Having recently bought 2 Chessbase DVDs on the Ruy Lopez and Slav, I have noticed that asides from GM moves seemingly near-always having dual or higher multiple purpose, planning is of course a major feature of their games. I have always tended towards simply calculating the best move I can by positionally derived logic and tactical foresight, but I'm wondering whether trying the former approach could really be any worse, while obviously if it came together it would give me a great appreciation of strategical harmony in positions and thus how better to go about working them through to clearer wins.

I have a fair bit more aggression in my armoury than a Karpov or Capablanca simplfied-poison style, but I do sometimes shy away from total tactics feasts. So I'm wondering if there are good books out there for someone rated ECF roughly 120, and online Elo floating between 1550 and 1700, with deep explanatory annotations on games by Botvinnik or Capablanca. (I myself tried going through Capablanca games last year, but having seen these two dvds I've convinced myself that a lot of my positional assessments of these earlier games were wholly faulty, and may lead to bad habit-forming. Far better to learn from expert views even if it is costlier.)

As far as any leanings in my repertoire, I'm now playing the Slav as Black, but as White I'm permanently a 1 e4 player, hence the dual request. I can't find many reviews of chess books online which could confirm the level of annotation in say, 100 selected games by Mikhail Moiseevich, and I'm also wondering whether this might be worse or better than his books on the matches with Bronstein/Tal/Smyslov, the latter just about to release.

All opinions and advice welcome

Books on Capablanca & Botvinnik:
Capablanca:
Chess Stars Publishing
Chess Stars has two books on Capablanca. The notes or at least most of them do not appear to be silicon analysis.
Also the Reinfeld Book, Capablanca's Games is still available. A Dover book.
Abesbooks, or Alibris.com
Botvinnik:
Chess Star series out of print.
Also the Reinfeld book out of print for many years.
Chess Books - Hardinge Simpole Publishing
Has books on the later Botvinnik Championship matches with Smyslov, Tal, and Petrosyan.
Half a Century of Chess (Paperback)
by Mikhail Botvinnik (Author), K. Neat (Editor), E. Stauss (Translator) 1996
About this title: In this collection of the best games of his long and illustrious career, former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik demonstrates the deep strategic style that took him to the title. Borvinnik (1911-1995) made a unique impression on chess history, winning two of the strongest prewar tournaments and then becoming World Champion in 1948. He then held the title (apart from two brief interludes) until 1963.
Books by Botvinnik:
One hundred selected games 40 copies
Botvinnik's best games, 1947-1970; 10 copies
Soviet chess championship, 1941; complete text of games with detailed… 6 copies
Computers, Chess and Long-Range Planning 5 copies
Botvinnik's Best Games: Volume 1, 1925 - 1941 (Botvinnik's Best Games,… 5 copies
Achieving the aim 4 copies, 1 review
Championship Chess: Match Tournament for the Absolute Chess Championship 4 copies
Half a century of chess 4 copies
The Gruenfeld defence 4 copies
Anatoly Karpov : his road to the world championship 3 copies
Championship Chess (Hardinge Simpole Chess Classics) 3 copies
Match for the World Chess Championship Mikhail Botvinnik-David Bronstein… 2 copies
Botvinnik's Best Games: Volume 3: 1957-1970 (Botvinnik's Best Games,… 2 copies
Botvinnik on the Endgame 2 copies
(Copies available are from the website:.
Mikhail Botvinnik | LibraryThing
I do not believe libraything loans books, but rather catalogs books from anyone's collection. It appears membership is free for 200 books.
There is also a Chess Digest book on
1935 Alekhine-Euwe Match - Notes by Botvinnik.
Obviously hard to find.
But there may be a free Russian version floating around on the Internet.

