Richard Reti's Masters of the Chessboard

I'm enjoying Richard Reti's Masters of the Chessboard which was written in the twenties long before the chess information/chess computer analysis explosion. I find it refreshing compared to some of the later books such as Kasparovs which contain endless Fritz lines.

Here are some examples of his writing


From the Forward:

Such are the reasons which have led me to believe that this textbook might best take the form of a collection of games. Complicated mathematical calculations are a result of the synthesis of simple theories. The opposite is true of chess, where the theories are an abstraction, a generalization of experiences gained in the playing of actual games . The primary element is the living game, which is the foundation of all chess theory.

on page 11 talking about analysis of the King Gambit.

In the first place, almost every analysis based only on variations has proved erroneous in the course of years because a knowledge of variations,is after all, only a sham.

The book is a historical collection and starts with a chapter on Anderssen an concludes with a game of Torres. I like that in the chapters which contain multiple games of a player ie: Anderssen and Morphy the games often share the same openings.
Anderssen: 2 King Gambit games : Morphy has 2 Scotch Gambit Games. So there is interesting commentary regarding the ideas behind the openings.

My Dover edition is in standard notations so as I write notes in the book I am converting it to Algebraic Notation.

I created a collection of games at chessgames.com from this book. You will find it here .
Perhaps you may enjoy looking at it ,like I do, while I wait for Fritz to finish analysing my games. 8)