"Speaking for myself and for players of my strength, Chess Openings: Theory and Practice is the greatest aid I have ever seen for preparing for a tournament. Speaking for all other players, the book is a "must." Current thinking on all important lines is meticulously presented, offering myriad, clear-cut ideas a completely new and effective arsenal of weapons. "-Samuel Reshevsky, United States Open Champion." Chess Openings Theory and Practice is a remarkable book, unequaled by any book of that era or since. It is not a mere openings book with long columns of moves followed at the end by punctuation marks such as + -- or =. It presents opening ideas and games, often including the first game where each opening was played, plus the history of the opening, the names of famous players who played this opening and the ideas and plans on which the opening is based. It provides "idea variations." These are variations that may not actually occur in actual practice, but are what you would play if given the chance. No other book does that, at least not in English and not to this extent.

The Golden Treasury of Chess is one of the most popular and most often reprinted and revised chess books ever created. It is filled with hundreds of the most thrilling, exciting and surprising chess games ever played. It also includes articles about chess history and stories about how these great games came to be played. It has also become one of the most controversial chess books ever written. The controversy arises over the question of who is the true author of the work. This controversy is explained by Chess Historian Edward Winter in his column “Chess Notes”, in an article entitled “The Horowitz-Wellmuth Affair”.