The Red Book of...........

In 1972, Bobby Fischer gave an interview in which he stated that his preparation for Spassky centered around a book he nicknamed 'The Red Book of Spassky' - a collection of all the games (no annotations) that Spassky had played, from his youth until that time.

I found the series (I cannot recall where) and ordered (purchased) the same book but of Tal. Again, I recall the book containing every game Tal had played to that point. Somehow, I parted with the book.

These books were red, cloth hardcover, and used algebraic before it was popular in the United States. But I cannot recall the country of origin, though I suspect it was the USSR.

Does anyone recall this series? Better yet, does anyone have a book from this series? And even better still, does anyone have the Tal book that he/she would like to sell?

Thanks

Possibly the Weltgeschichte Des Schachs series:

Yes it is the German series Weltgischte which has a diagram every five moves. I think there are close to 15 books in the series including Lasker, Petrosian, Capablanca, Chigorin, Steinitz, Anderssen,Tal etc. These were pre-database game collections which had (at the time) almost all known games of the players. ALso many books came with a little booklet of annotations.

I have seen a Fischer picture with him studying the Spassky book of this series.

I'd say, seeing as how the picture there has "27" on the Spassky book, that there are at least 27 in the series.

Gentlemen don't discuss each others' little red books.

Perhaps, but what would anavid collector do?

Try to assemble the whole set I'd say.

The books were not numbered in consecutive order  (hence Spassky #27 means nothing) plus there  were paperback in the series that were not on players and not considered part of the "red series" In general the books are not expensive (most are $20-30)  and one can play over all the games without a board since there are diagrams every five moves. The games are not annotated but there is the little booklet with a few games with annotations.