Greatest Chess Book of All Time
Reviewed by Chessmaster Jude Acers (see chess tours).
Also see "Exultant Chess Rave by Rave" -- chess review by Paul Kollar
LOGICAL CHESS MOVE-BY-MOVE (every move explained) By Irving Chernev. Reprinted July 1999. English edition/ typesetting and incredible 344 diagrams,"abc" labeled, algebraic figurine notation 2 or 4 position diagrams per page, 254 pages of chess dynamite for every chess student....
Introduction (May 1, 1957 by Chernev with terrific notation explanation section. 33 games which are subdivided THE KINGSIDE ATTACK (16 games), THE QUEEN'S PAWN OPENING (7 games) and to polish the student...THE CHESSMASTER EXPLAINS HIS IDEAS. All of this for $13.56. Heaven has arrived.
For the student "The greatest chess book of all time" can be read on a train, bus or plane..by the pool. Strong players can read it "blindfolded" as illustrative diagrams are aplenty...it can be read and re-read with joy and profit...It is the "Secretariat" of all chess books since it acts as a refresher course for the long time chess player and electrifying instruction for the absolute beginner. Chernev supplies the energy and brilliance of miniature chess masterpieces that remind us why we play the royal game in the first place.
First, the reader is entertained (more like transfixed!) and appointments go out the window. You forget where you are. Into the chess world you go.(Doomed!) The opening, the middlegame, the endgame are treated with rules, principles that work most of the time. The book is still the all time classic, placing Mr. Chernev in the chess hall of fame for keeps.
Every single move has a marvelous direct comment for the student on why it was played. Nothing is left to chance. It took the author ten years to pick the games, two years to write the deceptively simple "how to" notes....testing it on his neighbors. You learn with hurricane force since this latest edition has the modern "easy as abc" chess move notation designed to keep one flying through the pages.
Jude Acers Remembers for ChessLab....: "Chernev lived with his lovely wife (during
his last years) in San Francisco on Chestnut street. The 'believe-it-or-not-man-of-chess'
knew he had a secret shadow friend who sold countless thousands of his books,
prefacing exhibitions with a must- read Logical Chess recommendation. In 46 states,
9 countries I would just shot-gun it with both barrels, called it point blank,
the truly greatest chess book of all time for the student, the chess fan. Yet we had
never met.. So I am outside Cafe Trieste/North Beach with coffee mug in hand, sitting on
the church steps across the street. Chernev just walks up, smiles and nods his head:
"Hello Jude.. Thank you so much for telling people about the book. I know you do,
everyone writes me. I knew it was the best teaching I could do." And boom- he was
gone. I just smiled in wonder..only as he passed down the street did I realize it was HIM.
Best of all, Chernev, a best-selling author of ten chess titles had never even mentioned
the exact book he was referring to... That was his privilege. When you pen absolutely the
greatest chess book of all time you know it, you da boss..."