Published in Sofia, Bulgaria by <Chess Stars>. Translated by GM Evgenij Ermenkov . 300 pages, figurine algebraic notation, April 2007.

The 100 games in this book have been carefully selected and analyzed, with a fair amount of emphasis on the openings. The reader is also treated to a bonus which is rarely seen in a chess book: eight pages of full-color photographs.

The positive aspects of the book end here. The editing was done in a hasty and careless manner. The translation also leaves much to be desired, as many of the notes feature phrases which are translated too literally from the original Russian version. There are also numerous spelling errors and inconsistencies throughout the book.

There are some instances where Russian words were left in the English text. For example, on page 152, in the introductory note on the Balashov-Dreev game, we read: "It coincided with the famous scandal of the year 1998 goda."

There are some places in the book where translation from Russian to English was inappropriate. For example, "the town of Mineral Waters" on page eight, instead of "Mineralnye Vody" (you don't see "Dos Hermanas" translated to "Two Sisters", do you?). At the European Club Cup of 2002, Dreev played for the team "Norilsky Nikel" which was translated to "The Nickel from Norilsk". See: http://www.nornik.ru .

Chess figures sometimes are seen where letters should be used. On page 43, we see "uslan"; and on page 129, we see "USS".

Many players mentioned in this book have their names spelled two, three, or even four different ways! GM Miguel Illescas-Cordoba is given as "Illescas Cordoba" on pages 167-8, "Illeskas" on page 196, and both "Ileskas" and "Illescas" on page 269. The editors also do a butcher job with Krishnan Sasikiran , for on page 157, it appears as "Sasikiran", on page 158 as "Sashikiran", and on page 239 as "Saskirian".

There is an index of openings at the end of the book, but the names of the openings do not appear, only the ECO codes.

Speaking of openings, Dreev plays 1.d4 in the overwhelming majority of his games. With Black he plays primarily the Caro-Kann and French against 1.e4. Against 1.d4, he normally defends with the Semi-Slav.

There are only two Sicilians in this book, one Nimzo-Indian, and only one game starting with 1.e4 e5 (a Ponziani!).

The retail price of this book is $29.95, which seems a bit steep, in my opinion. It is available through http://www.uschess.org .