John Nunn's Best Games 1985-1993 (Openings)

Rating:
Summary: Great collection of games
Review: This book contains 314 pages pure chess. A selection of John Nunns best games with in-depth analysis of each stage (opening, middlegame, endgame). And instead of just giving variations, you will find variations AND written comments showing the strategy and explaining the decisions. It is great to learn every stage of chess playing and chess psychology.

Rating:
Summary: 40 games from one of the greatest attacking players ever
Review: This book follows on from "Secrets of Grandmaster Play", which John Nunn previously co-authored with PC Griffiths, so it begins in 1985 when Nunn was already a world-class grandmaster. As he points out, the style is slightly different from the earlier book in being rather more personal and giving more psychological insights and anecdotes. The effect is to make it a more enjoyable read, if slightly less intense.

I have always thought of Nunn as a classical chess player, in that he studies the opening profoundly, seeks to gain advantage (or equalize) in orthodox - though vigorous - fashion, and also has great strength in the endgame. This combination of erudition and straightforwardness makes him a particularly good subject to emulate. These 40 games are annotated really deeply, although the opening analysis needs to be checked for new discoveries in the ten years since publication.

Perhaps the high point of this collection is Nunn's 25-move victory over Sokolov of the USSR at the Dubai Olympiad, 1986. Wiping a top Soviet player off the board so unceremoniously was something that British players hardly ever did until Nunn and Tony Miles came along. (They were usually happy to draw).

The openings reflect Nunn's fairly stable repertoire - assorted Black defences to his 1. e4, with quite a few Sicilians, and a high proportion of King's Indians as black. Unfortunately the book lacks an index, and the brief table of contents does not say what opening was played in each game. So there is nothing for it but to read methodically through from start to finish. Thanks to Nunn's exciting style and painstaking, literate notes - spiced up by the occasional amusing story - this is no sacrifice at all.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: This is one of my favorite chess books. It is filled with Sicilians and King's Indians. Wonderful, exciting chess and incredible annotations. Some people complain that Nunn is too technical and analytical, but this book is an exciting and gripping chess read to me. The fact is, chess annotation does not get much better than this. This book is 320 pages of pure chess meat for the chess carnivore.