One Hundred Selected Games

by Mikhail Botvinnik

The 100 outstanding games in this volume are Mikhail Botvinnik's own choices as the best games he played before becoming World Champion in 1948. They cover the period from his first big tournament — the USSR Championship of 1927, in which the 16-year-old Botvinnik became a master — to the International Tournament at Groningen in 1946 — in which he demonstrated his qualifications for winning the world championship.
Botvinnik, an expert analyst as well as a champion, had annotated these games himself, giving a complete exposition of his strategy and techniques against such leading chess players as Alekhine, Capablanca, Euwe, Keres, Reshevsky, Smyslov, Tartakower, Vidmar, and many others. In a foreword, he discusses his career, his method of play, and the system of training he has adopted for tournament play.
A careful study of these 100 games should prove rewarding to anyone interested in modern chess. A full variety of the most popular modern-day opening is provided, including the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian Defense, French Defense, Queen's Gambit Declined, Nimzo-Indian Defense, and others.
This volume also includes a long article on the development of chess in Russia, in which Botvinnik discusses Tchigorin, Alekhine, and their influence on the Soviet school of chess; the author's six studies of endgame positions; and Botvinnik's record in tournament and match play through 1948.

Genres: Chess, Games

288 pages, Paperback

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.