Logical Chess : Move By Move: Every Move Explained (Batsford Chess Book)

I see this book in a second hand shop; I was impressed; for a few pound more, I placed an order via Amazon. This book cover a variety of different openings; works it way through the complete game, and give reasons for every move made, yes: every move, compared to other books which give comments after so many moves. I am half way through: "How to reassess your chess" but had to put it aside for this book. The author also explains how to create weak points in the enemy camp and put this to good use. Through out the game, there are many back up diagrams, so you can't go wrong. I do feel I am a reasonably good player, but did lean some tips from this book, the comments he makes are easy reading. The author gives a few variations of opening, but does not blow your brains out, like some books which give too many variations. details are given right through to the end game. If you are just learning chess, this is the book to go for, it will take you to a reasonable standard in a short time. I wish other grand master could follow the same book format as this author; this is a great book, go for it.

Although this is an old book, it's all still valid concepts. I strated it, it is mostly aimed at improving overall strategy and seeing patterns. I expect to gain couple hundred points at chess.com

Good general book about developing pieces and a little bit about when to attack. Only negatives were that the book seemed a bit dated in the chess world, and a little too much queens gambit in there. Would recommend for anyone though, as it was a good read. I have a new found admiration for Capablanca after reading it too!

Notes on versions: WARNING make sure you get the correct edition as there are older editions which have the Descriptive (English) Notation. I'm used to the letter Algebraic Notation K, Q, N etc, but got used to the symbols for the pieces very quickly. I chose to buy the paperback copy of this book, but the diagrams look fine in the Kindle sample. So it's just a matter of preference. Review: Do you want to know the Master's "potent secret weapon"? Buy this book to learn and understand the answer! After reading the first few pages of Game 1, I now wish I had known about this book sooner. It summarised some of the things I have learnt through painful experience. For example, "Castle early in the game preferably kingside." And "Develop all your pieces before starting any combinations!" I'm very new to the game of chess*, so I don't know how useful this book would be to intermediate or advanced players. But considering these are games from Grand Masters (GMs), perhaps everyone can learn something. Even if, on the small chance, you don't learn anything, the author's enthusiasm for the game is infectious. This is no dry theoretical tome (it's a regular sized paperback) that makes you feel like you're back at university wishing you hadn't chosen this elective. Ney, it's a thrilling, easy to read, fast paced commentary of some of the best GMs of their era. After reading this you don't feel you have to be really intelligent or highly educated to play an enjoyable game of chess. Don't think you can learn something from a game played over a hundred years ago, think again. This book is a classic, if you only have one chess book on your shelf this must be it. *I only started playing regularly in December '21. I'm currently rated just above 900 on Lichess. PS The only thing I hate is the cover, which looks like a 1970's book which has sat on the shelf for so long that it has faded.

Excellent book highly recommend!

FABULOUS BOOK! Wonderfully written, with a touch of humour, but deep understanding. As a beginner I have found it fascinating. I am working through it without getting into all the extra examination that the author supplies. I am sure that, as I improve, I will understand and enjoy it even more. It has to be the best chess book on the market.

Having played chess for over four decades - but feeling that my game hadn't really improved over the last three! - I bought this book hoping that I could finally discover that hidden 'something' that was missing. The results are amazing. Whilst playing through these games on a phone app during my daily commute it appears that my ageing brain has somehow absorbed Chernev's principles, and I now find myself winning games I never would have in the past. I must admit that I was slightly dubious when I opened the book for the first time to find that it consists of a collection of rather old annotated games with accompanying commentaries by the author. However, by a process of relentless repetition, he manages to convey a number of key elements that will help any amateur/novice take his/her game to the next level. I've read it twice now (the improvement after the second reading was even greater than the first) and will refer to it many times in the future I'm sure. It's reinvigorated my interest in chess and transformed my understanding of this great game. Hang on, on second thoughts, please don't buy it - you may end up beating me...!

Very interesting chess book! Pleased with this purchase. Good! Thanks.

parfait

Livro que eu desejava a muito tempo. O livro Logical Chess Move by Move, de Irving Chernev, é dedicado a jogadores de xadrez iniciantes e intermediários que desejam aprimorar sua compreensão estratégica e tática do jogo. Ele é ideal para entusiastas que buscam aprender os princípios fundamentais do xadrez por meio de explicações claras e detalhadas de cada movimento. A obra também atrai leitores que apreciam análises acessíveis de partidas clássicas, desvendando o raciocínio por trás das jogadas. É perfeito para quem quer desenvolver um pensamento lógico e estruturado no xadrez. Professores e treinadores também podem usá-lo como recurso didático.

