My 60 Memorable Games: The Greatest Chess Book Ever Written
When Bobby Fischer sat down to annotate sixty of his best games for Simon & Schuster in the late 1960s, he produced something that transcended the usual genre of grandmaster game collections. My 60 Memorable Games, first published in 1969, is not merely an excellent chess book. It is, by the consensus of generations of players and writers, the single greatest chess book ever published.
That is a large claim. Chess literature spans centuries and thousands of titles. But the praise for Fischer's book is remarkably consistent across eras and across skill levels. Garry Kasparov called it the most influential chess book of the twentieth century. Viswanathan Anand studied it as a boy in India. Magnus Carlsen has cited it among the books that shaped his development. When grandmasters are asked to name one chess book that every serious player should own, this is the title that appears more than any other.
What makes it so special? The answer lies in Fischer's unique combination of analytical rigor, intellectual honesty, and crystalline prose.
What the Book Contains
The sixty games span Fischer's career from 1957 to 1967 — roughly from his emergence as a fourteen-year-old prodigy through the period just before his historic run to the 1972 World Championship. The opponents include virtually every top player of the era: Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Paul Keres, Bent Larsen, Samuel Reshevsky, and many others.
Each game receives Fischer's full annotation: detailed move-by-move commentary that explains not just what happened but why. Fischer walks the reader through his thought process — what he considered, what he rejected, what surprised him, and where he or his opponent went wrong. The games cover the full range of chess situations: sharp tactical battles, deep positional struggles, endgame grinds, and brilliancies that end in combinative fireworks.
Fischer did not choose only his wins. Several of the sixty games are draws, and a few are losses. This was a deliberate choice. Fischer wanted the book to be instructive, not merely flattering, and the games he lost or drew often produced the most revealing commentary.
What Makes the Annotations Extraordinary
Honesty
Fischer's annotations are almost shockingly honest by the standards of grandmaster game collections. Most elite players, when annotating their own games, tend to present themselves in the best possible light — glossing over mistakes, omitting alternatives their opponents missed, and generally constructing a narrative of smooth superiority. Fischer does none of this.
When he makes a mistake, he says so. When his opponent plays a strong move, he gives full credit. When he fails to find the best continuation, he shows what he missed and explains why. This honesty gives the annotations a credibility and instructional value that few other game collections can match. You are not reading a press release; you are reading the unvarnished internal monologue of one of the greatest players who ever lived.
Depth Without Clutter
The second remarkable quality is Fischer's ability to be analytically rigorous without being overwhelming. Many grandmaster annotations bury the reader in page after page of dense variation trees — long sequences of alternative moves that only a strong player can follow. Fischer provides deep analysis where it matters, but he also knows when to stop calculating and explain the idea in plain language.
A typical Fischer annotation might run: a brief assessment of the opening, a clear explanation of the strategic plans available to both sides, detailed calculation at the critical moments, and a crisp conclusion. The ratio of words to variations is perfectly calibrated. A club player rated 1400 can follow the main ideas and learn from the explanations. A grandmaster can study the variations and find them sound. Very few chess writers have ever managed to serve both audiences simultaneously, and none have done it better.
The Voice
Fischer's prose style — terse, confident, sometimes blunt — is part of what makes the book memorable. He does not waste words. His assessments are direct: "This is clearly best." "A serious error." "Black's position is hopeless." There is an authority to the writing that comes not from arrogance but from mastery. You sense that every judgment has been earned through exhaustive analysis.
Occasionally, Fischer's personality breaks through in ways that are almost endearing. He expresses genuine excitement at a beautiful combination. He admits frustration when he mishandles a position. He acknowledges when an opponent has outplayed him. The result is a book with a human voice behind it — not a computer printout, not a ghostwritten corporate product, but the authentic record of a brilliant mind engaging with the game it loved.
Which Edition to Buy
The publishing history of My 60 Memorable Games is worth understanding, because not all editions are equal.
