Grandmaster Chess Move by Move

Description

♟️ What makes this book different?

Most annotated game books explain what happened. This one explains why it happened. John Nunn doesn’t just give the moves with occasional notes — he annotates every important moment from the perspective of the player who has to make the decision. Why this move and not that one? What alternatives were considered and why were they rejected? What was the exact moment the game was decided? These are the questions that turn the study of games into real learning.

The book belongs to La Casa del Ajedrez’s «Move by Move» collection, which applies that approach to different authors and topics. Nunn selects games from different players and styles with the aim that the collection covers the widest possible range of position types: open and closed openings, tactical and strategic positions, technical and sacrificial endgames.

🎯 Who is this book for?

• Intermediate players who want to learn by studying complete games with a guide who explains each decision
• Players who have studied tactics and endgames separately and want to see how they integrate in real games
• Players who get lost in long games because they can’t identify the critical moments

📖 Contents

The book presents a selection of grandmaster games annotated move by move, with the following focus on each game:

• The opening idea: what type of position each side was aiming for from the first moves
• The middlegame plan: how the advantage is built or the position equalised
• The critical moments: the moves where the game changed direction and why
• The mistakes: when a side went wrong and what would have been better
• The connection to the endgame: how middlegame decisions determine the type of endgame reached

📚 The «Move by Move» method: learning to think, not to memorise

The «Move by Move» approach has a virtue that conventional annotated game collections don’t: it forces the reader to follow the player’s thought process in real time. It’s not about reading the annotation on move 20 and understanding it was good or bad — it’s about understanding what the player was thinking before making it. That perspective is what develops the ability to make your own decisions on the board.

👤 About the author

John Nunn (born 1955) is an English Grandmaster, four-time individual gold medallist at Olympiads and triple World Chess Solving Champion (2004, 2007, 2010). He is one of the most respected chess authors in the world. Translated into Spanish by Antonio Gude.

♟️ Why we recommend it at Chesscul

At Chesscul we recommend this book to intermediate students who already have a tactical and endgame base and want to take the next step: learning to follow a complete game with real understanding of what’s happening. Nunn is the ideal guide for that process.

🔗 Recommended companions

• The Best Games of Kasparov, Volume I: games from a specific player annotated in depth, the natural next step for a reader who wants to focus on one style.
• Endgame Planning I: Shereshevsky connects the openings in these games with the typical endgames they produce.
• Secrets of Chess Transformations: Marovic analyses the transformation mechanisms illustrated in these annotated games.