Big annotated game collection book

Hello,

Could you advice me on a good annotated collection book that has a lot of variety of openings (more saemisch? caro kann? dutch? Queens gambit accepted or even rarer one like, Benoni, Benko gambits, Evans gambit). To expand on my analysis of different pawn structures and/or middlegames strategy (i posted recently a post for advice on improving my middlegame). I own Mammoth book of chess which is great (so something similar and has ), Master on the chess board and Logical chess move by move.

Thanks a lot in advance

Euwe's and Meiden's three volumes, 'Chess Master vs Chess Amateur', 'The Road to Chess Improvement', and 'Chess Master and Grandmaster' is a very fine collection of well annotated games with great variety of openings. Anything from complete duffers openings to topical variations. The theory isn't bang up to date, obviously (the last volume was published in 1977), but the major outlines of nearly all openings we play today were laid in the 1940s and early 1950s, and it's much more important to understand those ideas and concepts, than memorizing heaps of specific theory.

Great Games by Chess Legends Volume 1

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708112104/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review711.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104818/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review697.pdf

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Chess-Secrets-Great-Attackers-79p3845.htm

Great Games by Chess Legends Volume 2

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708234322/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review734.pdf

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Heroes-Of-Classical-Chess-79p3846.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092313/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review620.pdf

Great Games by Chess Legends Volume 3

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090408/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review831.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708100445/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review933.pdf

One classic work that is inexpensive, collects 500 games, and covers nearly all the well-known openings is, of course 500 Master Games of Chess by Tartakower and du Mont, from Dover.

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486232085.html

Looking quickly, I only saw games from before WWII.

thanks for the tips, i took a look and there are all (but Chess Master and Grandmaster) available on amazon. I downloaded a sample of great games by chess legends it looks good (strategy and power play have the best reviews, your opinion?) and tartakower's book is much praised! unfortunately i tried to read it but it's just too difficult to visualize the with descriptive annotation...

Other suggestions ?

The following suggestions are not what would be considered "big game collection" books.  Nor do they necessarily cover the openings mentioned by the OP in his initial post.  However the books are some of the more instructive I have come across, focused on game analysis, with generally better than average annotations by the authors...

Winning Chess Brilliancies by Yasser Seirawan, is a collection of 12 deeply,  extremely well-annotated chess games of legendary players (Fisher, Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Korchnoi, Smyslov, Ivanchuk, etc.)  In my opinion this book provides an object lesson and a reference standard in how chess games should be annotated, in terms of instructive insight and clarity.

Giants of Chess Strategy by Neil McDonald.  Features games and game fragments of Kramnik, Karpov, Petrosian, Capablanca and Nimzowitsch. Provides analysis of primarily middlegame play illustrating positional concepts.  To me, GM McDonald is one of the more instructive chess authors, who writes with a clarity readily accessible to the improving chess amateur.  

Understanding Chess Move by Move by John Nunn.  An instructive collection of 30 grandmaster games deeply annotated.  Most of the games were from the 1990's.  The annotations tend to delve into much more detail (lots of variations and sub-variations delineated in the notes) than in the books above.  Studying every comment in this book will keep you busy for quite awhile.

For suggestions, recommendations of other chess books which could be of interest to the improving chess amateur, you might like to check out my BLOG.

http://www.nystar.com/tamarkin/review1.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092313/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review620.pdf

(^^^ Now sold as part of Great Games by Chess Legends Volume 2. ^^^)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092945/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review269.pdf

http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/Understanding_Chess_Move_by_Move.pdf

I went to my local store and they had 2 books that looked like what I was liking for, but weren't. Sorcerers apprentice but for some reasons most of the game in the second half of the book aren't annotated at all. And my best games by Alekhine but the opening index didn't make any sense (none of the opening pages liste correspond, not even close. Do you have the same problem?). I downloaded a sample of move by move by nun' which look very good but I'm a little scare of all the variations and sub variation. The other books look good too

Tartakower's own best games collection has recently been published in an algebraic edition. There you are guaranteed great games, great annotations, and a wide variety of openings. Although Tartakower died in 1954, he loved experimenting in the opening.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708100135/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review695.pdf

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5856bd64ff7c50433c3803db/t/5a5296bcc830256b61a7b94d/1515361980898/mbgexerpt.pdf

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/My-Best-Games-of-Chess-1908-1937-79p3751.htm

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/My-Best-Games-of-Chess-1908-1937-79p3771.htm

http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/My-Best-Games-of-Chess-1908-1937-79p3793.htm

(In the openings index, could the numbers be for games instead of pages?)

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5856bd64ff7c50433c3803db/t/5a5299a10d9297f9a59ec04c/1515362722214/tartexcerpt.pdf

Scribd.com has lots of books, including chess books, to read online (under the 'Books' menu), and for download (under 'Documents' menu only). You can search the content for titles, or by subject, e.g. 'chess' etc. for free. Otherwise, the site is fee-based - about $9USD per month - for reading or downloading.  (The books available for reading are not necessarily available for download).  They also have a 1-month free trial. Over a period of several hours of browsing and searching chess titles/topics I downloaded dozens of chess books (as .pdf documents) using only the free trial. The site is safe and easy to use.

LeVeloDeBertrand: Yes, I definitely consider that we lesser mortals have much more to learn from the old masters than from computer-aided modern analysis (they go over board to an extent which is quite meaningless for most players).

I bought tartakower best games 2 days ago and I like it a lot. Lots of various opening covered, lots narrative, only the most essential side line. Perfect for me ;)

Who is the author?

1: McDonald & Crouch

2: Pritchett & McDonald

3: Pritchett