Raul Capablanca books:
Bed and Sofa
Starring: Boris Barnet, José Raúl Capablanca Director: Abram Room, Nikolai Shpikovsky
The above is probably a silent movie starring Capablanca.
Raul Capablanca also starred in a 1925 Russian Silent film, called in English
Chess Fever.
Can be viewed free on You Tube.
The Immortal Games of Capablanca by Fred Reinfeld
Games Played in the World Championship Match Between Jose Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhin by No Author Listed (Hardcover - 1928)
Jose Raul Capablanca, Games 1925-1939 (Volume 2)
An Amazon.com listing.
Capablanca's Best Chess Endings by Irving Chernev
The World's Championship Chess Match Played at Havana Between Jose Raul Capablanca and Dr. Emanuel Lasker 1921
(Probably available from several ebook websites).
The Chess Legacy of Jose Raoul Capablanca, Last Lectures by J. R. (Jose Raul) Capablanca (Last lectures was published after he passed away).
The Unknown Capablanca (Dover Books on Chess) by David Hooper and Dale Brandreth
hess Fundamentals by Jose Raul Capablanca

And of course for Botvinnik and Capablanca Kasparov's My Chess Predecessors.
Jose Raul Capablanca 2: 1927-1942 by Soloviov
The Games of Jose Raul Capablanca by Rogelio Caparros

That's all well and good (an extensive list) but it tells me nothing at all as I need to know, and which annoyingly can never be found on amazon despite selling books!!, about the level of annotation in the books, and whether any would be suitable to my level for learning verbally about planning or strategy?

I have "Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games" and it's excellent! Annotations and analysis are great. And who better explain strategy and planning than Botvinnik himself!

The only thing, you mentioned that you are an e4 players only about 1/3 or games are e4 games as Botvinnik played c4/d4 more often.

Here is this book on amazon.

Amazon.com: Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games: Mikhail Botvinnik: Books

Another great middlegame/strategy book is Bronstein's Zurich 1953 also available on Amazon.

Commentary on Books:
The Batsford Book on Botvinnik printed in the 1970's a bit boring.
The notes are just too light.
Chess Star books as mentioned above, if the Botvinnik when it is reprinted is of the same quality as the Capablanca get it.
A very deep book is the Botvinnik book on the Alekhine-Capa match.
Botvinnik at his best, and top quality.
The Absolute 1941 Book is floating around as a used copy.
Also very good notes by Botvinnik.
Another book not mentioned, the 1948 World Championship by Kmoch.
Botvinnik, Smyslov, Reshevsky, Keres, Euwe, and can recall any others
simply a fantastic book, with top quality notes.
Reinfeld by the way wrote a book out of print, on how he described how Keres and Smsylov prepared for games. Or as the expression goes,
"Going back to the drawing board". After you lose or draw a game you study the game, and look for improvements and determine where you went wrong. What the Soviets and Botvinnik would have called Critical Study.
The reason for the Capa books, because Capa, Chernov, and Reinfeld did excellent work on Capa's games.
I would also recommend Kere's Best Games by Keres as he goes deep in analysis. Not with as we say today silicon moves, but rather hard critical
analysis of position. When he lost to Reshevsky in the 1930's he went back to as indicated above the drawing board and came back to defeat Reshevsky the next time around.

This is as useless as what you wrote before!

I was worried after reading reviews elsewhere that the length or depth of verbal annotation by Botvinnik in his 100 wasn't so good? What rating are you? If you're higher than me it could be you find the concrete variations easier, if you're lower, that may be where the verbal is pitched. The d4 distinction isn't gonna actually bother me now cos I'm def getting Fischer's 60 Memorable Games book and furthermore any notes from d4 games would help me defend as Black

I think everybody could have a different opinion on Botvinnik's book. I haven't went through the whole book just dozen of games or so. I'm slowly going over it. I personally found his explanations very good and helpful.

What's good about Botvinnik's game or his style is that it's logical and his games are great examples of strategy. There are no crazy attacks or tactics and many people will find his style boring. I like that style of play and I am learning d4/c4 openings and this is why his games are very instructive.

You could read reviews on Amazon about his book.

I don't have OTB rating, I just play online. My online rating is between 1800-1900. Intermediate level player I guess.

If you go with his book I really don't think you will be dissapointed. The higher your rating the more helpful his games are going to be

Lol, herein lies my problem-there are only 2 sparse Amazon reviews! I'm only about 1550-1700 online rated, hence my ability to simply process long alternate variations without any notes is less than yours I'd guess. Inherently, my tactical radar is slightly lower (albeit I go on Chess Tactics server for an hour most days).

Making a quick aside, do you find that reading books or going through high-level games, you make many qualitative errors in your positional assessments? This is what I fear doing, otherwise I could simply play through my million or so games on Fritz's database.