The meeting of Louis Charles Mahe de la Bourdonnais and Alexander McDonnell at London's Westminster Chess Club in 1834 was notable for a number of reasons. Hard-earned reputations were zealously protected, and masters of equal standing had seldom faced each other on even terms. The chess world was watching closely, but it was the actions of spectator William Greenwood Walker, who recorded each move of the 85 games, that has had the greatest impact. This recording and publication of game scores from a series of matches between masters was a first in chess history: The event gave birth to modern chess theory. Once based upon composed exercises studied in isolation, theory now became concrete and measurable. Practice replaced contrivance, and tactics could be studied and honed in light of the avalanche of match records that followed. McDonnell and de la Bourdonnais played six matches in 1834. This book offers biographies of the two and illuminates their times--and then the 85 games are analyzed using modern theory; there are numerous diagrams and previously published commentary. The merits of the openings, middle- and endgame maneuvers of the two are weighed. Nine appendices present selected games against other opponents; excerpt a contemporary account of the games' ambience; provide other interesting documents; present several statistics; and provide a schematic of mistakes made by both contestants. Bibliography, notes, indexes.

Vast collection of great chess games from 1798 through 1938, with much hard-to-find material. Fully annotated, arranged by opening for easier study. 150 years of master play!

Modern chess began in 1851 in the London Tournament of the Crystal Palace Exposition. Today, the principles of winning play have been explored and codified: a beginner can learn more about chess in one year, than a master learned a century ago during his entire career. This book is the first detailed presentation, by a Grand Master, of a complete analysis of the world's best games. For all who are interested in the fine points, the author has selected the most notable examples of brilliant play and strategy, the attack and the defense. Among the masters whose best games are to be found in the work are: Alekhine, Botvinnik, Capablanca, Euwe, Lasker, Marshall. Morphy, Rubinstein, Steinitz. Tarrasch, Tartakower, and many, many others. Reuben Fine had not taken chess seriously until late high school days. Yet he became a Grand \faster at the age of twenty-one, and was dual winner of the great AVRO Tournament of 1938. Dr. Fine was officially ranked - on the basis of twenty years of tournament play - as the Number 1 player of the United States, and a Challenger for the World Championship. Dr. Fine taught psychology at the College of the City of New York and at Brooklyn College. He and his family lived in New York City, where he practiced psychoanalysis.

The Grand Prix Attack is one of White’s deadliest weapons against the Sicilian Defence. It continues to be highly popular with tournament chess players all over the world. While earlier publications mainly focused on tactics, this book the finally gives the GPA the coverage it deserves.

Every chess player needs to know how to handle his pawns. Pawns form the 'playing fields' of chess games, a semi-permanent 'structure' that can determine whether a player wins or loses. This comprehensive guide to pawn structure teaches the reader where pieces are best placed, which pawns should be advanced further or exchanged, and why certain structures are good and others disastrous. This invaluable book is a major update of this chess-world classic, first published in 1975 and unavailable for several years.

Do you often lose at chess simply because you are not aggressive enough? You can put boldness into your chess game by following the brilliant moves of Paul Morphy, who has been called the greatest chess player of all time. This volume contains 300 of Morphy's best games, carefully annotated by Philip W. Sergeant. While Morphy wrote no books on chess theory and seldom expounded his methods in public, his theories are clearly demonstrated in the games in this volume. You can systematically improve your own game, you can add brilliance to your play by following the technique of quick, forceful development and opening of lines developed by the great 19th-century World Champion. In a new introduction, Fred Reinfeld, well-known American chess authority, states: "By emphasizing the role of systematic, aggressive development, Morphy helped to mold chess into an art form and into the highest phase of intellectual struggle." Included in this completely unabridged volume are 54 classic games against such masters as Anderssen, Harrwitz, Mongredien, Bird, Paulsen, and others. There are also 52 games at odds, 52 blindfold games, plus more than 100 others. These games, with explanatory text, offer a great champion's interpretation of such standard chess openings as the Dutch Defense, Evans Gambit, Giuoco Piano, and Ruy Lopez.