Best games collections

Our local library has offered to buy in some best games compilations and has asked me to suggest some of these. Have any of you suggestions for books of this kind that you believe to be in print? Even some suggestions of those out of print would be useful. I've a few ideas but I'm sure that you all have many more.

search 'collection'...

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

Thanks. A useful list for chess in general but I'm really only looking for best games collections (either from one player or compilations from several players) rather than chess books focusing on other aspects of the game, and this list only has a couple.

There are many games collections books listed in the article...

with a PC computer, use the search function <CTRL+F> to search for the term: collection

Doing that will find every instance of the word 'collection' in the article (i.e., all of the games collection books).

There are several instances of the word 'collection' but most do not refer to best games collections, though I see a few for Fischer, Morphy and Alekhine. Thanks again.

The rabbit hunter, by Badruddin Shobaba

Clearly you are thinking in terms of a collection of best games. My article/list is more concerned with citing some of the most popular, acclaimed collections of games.

There are to my knowledge only four books which actually claim to be collections of the best games - these are....

The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games: by Graham Burgess, Dr. John Nunn, John Emms. Note that the publication date of the current expanded edition is 2010 (not 2021 as implied on the book's Amazon web page). While the book's content is wonderful, the physical production quality of the book is woeful - it is a cheaply produced paperback, using the poorest quality paper and binding. It is unlikely to survive as a library book without falling apart after being checked out of the library several times.

The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century, Ranked (2006) by Andrew Soltis. It is also a paperback book, but its production quality is far superior to the "Mammoth" book above.

"The World's Great Chess Games" by Reuben Fine. Fine was one of the best players in the world for a time in the 20th century. The book is a collection of games beginning with Philidor and ending with Karpov. I doubt that any accomplished chess player would support the contention that the cited games prior to the mid 19th century (while being of potential historical interest) would objectively qualify as "great" or "best", although many of the remaining games, particularly those in the 20th century, might legitimately qualify.

And nowhere would the appellation "best" be more dubious than in the hyperbolically titled "The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess" by Irving Chernev. Interesting and entertaining? Perhaps. "Best"? Doubtful.

Although I do own the books above (which I do all of the books cited in my blog articles), I make no claim as to what extent the books actually contain so-called "best" chess games (who should be the judge of that?). However, the book's authors are well-known chess book authors, and (excepting Chernev) GM's and chess theoreticians.

Thanks Russ. This is very useful. I appreciate the time you've taken to help me here.