Unable to select the records from specific partition in mysql?
The syntax you are proposing (being able to explicitly select from a partition list) does not exist until MySQL 5.6.2:


  Starting in MySQL 5.6.2, SELECT supports explicit partition selection using the PARTITION keyword with a list of partitions or subpartitions (or both)... [src]


And indeed, your example comes from the MySQL 5.6 manual. I am assuming you are running MySQL 5.5 or even 5.1, but not 5.6.