My Chess Career

Rating:
Summary: A must have for chess hobbyists and connoisseurs
Review: Out of the 20+ chess titles in my library, My Chess Career, by Capablanca, remains my favorite.
The first hand explanations from the eventual world champion are useful, but sometimes abrupt. Nonetheless, the value of any of his commentary, in combination with games showing his historical development and clean elegant playing style, is simply a joy to read.
This book is more historical in intent than educational, yet my playing improved more through reading this chess book than any other, including those intended as educational.
Not meant for the beginner, yet, not much skill is required to enjoy it. A great read.

Rating:
Summary: A must have for chess hobbyists and connoisseurs
Review: Out of the 20+ chess titles in my library, My Chess Career, by Capablanca, remains my favorite.
The first hand explanations from the eventual world champion are useful, but sometimes abrupt. Nonetheless, the value of any of his commentary, in combination with games showing his historical development and clean elegant playing style, is simply a joy to read.
This book is more historical in intent than educational, yet my playing improved more through reading this chess book than any other, including those intended as educational.
Not meant for the beginner, yet, not much skill is required to enjoy it. A great read.

Rating:
Summary: My Chess Career by Capablanca
Review: The work sets forth classic chess plays including openings and
important manipulations with virtually every piece on the Board.
This book is a "must read" for a serious chess player. The power
of the Queen is demonstrated in closing the game in combination
with the King piece. A serious chess player would try to replicate a number of the classic plays depicted in order to
gain more experience with the game. The book is written
for a fairly sophisticated chess player/enthusiast. It is worth
the price for serious students of the game.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful games of Capablanca.
Review: This book presents several of Capablanca's games before he became a world champion. I really enjoyed (and still enjoy) studying and playing over these games. Capablanca was perhaps one of the top 3 world champs (with Fischer and Kasparov). His games show much clarity and are easy to understand even though the moves would be hard to find on one's own.

Capablanca has brief notes with a little analysis. I wish he would have had a little more. However, I enjoyed his notes, because in spots it elucidated a key point to a plan he had. However, these notes are few, perhaps one or two per game. Often, he makes a statement like "Better would have been X" without explaining. These comments are not very useful for amateur players. However, he sometimes (perhaps once a game) gives a more useful comment, such as the reasoning behind the move, or the reply to another dangerous looking move to the opponent.

The games themselves are beautiful. It is interesting seeing how Capablanca's game evolved from when he was a child. One great feature of the book is that before each "period" he talks about how he has changed. For example, he mentions that he did not know much about openings, but that he was very strong in the endgame since a youth. Later, he talks about how he matures and becomes a more complete player.

In summary:

Positive:
1. Incredible games by Capa. One can't help but feel "stronger" as a player after studying these games.
2. Interesting commentary on his development.
3. Analysis (when he gives it) is very insightful.

Negatives:
1. Not enough explaination behind the analysis.
2. Descriptive notation is not as common (a later version in algebraic is available, and I would give that 4 stars).