Modern Chess Brilliancies

Rating:
Summary: Great Chess Games
Review: Grandmaster Larry Evans annotates a collection of some of the best chess games in the last half century. An enjoyable book which anyone can learn and improve from. Published by Hardinge and Simpole.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: I have over 450 chess books, and was amazed upon buying this book by Evans that I had never heard of it before. It is one of my favorite books. It is everything wonderful in a chess book. First, it is a great games collection, with oever 100 well-annotated games. Often, the annotations of the actual players are inserted. The book is a perfect mix of variations and text, with an emphasis on ideas and instruction. Second, the book is arranged by the names of openings, alphabetically. This allows for you to quickly find games in an opening without even looking at the table of contents. All the Sicilian games are right after the Ruy Lopez games, etc. Third, the moves are formatted in columns, apart from the the text, making the book perfect for covering up the next move with an index card. I am convinced over time that the best games collections also should serve as opening manuals. I end up using them most often if they serve as such. This classic work by Evans, and the two-volume set on Paul Keres by Varnusz are the best examples of this that I can think of right now. (Of course, the Tartakower and DuMont epic is the original classic example of this; but the games in this Evans book have a modern flair, with lots of Sicilians, King's Indians, etc.). In sum, this book is a classic that must be on the shelf of anyone serious about their chess book collection.

Rating:
Summary: authoritative comments by 5 times us champion
Review: larry evans -the grandmaster who assisted bobby fischer in writing his 60 memorable games - is a real authority on chess and in this book he annotates some of his favourite brilliancies. in modern chess writing too many notes are of the wordless symbolic type and in my opinion they completely fail to convey the drama and flavour of a chess battle.

in contrast evans annotates every game as a story and he always puts his finger on the mistakes with unerring accuracy. this is a book to relish if you like playing over fine games beautifully explained by a reliable author.