The Original (1969, Simon & Schuster)
The first edition, published in descriptive notation (the standard before algebraic notation became universal), is the version Fischer himself approved. It is now a collector's item and expensive in good condition, but it remains the authoritative text.
The Batsford Edition (2008)
The most widely available modern edition was published by Batsford in 2008. It converts the notation to algebraic, which most contemporary players prefer. However, this edition made controversial editorial changes — correcting some of Fischer's analysis with the aid of computer engines and, in some printings, altering Fischer's original wording. Purists object to the modifications, arguing that the value of the book lies precisely in Fischer's own voice and perspective, computer imperfections and all.
A later Batsford printing restored Fischer's original text while retaining algebraic notation. This restored edition is the one most readers should buy — it preserves Fischer's authentic annotations in the notation system modern players use.
For Collectors
First editions in good condition with dust jacket command significant prices. If you are a serious collector of chess literature, a first edition is one of the crown jewels of any collection. For study purposes, however, the restored Batsford edition is entirely sufficient.
How to Study This Book
Owning My 60 Memorable Games is one thing. Getting the most out of it is another. Here is how serious students of the game have traditionally approached the book, and how you can adapt that approach to your own level.
Set Up a Board
This is not a book to read in bed. Set up a physical chessboard — or at minimum, a large screen with a digital board — and play through every move. The act of physically moving the pieces engages a different part of your brain than simply reading notation, and Fischer's annotations assume you are looking at the position.
Play Through Slowly
Resist the temptation to race through games. At each critical moment — when Fischer provides extensive commentary or alternative variations — stop and try to find the best move yourself before reading his analysis. This active engagement is what transforms reading into training.
Study in Blocks
The sixty games are arranged chronologically, and Fischer's style evolves visibly over the course of the book. Many coaches recommend studying the games in groups of five or ten, then pausing to review what you've learned before moving on. The early games (from Fischer's teenage years) are often tactically explosive and accessible to intermediate players. The later games show increasing positional sophistication.
Revisit Games
The best games in the collection reward repeated study. Games like Fischer vs. Byrne (the "Game of the Century," though it appears only briefly), Fischer vs. Tal, and Fischer vs. Petrosian reveal new layers each time you return to them with greater understanding.
Supplement with Engine Analysis — Carefully
Modern chess engines can show you where Fischer's analysis contains inaccuracies. This can be instructive, but use engines sparingly and only after you've first worked through the game on your own. The point of studying this book is to develop your chess thinking, not to catch a genius in minor errors. Fischer's strategic explanations remain as valuable as ever, even where his calculations have been superseded by silicon.
Also by Fischer
Fischer's only other published book, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, is an entirely different kind of work — a programmed learning textbook for absolute beginners. It shares almost nothing with My 60 Memorable Games in terms of depth or audience, but its commercial success helped fund Fischer's chess career.
For readers who want to go beyond the sixty games in this collection, Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess (1959) is Fischer's first book, containing his annotated games from the 1957–58 U.S. Championship and the 1958 Portorož Interzonal — the tournaments that launched his career. The annotations are less polished than those in My 60 Memorable Games, but they offer a fascinating window into the thinking of a fifteen-year-old grandmaster.
For a complete game collection with modern commentary, Karsten Müller's Bobby Fischer: The Career and Complete Games covers all 736 of Fischer's serious tournament games with expert annotations.
Why It Endures
More than fifty years after its publication, My 60 Memorable Games remains in print and continues to sell. New chess books appear every month — many of them aided by engines far more powerful than anything Fischer could have imagined — and yet none has displaced this one from its position at the top.
The reason is simple: Fischer's book teaches you how to think about chess. Engines can tell you what the best move is. Fischer tells you why it's the best move, what the alternatives were, and how to recognize similar situations in your own games. That kind of instruction does not become obsolete. It is as valuable today as it was in 1969, and it will remain valuable for as long as human beings play chess.
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