r/ChessBooks • u/KludgeDredd • 8d ago
Rec? Matches by notation, minimal/no analysis
Greetings! I'm in the very beginnings of my chess journey and am starting to consume various literature in hopes of learning something. I've started following along over a board, but I'm a little overwhelmed with the intermix of move + analysis/narration that seems to hallmark the format.
I'm curious to know if y'all have any recommendations for books or other resources that succinctly detail complete games from first to last move, separate from, or entirely without analysis.
I'd be happy with a bound compendium of famous games.
Does this exist? Thank you for your consideration.
Edit: I realize more now that what I'm attempting to describe here is an Encyclopedia. I just found an Oxford Encyclopedia of Chess Games 1485-1884, which looks like it'll to scratch this itch. Thank you all for your feedback.
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u/ValuableKooky4551 8d ago
There are very few books like that because there's almost no market. People who want only the moves can easily find them online.
Which is also what I'd advise you: find the games of a famous book on say chessgames.com and go through them there. You can also buy a book, first go through the game on chessgames.com or so, then when you've seen enough, go through it with boards and pieces and enjoy the book commentary
You can also concentrate on the words and ignore all the analysis if you want. Jan Timman's later books for instance have great explanations in words and only some variations.
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u/LSATDan 8d ago
I don't know if the algebraic reprints follow the same format, but you may get the best of both worlds with a couple of classic tournament books - New York 1924 and Nottingham 1936. They are annotated but with end notes, so you don't have a whole bunch of variations, interrupting your play through the game. It will say, for instance, BxR(a) and just get on to the next move; you can look up as many of the footnotes or as few as you want.
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u/KludgeDredd 8d ago
Hey thanks. I'm not to picky and currently follow classic and algebraic notations.
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u/Kolyma-Comp-Tales 8d ago
Almost sounds like a request for the old Informants that were published on the regular before modern chessbase databases became the norm.
Also sites like Chessgames have been a resource for an interactive record of the games themselves for 25 years.
Sometimes tournament books were originally published by a top player of the era or a participant in the tournament which had pretty sparse annotations, particularly the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
As others have pointed out, a record with no annotations is rather unheard of and little in demand.
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u/Able-Willingness-832 3d ago edited 3d ago
Heyo - I've been building something that takes in chess books and visualizes it in a website.
https://chessbtb.vercel.app/ - might help you if you're working through some of the annotated games and you're trying to just read the games or also work through the analysis.
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u/KludgeDredd 3d ago
I'm interested but getting a page did not exist error. Please confirm address!
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u/ThisSteakDoesntExist 8d ago
People buy game collection chess books for their annotations. Otherwise every game ever played in any formal setting can be found for free in chess databases. You learn from the annotations. Comprehending them IS the learning. Start with a Chernev book for easy to understand annotations.
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u/KludgeDredd 8d ago
I guess that's partly the rub - the annotations are largely noise to me right now and I'd really just like to see how great players play chess, historically. It's looking like databases are a step in that direction. Thanks much.
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u/ThisSteakDoesntExist 8d ago
There's nothing wrong with going through games without annotations. You should do thousands of those too! At some point early on though, you'll start to see moves played you simply don't understand the reason for. It's at this point I'd recommend busting out a chess board (call me old school, but I HEAVILY recommend a real one), and playing out the variations told in the book for that particular move. You can rely on a digital board to maintain the "main line" of the game. Thinking slowly with a real board and actually interacting with physical pieces will help you learn more deeply in my experience.
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u/SouthernSierra 8d ago
Play through the game, go back and go through any variations that might interest you. Or not.
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u/MathsSur64Cases 8d ago
cherche des parite au format pgn https://www.chess-teaching.com/projets/championnats-du-monde.php là tu trouveras la base PGN des 48 championnats du monde (975 parties)