Rating: 
Summary: Bringing Capablanca's chess back to life.....
Review: Capablanca plays enchanting chess. He plays chess like no other else, making the strongest players of his time look like beginners. The simplicity and the economy with how he wins is brought to life by such a good author in Fred Reinfeld.
Rating: 
Summary: Great player but.......
Review: Capablanca was an exceptional tallent, and is one of my personal favorites. The reason i did not give this book better than 3 stars is because i just dont feel that Reinfeld really did him alot of justice with this book. The annotations are brief, and he seems to put down capa at times.
If you really want to get a book on perhaps the best player ever you should really consider buying instead "capablanca's 60 best chess endings" by chernev. Chernev not only admired the guy, but considered him the best player ever. So you know that the annotations are alot better. The book might have less games, but if you really want to enjoy, and learn from a book its definitely a fair trade. want to study a great player's games?
you cannot go wrong with Capablanca. awesome games, but Capablanca deserves better. If you cannot afford the extra dollar or so that Chernev's book cost. Then i would recommend this book to you.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Buy
Review: Fred Reinfeld showed here that he could write good chess books when the subject interested him. The games of Capablanca are of interest to all serious players, and the author does a good job of annotating some of the Cuban genius's very best.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Buy
Review: Fred Reinfeld showed here that he could write good chess books when the subject interested him. The games of Capablanca are of interest to all serious players, and the author does a good job of annotating some of the Cuban genius's very best.
Rating:
Summary: Capablanca "The Chess Machine"
Review: I, personally, hate long reviews of books, so I'm going to make this short and sweet! Capablanca was one of the greatest players of all time. Mr. Reinfeld (the author) adds stunning history behind the games and tells the reader what to expect of certain games in the intro of each chapter. The only bad mark that I can give this book is that the annotations seem a little brief at times; however, this book will teach you so much about the game of chess that one bad mark should never prevent a serious player from getting this classic!
Rating:
Summary: The Chess Machine.
Review: If there was one player that all chess fans must study is capablanca. The way he played the game makes chess look so easy!
He looks like he is joking with his opponents!!! He never seems to go for an all out attack like alekhine, but he seemed to enjoy torturing his opponents with incredible scientific, pinpoint accuracy... and after all that he takes away ALL counter chances from his opponents by taking the game into the end game!!
I consider him to be the greatest ever. I would argue that no one elses' games have ever affected so many people...Including world champs,,, from alekhine himself to Botvinnik, spassky, karpov, fischer, anand, kramnik etc.
Everyone at least agrees that he is top 3 material.
As much as i like capa, i dislike reinfeld! He seems to have a grudge against him, and in the book he mentions more than once how Capa got lucky... some of those comments are simply craaazzyy!!!! without mistakes there are only drawn games!!! The whole point of chess is finding them and then trying to exploit them... wow i wish i could say how i really feel about those comments.
Capa exploited the tiniest mistake people would make, so looking at a single game is really a great lesson in chess. I recommend chernev's capablanca book, or the other more expensive book mentioned by the other reader.... The chernev book focuses on the ending but only has 60 games (i think they are plenty though) the other focuses more on verbal side.
If you must have this book i just recomend you do not take all his comments to serious. I must also mention that his games seem to go perfectly with the study of "MY SYSTEM"... its so incredible! its as if Nimzo only studied capas games and gave comments on what he saw!!
