I make an effort to memorize games that are particularly enjoyable or relevant to my opening repertoire. I don't know if it's helped me become a better chess player, because I'm pretty lousy, but it has helped me enjoy and appreciate the game more.
Stigma wrote on 06/21/08 at 20:02:33:
Is there a secret method? Do you study in any particular way that (deliberately or coincidentally) makes the games stick in memory?
I have not come across a secret method, but I have found it helps if I view the game like a narrative. I can usually remember the major plot elements, and then after giving it some thought I can usually fill in the details.
For example, Morphy's Opera Box game started out as a Philidor. 3...Bg4 stands out as a positional blunder, allowing White to quickly gang up on f7 with Qf3 and Bc4. Then Morphy swung the Q over to b3 with a double attack. However, instead of snatching a pawn on b7, he chose to develop Nc3 (someone described this move as one of an artist rather than a butcher). Black tried to solve matters on the Qside with ...b5, which Morphy met with a sacrifice Nxb5, followed by 0-0-0, and then the famous Q sac and mate with B+R.
Seems like you can attach a narrative explanation to almost every move in a master game, especially the classics. Every move *should* make some sort of sense. Unfortunately, some moves don't make sense to me because I simply don't understand them -- others don't make sense because they just don't make sense (even Morphy nods). But these moves tend to imprint themselves even better than the standard moves.
Once you've memorized a few games, you can carry them with you and replay them at anytime, which helps to reinforce their lastingness. The mention of the Opera Box game in this thread gave me reason to think about it again, keeping it fresh.
By the way, I recall an interesting article on Silman's website where he talks with great enthusiasm about an ancounter he had with some other player where they discussed some games that they each memorized in common. I can't find that article now (that site seems like a mess to me), but I did run across this:
http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_mstr_gms/master_games_1.html