Chernev Books - Your Top 3

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Avatar of Salmo22

Since I'm closer to 70 than I am to 50, the notion of learning from the old masters and their games is appealing to me.  I recently purchased Chernev's "Logical Chess - Move by Move" and have it on-deck in my reading lineup.  Besides Logical Chess, I'm thinking of adding two more of Chernev's works to my humble chess library.  With over 20 books to his credit, choosing the next two books is challenging.  To assist me with this decision, please share any recommendations for your top three Chernev books.  Your comments are appreciated.

Avatar of mfelzien

Winning Chess - A copy of the orginal 1948? version (I have two).

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played: 62 Masterpieces of Chess Strategy - WOw... and WOw.. 

 

Avatar of Quasimorphy

Winning Chess is a great beginning tactics book.

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played is even better than Logical Chess, IMHO.

I'd also suggest Capablanca's Best Chess Endings.

Avatar of kindaspongey

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/

Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1948)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf

Avatar of BonTheCat
Quasimorphy wrote:

Winning Chess is a great beginning tactics book.

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played is even better than Logical Chess, IMHO.

I'd also suggest Capablanca's Best Chess Endings.

I'd go with Quasimorphy's suggestions.

Avatar of kindaspongey

I imagine that a lot of Chernev books are only available in descriptive notation (1 P-K4 P-K4 2 N-KB3 N-QB3).

Avatar of Salmo22
kindaspongey wrote:

I imagine that a lot of Chernev books are only available in descriptive notation (1 P-K4 P-K4 2 N-KB3 N-QB3).

Since I'm an "mature" fellow with romantic chess inclinations, I enjoy the melody of descriptive notation.  While I'll start with the latest editions in paperback, ultimately I'll seek to replace favored works with first edition hardbacks for my personal library.  The paperbacks will be donated to the local clubs.

Avatar of SmokeJS
I like Logical, Most Instructive and Winning (with Reinfeld). The Capablanca book is more advanced for me. Descriptive notation is what I grew up with so no issues and only tokes a few seconds to get comfortable with it. Possibly a bit nostalgic for me but also eliminates the need to upgrade purely based on that criteria.
Avatar of DrChesspain
Salmo22 wrote:
kindaspongey wrote:

I imagine that a lot of Chernev books are only available in descriptive notation (1 P-K4 P-K4 2 N-KB3 N-QB3).

Since I'm an "mature" fellow with romantic chess inclinations, I enjoy the melody of descriptive notation.  While I'll start with the latest editions in paperback, ultimately I'll seek to replace favored works with first edition hardbacks for my personal library.  The paperbacks will be donated to the local clubs.

Since I'm in my mid 50s, I learned descriptive as a teenager, so to me now it's like reading a book written in a previously learned but rarely used foreign language.  I still prefer algebraic, but I can follow the moves without needing to "translate" in my head.

 

Curiously, what I find more difficult to read is the long-form algebraic found in many of the books from the 70's and 80's that were translated from Russian.

Avatar of BonTheCat
Salmo22 wrote:
kindaspongey wrote:

I imagine that a lot of Chernev books are only available in descriptive notation (1 P-K4 P-K4 2 N-KB3 N-QB3).

Since I'm an "mature" fellow with romantic chess inclinations, I enjoy the melody of descriptive notation.  While I'll start with the latest editions in paperback, ultimately I'll seek to replace favored works with first edition hardbacks for my personal library.  The paperbacks will be donated to the local clubs.

Personally I think that algebraic is far superior to descriptive notation, but I don't have any problem with the latter. However, one interesting by-product of descriptive notation which I really like is the layout. On the whole, books in descriptive notation tend to look much more appealing than books in algebraic notation. I don't quite know why, but this is definitely not due to the use computers in modern-day type-setting and different preferences for diagrams, fonts and typefaces (books by Batsford from the 1970s in descriptive notation are far more elegant than their algebraic ones).

Avatar of BeyondDuplication

Just picked this one up.  An oldie but goodie.

