A comment in another thread got me thinking about who I deem the best annotators.
From the top of my head I came up with this top ten,more or less in order of preference
1.Svetozar Gligoric
2.Savielly Tartakower
3.Jan Timman/Max Euwe
4.Mikhail Tal
5.Pal Benko
6.Viktor Bologan
7.Peter H. Clarke
8.Danny King/Andrew Burnett
9.Danny Kopec
10.Steve Giddins
Ok,I cheated a little to get 12 names in 🙂
I've always enjoyed these guys.
Tartakower, Tarrasch, Clarke, Purdy, Alekhine, Reinfeld, Chernev.
(Recently added Keres & Soltis to that lot.)
Francis J. Wellmuth is also good (A Golden Treasury of Chess).
90% of the games have no notes at all.
Sometimes it better to read nothing and just enjoy the game.
Originally posted by Paul LeggettAnd I can't believe I left Andrew Martin off this list! His Winning with the King's Indian book is equal parts entertaining and extremely instructive. One is almost left with the impression that he wrote the book just for you as you read it.
I should have added Ray Keene to my list- his Flank Openings book is one of the best I have ever read.
Originally posted by Paul LeggettHas Spassky never written a chess book?
And I can't believe I left Andrew Martin off this list! His Winning with the King's Indian book is equal parts entertaining and extremely instructive. One is almost left with the impression that he wrote the book just for you as you read it.
Slightly at a tangent but my nomination for this week's best annotation prize is User 495654
for the line:- "the pawn fork is my favorite form of mental torture to opponent who slap their forehead at their lax analysis"
commenting on his 14th move in Annotation 1499