Logical Chess?

Would "Logical Chess Move by Move" by Irving Chernev be a good book to buy?

It's an excellent book, I recommend it highly.

I think so, although you can get his "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played" for less $, it's also a good book for beginners and intermediate players. Look for used copies of either one at amazon, I just did which is how I know which one is cheaper

http://www.amazon.com/Logical-Chess-Explained-Algebraic-Edition/dp/0713484640/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359257465&sr=8-1&keywords=logical+chess+move+by+move

I wrote this book review a few days ago:

http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2013/01/logical-chess-book-review.html

Ziryab  That's a very detailed review, I'm going to bookmark it for future reference when recommending this book to other players!

thanks

the games are old but its still one of the best chess books around.

I heard that John Nunn really criticised this book. Is it still a good investment?

I really enjoyed "Logical Chess" and thought it was better than "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played".

I only started studying chess about 18 months ago.  "Logical Chess" was probably my 2nd or 3rd book.  I thought it did a nice job of explaining some opening principles and showing me how all three phases of the game flow together and impact eachother.  It was also fun and enlightening to see some master brilliancies. 

On the downside, I didn't learn much about tactics or the endgame from this book, which I am learning are probably the most important things to learn for someone new to chess. 

I'm currently working through Silman's Complete Endgame course and loving it.  Also recently read a few tactics books by Susan Polgar, Dan Heisman and Yassir Seirawan.  All were quite good.

You may want to consider one of these in addition to "Logical Chess".

Most of the games in Logical Chess are master vs. amateur, and the master displays understanding of tactics. Many games feature sacrificial combinations that lay the king bare. How can you read the book and not learn tactics?

Tactics may be present in some (or even most) of the games shown in Logical Chess.  But Logical Chess didn't teach me much of anything about tactics.  Don't get me wrong, I loved Chernev's book, I just prefer to solve puzzles to learn tactics.  By solving hundreds of such puzzles I started to notice positions in my games where a tactic could be possible.  At first this was just one move ahead, but I'm starting to see them two or three or even more moves head.  This only developed after I read a couple tactics books and spent a lot of time on chess tempo.com.  I read Logical Chess prior to these tactics books and did not see such tactical improvements in my game.  After reading Logical Chess  I did see improvements in my opening skills and maybe some positional knowledge.

Ziryab, I realize that you may disagree with this.  I've spent a great deal of time teaching and tutoring both children and adults (not in chess, but in math & reading) and if I learned anything from that experience it is that each person learns differently.  For me, puzzle books had the best return on investment (as far as rating improvement).  However, I take more pleasure in reading books like Chernev.

Hope that helps.

Why don't you just look up his criticism yourself? I found it in about 10 seconds using Google's Search Engine.

I don't know much of Schiller, except that several experienced chess guys told me to avoid his books.  beware.

Chernev's Logical Chess is a really good book. I don't know if it is in or out of print but if you can get it at a normal price then go for it. Back in the 90's when it was out of print, copies were going for $80 to $100. If it is expensive like back then, then just go for one of the Logical Chess homage/ripoffs like Nunn's book or Pandolfini's Russian Chess which is a really good move by move book.

When I first started playing chess in the 1990's, I was at the French Market in New Orleans with my girlfriend looking for fake Prada purses when I came across a crazy looking guy in a red beret offering to play chess for $5 a game. He was a master, the poster propped against his folding card table on the sidewalk said. Didn't know who he was but played him and afterwards when going over the game with him, he advised me to get a copy of Chernev's Logical Chess Move By Move. He said it was the greatest book ever written about chess and that I needed it. The master playing chess for $5 a game at the French Market was Jude Acers a New Orleans legend. He gushed about the book and went on and on about it and how it would help me.

So I looked for the book and it was out of print with copies going for big bucks. About 6 months later Batsford reprinted it and I picked it up. Stick with it. It took me a while to get through it because I got bored after the first three games (I think there are 30 in the book). It is not that the games aren't exciting because they are but with a comment after every move, he starts to sound like a broken record in the beginning of the games. To hear him gush about 1. e4 being the best move, opening lines for the KB and Q, etc over and over every game gets to be a bit repetetive. Eventually, I went through the whole book about a year later and it is really good.

I guess the method to Chernev's madness is that by the time you've completed the book, the ideas repeatedly bashed into your head are ingrained there forever. It really is a good book with fun games. Nunn picks apart the book saying that Chernev's analysis has some errors. Yeah I think we know that Chernev didn't have a quad core i7 running Rybka, the primary importance of the book is not deep analysis of the games and variations but to help you learn general principles, ideas and motifs to the beginning and intermediate player in which the book succeeds. I really think that Nunn is just promoting his book by saying by my version Understanding Chess, it is 100% computer tested. Chernev though is a much better writer. His chess prose is top shelf.

I agree with NimzoRoy about "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played" being another great book. It contains almost twice as many games and can be found very cheap on amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Most-Instructive-Games-Chess-Played/dp/0486273024/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359475745&sr=1-2&keywords=chernev)

it's in Descriptive Notation, but don't let that turn you away from an awesome book!

Great story Marsalone!

john nunn's main problem with the book logical chess is not that chernev has some slightly outdated or wrong analysis, it's that the "principles" he repeats over and over and over again are misleading / not helpful or just out and out wrong.

Really good, thank you!

Most of these older books have PGN collections of the games and positions available online if you look around a bit.  Download the games into your UCI and the descriptive notation becomes transparent.  The algebraic notation will show up in your UCI along with the variations and analysis.

i forgot to mention often contradictory!