---
product_id: 41802649
title: "The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century, Ranked"
brand: "andrew soltis"
price: "335 Lei"
currency: RON
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 5
url: https://www.desertcart.ro/products/41802649-the-100-best-chess-games-of-the-20th-century-ranked
store_origin: RO
region: Romania
---

# The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century, Ranked

**Brand:** andrew soltis
**Price:** 335 Lei
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century, Ranked by andrew soltis
- **How much does it cost?** 335 Lei with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ro](https://www.desertcart.ro/products/41802649-the-100-best-chess-games-of-the-20th-century-ranked)

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## Description

The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century, Ranked

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Class Chess Game Compendium
*by S***Q on April 6, 2024*

I recommend you play through each of these classic chess games and analyze the subtle moves and defenses used by the masters. You’ll learn a great deal - I know I did! Interesting for anyone who likes chess.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A great book... but with a few warts.
*by B***N on July 5, 2016*

Soltis is a prolific writer and generally puts out high quality books. And this is a good book. Also, McFarland isn't known for churning out garbage. I agree with some other reviewers that this book falls short of some of his other works (Soviet Chess 1917-1991 is a classic!), but disagree that it is just a 'paycheck' book. The annotations and game summaries of these 100+ classics is worthy of high praise alone. Still, some of his conclusions are questionable, especially compared with the may other 'best of the best' compilations out there (e.g., The World's Greatest Chess Games, by Nunn, Emms, Anand and Burgess is a prime example). In most of these lists there tends to be a selection of games that always get star status such as Rotlewi-Rubinstein (Lodz 1907) and Bogolyubov-Alekhine (Hastings 1922).And Soltis follows suit on these games and many others. But he also has some anomalies that suggest there are some flaws in his selection criteria. For example, his #1 game is Estrin-Berliner (a correspondence game!)! Great game, but I'm with another reviewer who felt including correspondence games with these epic over the board battles is apples and oranges. They shouldn't be included simply because they don't have the same pressures and circumstances that over the board play has. It's comparable to including computer vs. computer games in the list. Just no place for it.In his defense Soltis does tell us up front that the games are being judged only "on their moves, not by other considerations." But taking games out of their historical context is a bit like claiming a "brilliant" tennis exhibition between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic carries as as much weight as if it had been played in a Wimbledon final.Perhaps this 'moves only' criteria helps explain the biggest aberration in the entire book: Karpov-Kasparov, game 16, World Ch. match, 1985. This masterpiece is relegated at number 89! Just eleven spots from being off the list completely! How could this be? Many consider this game to be the greatest of all time; top 10 at worst. Kasparov himself considers it his supreme creative achievement. It got graded down because of "opposition." Which is to say the loser did not provide the stiffest resistance. This is where Soltis' method breaks down in my view. Kasparov's ...d5 pawn sacrifice (which Soltis gives an '?!!' mark) evidently marred the game in Soltis' view since it was later determined ex post facto that white had a good line against it (12.Be3). But by not going into the psychological aspects of this idea, which extended back to game 12 of the same match, he doesn't give credit (bonus points) for Kasparov's boldness in entering the line AGAIN at the most critical point in the entire match. Later in the game Soltis criticizes Karpov's resistance, citing move 17 as the key moment where he missed a better move (17.d6). But this misses the point that Karpov's actual move (17.Nab1) was not only logical but the primary move Kasparov had anticipated. In fact, Kasparov's 'home preparation' extended even beyond that, noting that with 19...Bd6! he had achieved the position he had been aiming for!The point is, even if Karpov did make a mistake or two they were not blunders or even obvious mistakes; they occurred while under extreme pressure and duress. Instead of trying to assign individual moves to his "Opposition" category he would have been better off following the criteria others have followed by applying it to the person himself and his/her historical strength. Was there any more formidable "opposition" than Karpov in the 1980s? What does it mean (in points) to dominate a player of that caliber to the degree Kasparov did here? Just so the reader understands the contention I am raising here, the score for "Opposition" in the Karpov-Kasparov game was only 14 points! By contrast, the score in Estrin-Berliner was 19!From a production standpoint it also would have been nice to have an indexed page listing all the games 1-100 with page numbers and the players. Maybe that was left out by design, not wanting people to just look at the list to see who got #1, etc. But if that's the case then why start at #1? Why not start at #100 and work your way backwards? I dunno. Small gripe, but an annoyance nonetheless.Just to reiterate my opening thoughts, this is an excellent book. An EXCELLENT book! But it has a few gaps. Call it character, like the gap between David Letterman's teeth. In fact, it is easily one of my favorites simply for the annotations and the selection of truly brilliant games. There is something for everyone in here, regardless of your skill level. Highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Games selected are too subjective!!!
*by W***T on May 13, 2007*

Andrew Soltis is one of the best chess writer, I almost brought all the chess books written by him!! But for this book, I give it 5 stars because of his effort. But I totally disagree with his selection of games. Games, like football, we enjoy the excitement arises from complicated positions where both sides have chances. For football, we like scores. But if one side attacks well but the other side defends perfectly, how can one scores? In chess games, sometimes the best games were those games when both sides make just slight flaws, but the fighting spirit the the main factor. That is why, if you ask me, which game I likes most, I definitely would choose the first game of the 1971 candidite semi-final match between Fischer and Larsen!! Even I had played through this games many times, each time it still causes me excitement. The other one I love is the 13th game in the 1972 championship match between Spassky and Fischer. As other reviewer mentioned, some good games are definitely missed!! So I would recommend other reader to buy Mammoth's greatest games in History as a complementary. Anyway, any greatest games collection cannot miss Anderssen's " Immortal Game.!!!

## Frequently Bought Together

- The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century, Ranked
- How to Win at Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond
- The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games: New edn (Mammoth Books)

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*Product available on Desertcart Romania*
*Store origin: RO*
*Last updated: 2026-02-02*