数ヶ月前にアメリカに行ったとき、帰りの空港の本屋さんで見つけた本。安かったので「飛行機の中での暇つぶしに」と軽い気持ちで買ったのだが、読み応えはあり過ぎ。おかげで空路あんまり眠れなかった。海外のサイトのレビューには「なんであれがGreat games?」みたいな選局への批判もあるようだけれども、少なくとも同工のカスパロフ著5巻セットよりは勉強になる。

Although 'One Hundred of The World's Greatest Chess Games' might have been a more appropriate title - since everyone is going to quibble about the editors' selections, and, as others have pointed out, their omission of even a single game by Paul Morphy is inexcusable - this book provides what is without doubt one of the finest and most instructive game collections of all.

Starting with the incredibly interesting McDonnell - Labourdonnais (London 1834) - with its final position which "once seen, is never forgotten: three passed pawns on the seventh rank overpowering a hapless quuen and rook" - and ending with the Anand - Lautier (Biel 1997), the collection includes the some of finest games of many of the best chess players the world has seen. Although you're not going to find all of your favorites here, you'll find many of them. And unfamiliar names such as Nezhmetdinov will probably end up becoming new favorites.

Each game is prefaced by biographical information about the players; short but interesting accounts of the circumstances surrounding the game; and a description of whatever special characteristics the game might have. We are, in other words, given not only text but context, that living context without some knowledge of which we will never be able to fully appreciate the brilliancies (and blunders) of these games. The book is further enriched by the very full annotations which the editors have provided.

These annotations seem to me to be masterful, and to strike a perfect balance between verbal comment and analysis. For beginners, there is plenty of verbal comment to help them understand what is happening throughout the game, comment that seems to me to be about as illuminating and helpful as you can get. More seasoned players will appreciate the editors' often fairly lengthy analysis of variations, analysis which attempts to summarize the best and most recent thought about particular lines and helps lead us to a deeper understanding of the finer points in these games.

But it gets better, for not only is the content of this book exceptional, so is its layout, a layout clearly designed for ease of readabilty. Well-printed in double columns using figurine algebraic notation, each move of the game has been given its own separate line in BOLD type. Diagrams are plentiful, large, and clear. Even the file (a - h) and rank (1 - 8) designations have been printed respectively both above and below and on the left and right of each diagram.

チェス史上に存在したゲームの中から、著者たちが教育的・歴史的・クオリティーなど様々な面から選び出した１００のゲームが載っている。バリエーション、解説は詳しすぎる程書いてあり、図面も１ゲーム平均７つ載っている。プレイヤー紹介、ゲームの最後には「このゲームから学べること」も書いてありためになる。５５０ページを超える大容量ながら、価格が安く、重量も軽くていい。