one of the most convincing!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent work by American champion
Review: It is true that Sammy was one of the strongest chess players of the western hemisphere for many, many years, but it is not true that this book has a very helpful format. The book relies too much on sparsely annotated games. I simply don't recommend it, as it essentially just gives a list of pithy chunks of advice followed by games that illustrate the advice. The problem is that even moderately strong players understand many concepts without realizing when to apply them (or when they are to be overruled) in standard play. This text gives little insight into these issues.
Rating:
Summary: Just Not Very Helpful
Review: It is true that Sammy was one of the strongest chess players of the western hemisphere for many, many years, but it is not true that this book has a very helpful format. The book relies too much on sparsely annotated games. I simply don't recommend it, as it essentially just gives a list of pithy chunks of advice followed by games that illustrate the advice. The problem is that even moderately strong players understand many concepts without realizing when to apply them (or when they are to be overruled) in standard play. This text gives little insight into these issues.
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