I love Geller's annotations. His aggressive style is exciting and fun to look at.

Hi, I am a Master, and for many years now I have made a living by teaching chess, lately all on the Internet. I also ask if you are seriously considering buying this book, that you stop and read all of the other reviews FIRST!

Don't be fooled by the four-star rating, the material in this book is super-outstanding. (The pages are somewhat see-through, the fonts are not the kind I prefer, and the diagrams are the old-style type that I don't care for ... they are too hard to see clearly.) And I almost never give a five-star rating anymore, I save that for the chess books that border on perfection. {A shrinking group, to be sure!}

One of the things you should know is that GM E. Geller was a VERY STRONG PLAYER!! (Maybe he belongs in the 100 strongest of all time!) He won the championship of the Soviet Union twice - one of these tournaments was (statistically) one of the strongest of that type ever held. He was a CANDIDATE for the World Championships ... SIX (6) TIMES!!!!! He had a PLUS (lifetime) score against many great players like Bobby Fischer! (Only Spassky proved to be his undoing, stopping him twice in the Candidate Matches to the tune of 2.5 - 5.5.)

Another important fact he was EXTREMELY rspected by his peers as both a theoretician AND a teacher. (Mikhail Botvinnik said of him: "Before Geller, we did not understand the King's Indian.")

He was also a hard working player who was an extremely industrious analyst. One player - whom I shall not name here - was very suspicious of others analysis, and trusted almost no one. But when he was given a piece of Geller's work, he took it at face value, and did not even bother to check it!!

So the only question that remains to us now is determine is this a good chess book, and does it have something worthwhile to offer?

I think the key here can be found in the title ... or HOW DO I APPLY CHESS THEORY??? (I have always been a theory hound, and if I had won all my games where I stood better out of the opening, I would have been a GM a long time ago!!)

In the intro to game # 30, Geller tells you: # 1.) About the Dragon; # 2.) How it got its name; # 3.) And the general procedure with which to tackle this tough line. His notes are extremely incisive, I do not see how anyone could not learn something if they were to apply themselves.

This is NOT a perfect book - but almost no chess book is! (I have studied all 100 of the games here. A small handful I have subjected to DEEP, computer-assisted analysis.) And as one gentleman already noted, this is NOT a beginner's book.

But consider this: # 1.) ONE HUNDRED very carefully annotated games; # 2.) MANY different opening lines; # 3.) Geller often tells you there are 2-3 good ways to meet certain lines, and which one may be best; # 4.) Things like openings, mid-game plans, and the technique for certain endings are discussed in GREAT detail.

I personally think that this book would benefit ANY player who fell into one of the following groups: # 1.) Might be a fan of Geller's; # 2.) Is looking for s SERIOUS chess book, maybe one he (or she) could study for years!; # 3.) Is looking to model themselves after a very strong player; # 4.) Is looking to sharpen or improve your tactics. If you feel you belong in any of these groups, then this is a book for you. (But if you would characterize yourself as a lazy person, don't bother.)

My rating of the MATERIAL and game choice in this book would be outstanding, A+. As long as you really want to work hard and have good study habits, I feel this could be a book that you could benefit from. IT IS ALSO A BOOK WITH SOME REALLY NICE GAMES AND SOME FANTASTIC ANALYSIS!!

Excelente

Among players who never became world champion, few are as great as Geller (perhaps only Keres, Nimzowitch, and Rubinstein). Indeed, Geller is the only player who has a winning record against the greatest player of all time: Robert James Fischer! Because I know Eduard Gufeld---Geller's Trainer----I could go on and on recounting tails of Geller's genius; however, such is not the purpose of this review. Nonetheless, I must say that even given Geller's greatness he has outdone himself with this game collection. This is a truly brilliant book: It is a classic! Geller's games leave one with the impression of the profound and of the barely comprehensible. There is no watering down of ideas in this book: Everything is presented to the reader just as Geller saw it. This book is pure, unmitigated grandmaster chess! If you want to "think like a grandmaster," this is the book for you. However, even if you are only interested in chess as a recreation, it is worth buying the book just to play through Geller's win against Psakhis---not to mention the innumerable other masterpiecies!

100 games, well annotated. Each is preceded by some historical background. Often, there are anecdotes embedded within the text. There are plenty of comments amongst the ample and occasionally comprehensive annotation. In principle, this is a fine book, for a fairly advanced player.

Geller devotes the most attention to opening variations. Half the book is arranged by opening, in fact, and the other half by player, which makes me think that Geller was never sure whether he sought to illuminate the openings or to show off his own victories.

And yes, he has only victories here, but they are not all brilliantly won games. For example, in Game 99 against Fischer, he reveals after Fischer's

20. a3?

"This loses in paradoxical fashion. As Fischer writes, a couple of hours after the game he found the problem-like win.... [extensive analysis follows]... This is the truth, established after many years of painstaking analysis. The number of moves with two exclamation points demanded of White shows how difficult it was to find all this during the restricted time of one game. A calculation of all the variations was impossible, and intuition in sharp situations was not Fischer's strongest weapon." A very intersting comment.

If you're a strong player looking for instruction on a wide variety of openings, then this book may be recommended. It is far too advanced for me.

This may be a petty complaint, but there is something visually unattractive about the contents. It may be the old-style diagrams, where to me the black and white queens are nearly indistinguishable. It may be the in-line algebraic annotations, which are in the exact same font as the text. It may be the lightness of the printing. Whatever the reason, I do not enjoy opening this book. However, the format is certainly superior to Bronstein's popular Zurich collection, so I may hold the minority opinion. Also, the Cadogan cover and binding are typically sturdy.

I think the book is aimed at about 1900-2000 rated players.

Evfim Geller is probably not well known to many younger players, yet he was one of the top GMs in the period from 1953 to 1980. He had a plus score versus Fischer and his score versus past, present and future world champions was commendable. If he had ever developed a knack for beating Korchnoi his place in history might have been much different. This is a series of annotated games arranged by opening. I've always liked this arrangement (like in Tartakover & DuMont's 500 Master Games of Chess and the Informator series). It allows one to get a good feel for an opening by playing through several successive annotated examples in one sitting without searching around for them. One cannot help but learn by consistent exposure to top-class games presented as Geller does. This is not a "desert-island" classic, but a very worthwhile effort from a strong and dynamic player. Buy it.

An amazing book!!! This little hidden gem is easily one of my top five favorite chess books,I have a Elo of 2042 ,There’s so many Lil nuggets in this book to learn.it’s sad how underrated Geller is,the best player ever not to be champion in my opinion !!!if you want to improve your game deff study Geller...and if u want to improve by studying the classics,besides Geller,check out Alekhine,Rubinstein and Bronstein,all young kids or anyone starting out should study those players

classic book

great book , you can learn a lot about handling dynamic openings like the KID.

The downloaded book is SPOILT by the very poor scanned diagrams