The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played

Last year I wrote up all the games from Irving Chernev's classic book Logical Chess: Move by Move here https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/logical-chess-move-by-move-1

I've just received my copy of Chernev's other anthology book, The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played: 62 Masterpieces of Chess Strategy, and over the next few weeks I'll be posting the games and analysis of them.

A slight disappointment from the book is although it is a 2021 print it is in the original descriptive notation as it was written in 1965. Not a big problem, it just makes it is little less easy to skim through. In this thread all of the moves will be in algebraic notation.

The first game from the book is Capablanca - Tartakower, New York, 1924

This game is also featured in the book the World's Greatest Chess Games (Game 21)

Jose Raul Capablanca - Savielly Tartakower, New York 1924, Dutch Defence

Here's the game with Alekhine's analysis

Here's the game along with the computer analysis:

This is one of Capablanca's most famous games and it has been analyzed by many different chess players.

Here's an analysis of the endgame by Stjepan Tomic (Hanging Pawns) with quotes from Alekhine and Reti.

This endgame is analyzed by GM Ben Finegold here:

This game is also featured in IM Alex Astaneh's "How to come up with a Plan" video tutorial

"No one has ever played these endgames with such elegant ease as Capablanca" - Reti

Nice post! Following. 

Game 2 is titled "The King is a strong piece"

It is played by Mikhail Tal against G. Lissitzin at Leningrad in 1956, and it begins with the Sicilian Defense.

Chernev introduces the game saying "To those of us who worry about the safety of the King, Tal's play in this game is a joy and a revelation. Tal realizes that the power of the King increases as the game progresses and as the pieces come flying off the board. By the time the ending has been reached, the King is truly a formidable fighting piece."

Chernev notes there is an opening trap, if black played 6...Bg2? 7.e5 dxe5 8.fxe5 Ng5 9. Bb5+Bd7 10.Qxg4! wins the knight

Or if 9...Kf8?? 10.Ne6+ fxe6 11.Qxd8+ wins the Queen

Although the engine calls 13.Bd4 a mistake (it says an early bishop sacrifice is best), Chernev praises the move, writing

"Proper development does not concern itself merely with placing the pieces where they are effective for attack. It is equally important to interfere with the range of influence of the opponent's pieces. You must dispute control, as Tal does here, of every file, rank and diagonal."

The king walk begins on move 25. Again the engine detracts from the cleverness of Tal's play. Objectively black is better at this point. Chernev says:

"The beginning of a remarkable tour/ The King is headed for the Queen side where it will terrorize all the Pawns in sight."

Chernev agrees with Black's move 29...Rh6 with "Obviously, to go after the rook pawn", although the engine calls it inaccuracy, preferring 29...Re1

Black's decision to trade off the last knights was an inaccuracy that put white well ahead for the first time in the game, and 39...Re6 is clearly a bad move giving White an even bigger lead.

However it was 53...f3?? which was the endgame blunder that meant Black had absolutely no chance of getting back into the game again, and after 54.b7 Black realized he could not stop White from Queening and so he resigned.

Unusual opening

nice.

Not much of a “Dutch” fan

Titled "Knight Outpost at Q5", Chernev introduces the game saying "Boleslavsky knows that a good grip on the center almost guarantees the success of a kingside attack."

After 14...Qa4? 15.c4 misses the knight fork which is 15.Nc7 however it is praised by Chernev as a brilliant sacrifice.

Boleslavsky wants to

• Prevent Black from playing d5
• Put the white knight on d5

15.c4 achieves the first objective immediately and he managed to get the Knight on d5 by move 20.

Here Chernev asks the reader whether this knight outpost was worth the pawn sacrifice? Well, the engine thinks that White is slightly better but also thinks 20.Nd5 is an inaccuracy (it prefers to simply grab space with 20.h4)

The one move that the engine really likes is 28.g5!!

Chernev agrees, saying it "threatens annihilation by 29.Nf6+ followed by 30.Rxh7+"

The following two moves are categorized as brilliant by the engine. Black cannot capture the rook on h5 due to the threat of the knight fork, so Black resigns.

Well done with all that work.

Chernev is an all time favourite of mine. I worked through his books many years ago. I would see who won and turn the board around to make sure I was on the winning side when I played through!

I have a slight peeve about Chernev that Bronstein touched upon in his Zurich book: the idea that the winning player is the virtuous keeper of chess principles while the loser is the sinner who is punished for his infractions; infractions that can be reduced to "Chernvisms". 

I have a slight peeve about Chernev that Bronstein touched upon in his Zurich book: the idea that the winning player is the virtuous keeper of chess principles while the loser is the sinner who is punished for his infractions; infractions that can be reduced to "Chernvisms". 

Well, Chernev was aiming at an audience of advanced-beginner to intermediate strength, so he simplified his notes a bit to highlight the lesson he wanted the readers to learn. It's true that top-level chess is a bit more complicated than that, but I always felt I got a lot of value from this book

36...a6!! draws according to analysis Mihai Maril published in Chess Informant.

Does anyone have this book in algebraic notation? I am willing to buy it used if someone offers ?

I know it's available in algebraic on Kindle from Amazon. I read it on my iPad. But I'm not sure you can get the physical book in algebraic

You can get a PGN file of the games at http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com

Wall’s stuff always has errors, but can be useful.

Thanks, that's a great source! But I would like to have real book. I like chernevs writing