capablanca games are more deep than that though, thats why we have had so many world champs that are under the capablanca school of thought.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable & instructive fine games of great genius
Review: José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942) is widely regarded as one of the all-time great chess players, and possibly the greatest natural chess genius in history. World champion from 1921-1927, he is the only player to have won the world title by defeating the incumbent in a match without losing a game. Grandmaster Robert Byrne, in his foreword, pointed how Capablanca's games were the greatest influence on the modern great world champion Bobby Fischer, and Anatoly Karpov is another disciple. Mikhail Botvinnik (three times world champ) also related how much he learned from Capablanca, and pointed out that even his successor Alexander Alekhine received much schooling from him in positional play, before the struggle for the world title made them bitter foes. Once players have read all the introductory books about endgames, openings, tactics and basic strategy, to improve, they must study master games. Capablanca's crystal clarity of style makes his an ideal object of study. Reinfeld does a good job here, as he did with his collection of Tarrasch's games. There are plenty of fine endgames, Capa's forté, but lots of brilliancy prize games as well. By the time Capa had won the world title, he had a unique record - winning a brilliancy prize at every master tournament he had played in where one was awarded. In his biographical sketch of Capa, Reinfeld states his belief in Alekhine's superiory. But Byrne's foreword points out that Alekhine never fulfilled his obligation to play a return match, and selected weaker opponents instead of facing him again. In fact, their first game after their world championship match was nine years later at the great Nottingham 1936 tournament - Capa won both the game and the first prize (with Botvinnik). The games in this book naturally overlap the ones in Golombek's book, but why not get both at such a bargain price?
Rating:
Summary: Capablanca "The Chess Machine"
Review: José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942) is widely regarded as one of the all-time great chess players, and possibly the greatest natural chess genius in history. World champion from 1921-1927, he is the only player to have won the world title by defeating the incumbent in a match without losing a game. Grandmaster Robert Byrne, in his foreword, pointed how Capablanca's games were the greatest influence on the modern great world champion Bobby Fischer, and Anatoly Karpov is another disciple. Mikhail Botvinnik (three times world champ) also related how much he learned from Capablanca, and pointed out that even his successor Alexander Alekhine received much schooling from him in positional play, before the struggle for the world title made them bitter foes. Once players have read all the introductory books about endgames, openings, tactics and basic strategy, to improve, they must study master games. Capablanca's crystal clarity of style makes his an ideal object of study. Reinfeld does a good job here, as he did with his collection of Tarrasch's games. There are plenty of fine endgames, Capa's forté, but lots of brilliancy prize games as well. By the time Capa had won the world title, he had a unique record - winning a brilliancy prize at every master tournament he had played in where one was awarded. In his biographical sketch of Capa, Reinfeld states his belief in Alekhine's superiory. But Byrne's foreword points out that Alekhine never fulfilled his obligation to play a return match, and selected weaker opponents instead of facing him again. In fact, their first game after their world championship match was nine years later at the great Nottingham 1936 tournament - Capa won both the game and the first prize (with Botvinnik). The games in this book naturally overlap the ones in Golombek's book, but why not get both at such a bargain price?
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable & instructive fine games of great genius
Review: José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942) is widely regarded as one of the all-time great chess players, and possibly the greatest natural chess genius in history. World champion from 1921-1927, he is the only player to have won the world title by defeating the incumbent in a match without losing a game. Grandmaster Robert Byrne, in his foreword, pointed how Capablanca's games were the greatest influence on the modern great world champion Bobby Fischer, and Anatoly Karpov is another disciple. Mikhail Botvinnik (three times world champ) also related how much he learned from Capablanca, and pointed out that even his successor Alexander Alekhine received much schooling from him in positional play, before the struggle for the world title made them bitter foes. Once players have read all the introductory books about endgames, openings, tactics and basic strategy, to improve, they must study master games. Capablanca's crystal clarity of style makes his an ideal object of study. Reinfeld does a good job here, as he did with his collection of Tarrasch's games. There are plenty of fine endgames, Capa's forté, but lots of brilliancy prize games as well. By the time Capa had won the world title, he had a unique record - winning a brilliancy prize at every master tournament he had played in where one was awarded. In his biographical sketch of Capa, Reinfeld states his belief in Alekhine's superiory. But Byrne's foreword points out that Alekhine never fulfilled his obligation to play a return match, and selected weaker opponents instead of facing him again. In fact, their first game after their world championship match was nine years later at the great Nottingham 1936 tournament - Capa won both the game and the first prize (with Botvinnik). The games in this book naturally overlap the ones in Golombek's book, but why not get both at such a bargain price?
Rating:
Summary: Every chessplayer should have this book
Review: Just $6.36 for a book that may influence the style of playing for your whole life! From the view of quality/price, this book ranks the top. If you like positional play, you can find a lot of instructive games. If you are crazy about combinations, there are also tons of sparkling moves! Who said Capablanca is famous for driness?
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