Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games

by Mikhail Botvinnik

World champion who dominated chess in the 1940s and '50s selects and annotates his own best games to 1946. 221 diagrams.

Genres: Chess, Games

Unknown Binding

First published June 1, 1960

Reviews

[Puneet Gurnani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having returned to chess after a long gap of 15 years I set upon renewing my chess library. Got one book on each of the facets of chess along with related softwares and then to link all of it together got this book to study master games.
I really got a good deal in this book (literally too). The games are really good and the annotations are very nice. However if you are say a below 1600 player, this book is not for you. Botvinnik does not even give elaborations on wrong moves that may lead to loss of material in 3-4 moves... He just skips them and does not discuss them in his list of candidate moves.
so if you are say below 1600 get "road to chess mastery" by euwe instead. That is an excellent book to start out with.
Next in line
a)zurich 1953
& b) my 60 best games by fischer.

[David L. Tribble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

Needs to be upgraded to algebraic notation. Otherwise a very good job. Good for beginners to experts. I would recommend it ☺

[George Eraclides · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the finest game collections by any of the great chess players. The annotated games go up to 1946, by which time Botvinnik was approaching his best ever form to became World Champion (1948). A few more years at peak performance, until perhaps 1950 and then it was a slow, ever so slow, decline until he lost the title in 1963. The annotations are superb and highly instructive; the games are complicated strategically and played with a precision allied to an implacable will to win which made even Bobby Fischer admire him. If you have not played carefully through the games in this book, you are not a true chess player. Just a dilettante.