Players and commentators have spent decades debating what makes a brilliant game, and this book provides plenty of commentary on this highly personal subject. The author, a Russian sports journalist who has collaborated on chess books with some of the super-greats, begins by chronicling the development of the brilliancy prize and the criteria established for it through early games that both won – and didn’t win – the award. While this is an interesting discussion, it is simply an appetizer to set up the main course.

Most of the book examines brilliant games as determined by the world famous CHESS INFORMANT series. For those of you who grew up solely in the database era, there may not be a full understanding of just how important CHESS INFORMANT was to young (and old) players from the late 1960s and beyond. The semi-annual issuance of the INFORMANT was eagerly awaited, and serious players literally devoured its contents from cover to cover. Containing all (or as much as one could hope to find) of the important games of the previous six months, the INFORMANT was the lifeline for serious players who could not subscribe to a lot of pricey foreign periodicals or compete in events around the globe.

Beginning with the fourth issue of the INFORMANT, a jury of world-class players and commentators began voting on the most brilliant games of the previous issue. The games that won the top prizes (and some that did not) are the primary focus of this book. While the games are obviously brilliant affairs, many of them are already well known. The author prefers to delve into the reasons – some obvious, others harder to fathom – as to why some games were deemed more brilliant than others.

As a Russian chess journalist, the author provides a lot of interesting detail that most readers may not have been privy to. These inside stories are the best part of the book, and there are a lot of them. You will learn things about players and games that you probably did not know. For those who enjoy this aspect of the game and the players we admire, the book will be worth purchasing for these insights alone.

The games themselves are surely good, but many players will probably already have seen a lot of them. If, for example, you were a regular subscriber to the INFORMANT series (I have about 20 years worth of them), you already have access to the games. Even those who have not will likely find a lot of them in other works. For example, the first game in the INFORMANT chapters is the Fischer-Stein game from the Sousse Interzonal 1967. Anybody who owns Fischer’s MY 60 MEMORABLE GAMES (and probably some other books) has already come across this game. There are lots of other examples as well.

It should also be noted that the analysis and annotations of the games is, by and large, taken from other sources. Given that most of these are well known games that have been subject to a fair amount of scrutiny, I would not consider that fact to be a detriment to the book as a whole. However, one hoping to find new ideas or analysis of past games will want to look elsewhere.

While there are better games collection books, that isn’t really the thrust here, and it would do a disservice to focus only on that aspect. Damsky is a journalist, and his ability to make a story of the manner in which the games were deemed brilliant is the heart of the book. I found that discussion absorbing and thought provoking. That is what ultimately makes or breaks this book for its potential audience.

I applaud Everyman Chess for expanding beyond the usual chess games collection or opening monograph. This book definitely fits a niche, and the author is qualified to render judgement on the subject. I would note that while the translation was fine, there were a few more typos (though not of the variety that would cause confusion) that I have generally found in this publisher’s books. The translation is, in general, quite readable.

In conclusion, this is an interesting book on a subject that has evoked discussion and debate for a long, long time. The author contributes to a better understanding of what is generally considered a brilliant game. Along the way, he provokes and entertains. While the games themselves may not always be new, the stories surrounding them will appeal to many chess fans and players.