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Avatar of Lupara

The Golden Dozen is a must have Chernev book.  Also, I highly recommend The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played and Capablanca's Best Chess Endings.  You already have Logical Chess -Move by Move, so no need for me to recommend it.  In my humble opinion, those four books are probably his best.

Avatar of SeniorPatzer
BonTheCat wrote:
Salmo22 wrote:
kindaspongey wrote:

I imagine that a lot of Chernev books are only available in descriptive notation (1 P-K4 P-K4 2 N-KB3 N-QB3).

Since I'm an "mature" fellow with romantic chess inclinations, I enjoy the melody of descriptive notation.  While I'll start with the latest editions in paperback, ultimately I'll seek to replace favored works with first edition hardbacks for my personal library.  The paperbacks will be donated to the local clubs.

Personally I think that algebraic is far superior to descriptive notation, but I don't have any problem with the latter. However, one interesting by-product of descriptive notation which I really like is the layout. On the whole, books in descriptive notation tend to look much more appealing than books in algebraic notation. I don't quite know why, but this is definitely not due to the use computers in modern-day type-setting and different preferences for diagrams, fonts and typefaces (books by Batsford from the 1970s in descriptive notation are far more elegant than their algebraic ones).

 

What I like about Descriptive Notation is when you read something like, "Rooks placed on the 7th Rank are very powerful indeed!"  Because this statement relies on there being both a White perspective and a Black perspective.  And their respective 7th ranks are different from each other.

 

That's what I like about Descriptive Notation.

Avatar of ambrooks

In addition to the "Logical" and "Most Instructive" books - I also have these 3 Chernev books :

"Capablanca's best Endgames",  "The Russians Play Chess", and "12 Great Players and their Best Games".

All three are good - but I also highly recommend his 1000 Best Short Games.

 

Chernev is the King of all Chess writers for all time.

Avatar of Lupara

By the way, The Golden Dozen and Twelve Great Chess Players and Their Best Games are the same book with different titles.  I believe Dover issued Twelve Great Chess Players and Their Best Games well after The Golden Dozen went out of print. 

I agree with ambrooks opinion on The Russians Play Chess and The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess.  Both books are very good.

Avatar of FBloggs

The Fireside Book of Chess by Chernev and Reinfeld is a fun read with games, puzzles, stories and anecdotes. It's not a book one buys to improve his game but rather to enjoy. 

Avatar of FBloggs
ambrooks wrote:

In addition to the "Logical" and "Most Instructive" books - I also have these 3 Chernev books :

"Capablanca's best Endgames",  "The Russians Play Chess", and "12 Great Players and their Best Games".

All three are good - but I also highly recommend his 1000 Best Short Games.

 

Chernev is the King of all Chess writers for all time.

I bought The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess many years ago. Another great one by Chernev. I agree that he was the best chess writer of all time.

Avatar of RussBell
kindaspongey wrote:

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/

Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1948)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf

If forced to choose among the many instructive Chernev books, I would agree with this.

https://www.amazon.com/WINNING-CHESS-Irving-Chernev/dp/1501117580/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526768630&sr=1-2&keywords=irving+chernev+chess

https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Perfect-Attacking-Batsford/dp/1849941106/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526768630&sr=1-10&keywords=irving+chernev+chess

https://www.amazon.com/Most-Instructive-Games-Chess-Played/dp/1849941610/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526768630&sr=1-4&keywords=irving+chernev+chess

 

Another good Chernev book....

Capablanca's Best Chess Endings....

https://www.amazon.com/Capablancas-Best-Chess-Endings-Complete/dp/0486242498/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526768630&sr=1-3&keywords=irving+chernev+chess

Avatar of RussBell

Also check out...(for other than Chernev books)...

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond....

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Avatar of SmokeJS
The copy of Winning Chess I bought used is subtitled “How To See Three Moves Ahead” so a bit different. Checking it against some free pages on Amazon it’s the same book but of course it has descriptive notation.