This is a good chess book for beginners. In this review, I will highlight its strengths and weaknesses. First, what is this book? This is a collection of grandmaster games with commentary given by Irving Chernev. The book is divided into three major sections: The Kingside attack, the Queen's pawn opening, and then a final section (The Master Explains His Ideas) of games illustrating all the techniques presented before. The book is best described as a "beginner's strategy" book. It does not focus on tactics, but rather the overarching principles of how games, and attacks, are conducted. Each game takes about half and hour to work through, which makes this book nice for adults with jobs and family obligations who cannot devote a substantial amount of time each day to chess. The strengths of this book are manifold: (1) It will get beginner players out of the habit of playing random moves. The beginner will enter a game with some idea of what they need to do to carry out a successful attack, and they will move pieces accordingly. This, right here, is reason enough why beginning chess players should read this book. (2) The reader will get exposure to a handful of important openings: the Italian Game, the Ruy Lopez, the Colle, and the Queen's Gambit. All these openings are good for the beginning player to become familiar with, and each one has a general strategy attached to it. Chernev does a good job of explaining the ideas behind these openings with the one exception of the Ruy Lopez. (3) This book will change your style of play, and ultimately improve it if you are a beginner. There will be a learning curve, where the reader tries to implement the material in this book, and don't quite do it successfully. That's fine. It will take time to integrate everything he teaches into your own style of play. (4) The annotations scale upwards as the reader progresses (but not as much as they should, see my first negative comment). The beginning games are almost all wordy explanations of what is happening, and by the middle Chernev is having the reader compute a handful of variations, and integrating the results into their analysis of a position. Now for the negatives, (1) The annotations are at a uniformly low level. There are 32 (I think) games in this book, and the annotations don't scale up as much as I would like. I only need to be told a few times that 1. e4 or 1. d4 is a great move! because it frees two pieces and fights for the center. I don't need to be told every time. Use that paragraph to put in another small calculation. (2) Chernev, and I hate to say this, is probably telling the reader a bunch of lies with his analysis. I don't mean that he's saying anything that's wrong, but grandmaster games aren't played on the basis of explanations that a sub-1200 USCF player would understand. The actual rationale for the moves is far more sophisticated. This doesn't mean that the book is bad for a beginner, it just means that they will quickly outgrow this book. (3) This is a book on strategy, and so very few tactical considerations are addressed. That's fine, the book isn't a tactics book. But this cannot be the only book a beginner reads. (4) This is going to be my biggest complaint. There simply isn't enough material here. This book does too little with the 250-ish page length. This book has two major themes, how to attack a castled kingside position by weakening the pawn structure, and how to exert pressure on the c file in the Queen's Gambit position. Ever game in the first two sections ends in the middle game with a mate or a resignation due to an overwhelming material advantage stemming from one of those two ideas. The reader will not learn basic endgame concepts like opposition of kings, how to win in basic rook+pawn ending, or even how to grind down your opponent with a material advantage (can you win when you're up a bishop and need to promote a pawn?). If the reader can't win in the middle game, they won't win according to this book. All in all, I do think this book is worth reading. However, it can not be the only book a beginner reads, and it certainly isn't the best beginner book. If you're looking for a single book to take you to an intermediate playing ability, Tarrasch's *The Game of Chess* is much better than this. However, if you're willing to buy two books, this one will be a great compliment to Tarrasch. EDIT: It's been quite a bit of time since I've posted my original review, which I have left above. In that review, I gave this book four stars. Since then, I have re-read this book and have decided to give it a deserving fifth star. The reason is that I was too harsh in my criticism that the book does too little for the amount of pages. The book is sneaky in that it's teaching you quite a bit more than just the explicit thematic content. For example, there are 16 games in the opening section (the kingside attack). My original complaint would be valid if, in those sixteen games, the exact same ideas and mating patterns occurred within each. However, the games are chosen as to present a vast array of openings and middle game strategies. There are several games which I have marked out in my book and intend to memorize them because of how masterfully they illustrate the strategies tied to the various openings. For example, the very first game (von Scheve - Teichmann, Berlin 1907) is a masterful display of how to defend against the Guioco Piano. I've memorized the first batch of moves and have modeled my own defense in my tournament play based on this game. Similarly, the 9th game (Znosko-Borovsky - Mackenzie, Weston-super-Mare 1924) is a display par excellence of the closed Ruy Lopez. As a Ruy Lopez player, it was wonderful to see such a beautiful display of how the opening ideas flow into a middle game positional play, and how that flows into creating weaknesses in the enemy position. I will be sure to study this game very carefully to extract as much gold from it as I can. I have marked out five games in the opening section which I have found particularly relevant and worthy of deep study. Perhaps other players with other preferences will have their own opinions on which games are most instructive. I was foolish to initially claim that the book does too little. After re-reads, I am very impressed with the amount of content here.

I like the clear cut explanations . Showing games in detail. Excellent.

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