Logical Chess: Move By Move: Every Move Explained New Algebraic Edition

Rating:
Summary: Find this book and buy it!
Review: In preparation for an article I was writing, I recently asked a group of strong players (2200 and up) what book helped them "turn the corner" in chess when they were beginners. A Senior Master told me that as a freshman in High School he had been stuck at 1200 for some time and was making little progress despite reading books like Nimzovich's My System. A friend lent him Chernev's Logical Chess Move By Move and he said a light bulb went off almost immediately. Soon he was easily holding his own versus "C" players and a lot of what he had read in Nimzovich and elsewhere began to make sense. In this book Chernev annotates several instructive games between masters and amateurs. The results are predictable, but the key is that he explains the thinking behind every move. One lessons this teaches the advanced beginner is that, right or wrong, there should be a purpose to every move. Especially important is the fact that the annotations use a lot of pros! e that fully describes the planning that goes into a move rather than some dry variations devoid of explanation. A classic! Suitable for players 1000-1400 (and stronger players will like it, too).

Rating:
Summary: If you are under 1600 or a beginner, read this!
Review: This book is excellent and timeless. One thing that many modern chess books fail to do is explain the "simple" moves. They go for 5-10 moves without comment or with some analysis with no commentary. For beginning and intermediate players, who do not understand why these moves are important or why they are good moves, this type of analysis is not as helpful. In this book, Chernev goes over every move, sometimes repeating over and over the principles of these moves over several games. However, after going through it, you will understand how to play logically and have a plan and purpose for each move. The games are old, and so sometimes the openings are outdated, but for the beginner, this is not as much a factor, because they lose for other reasons. Chernev's writing is entertaining as well, and he also puts in some analysis in more complicated situations to illustrate. I've reread several games, and sometimes been able to follow along without using a board, as this edition has ample diagrams. Overall, highly recommended to anyone who is not an expert!

Rating:
Summary: Good - not the best
Review: I have read three books that use the concept of commenting on every move, Nunn's book, Snyder's book (Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors) and this one.
I rank them as follows,
#1) Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors is definately at the top of the list with most interesting games, most accurate analysis and making things clear to the reader as the main criteria for evalualtion.
Equal #2 & #3 are Logical Chess and Nunn's book. The strong point of Nunn's book is that is is well suited for an advanced player (rated over 1500) and Logical Chess for beginners (rated under 1000). However, Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors seems well suited for "advanced" beginners through Intermediate players (rated 700 through 1600).
Logical Chess seems to constantly repeat itself (...). Unbeatable Chess doesn't have this problem and Nunn's book goes so deep sometimes even the author seems to go off on a tangest. I may only be 12 but have an IQ of 180. Therefore, perhaps my opinions will be carefully considered?
If you are a Beginnining or Intermediate player get UNBEATABLE CHESS LESSONS FOR JUNIORS first, LOGICAL CHESS second. If you are very advanced get NUNN'S book first, UBEATABLE second.

Rating:
Summary: moderate
Review: i have never bought the book but i have read it, borrowing from the library (chess geek i know).

POSITIVES- very understandable and didactic analysis
- algebraic notation 4 easier reading
- "moral of the story" type of writing, after each game the reason for analyzing the game is posted

NEGATIVES - dimunitive amount of games
- pedestrain games that can be gotten from any chess book (no originality)
- analysis that may be too deep for 1300 and under players


Personally, i wouldnt buy this book. BUT BUT BUT if you are serious about chess, starting a chess library (stupidest thing ever) go right ahead. What im saying is either borrow the book from the library as i did or steal it (jk).


Rating:
Summary: One of two very good books
Review: I don't own many chess-books. But I'm picking up a couple of Chernev's other books simply because this one was cheap and great- two things that warm my cockles!

As an improving mid-level player, this book helped me a great deal. More than the books I bought on "So-and-so's most immortalist, bestest, burnin-brightest games of eternity..." maybe I'm not there yet. This book seems a great bridge to help one get from novice to mid-level player (and beyond, I hope). My game has definitely improved, I'm more tenacious in the opening. Which I like.

Chernev's style of writing is accessible and often humorous, two good traits. He's quick to tease out the implications of certain moves versus others, making the reader smack his head and take more time. He doesn't get too bogged down- he gives you food for thought and allows for digestion. I can't say enough really.

Some other reviewers have taken issue with Chernev's repetitive praise for certain moves and openings (He does marvel at the E-4 a great deal, but always with different words). But they forget- this is not really a book for an expert- it's for lower strength players who need to have certain basic ideas beaten into them. Chernev never makes it feel like he's beating it into you- he just looks at classic ideas from a variety of points of view, and that is wonderfully refreshing! Moreover, you don't (or I didn't) get the feeling that he's talking down to you. And I love the variety of witticisms and famous-player sayings that Chernev tosses out, at random, to illustrate his points. You want to write them all down in a little book...

You can tell the man truly loved, LOVED, the game. That comes through as being infectious. The reader picks up on that love and Chernev's excitement and wants to learn more. Such qualities are rare, as teaching goes, I think.

Uh... I wish there had been more than one game of Queen's gambit Accepted vs. many of Queen's Gambit Declined, as I love to play that opening. That one game, however, is very instructional (watch that bishop, black!)

Just my 3.5 cents. My fave instructional book.

Rating:
Summary: A labor of love for chess
Review: Chernev's books are very valuable. He spent lots of time to research and write his books. This book shows how much he cares for and loves chess. Only with extreme love, anyone can take time to explain move by move of any game; he has to fight boredom and repetition. This book is good but not comparable to his "Golden Dozen" and "Most Instructive Games" due to the difficult task of clarifying every move. I planned to give this book 4 1/2 stars because his other books were so instructive. Then another factor (see point A below) reduces it to 4 stars. Chess plan and strategy require many moves to carry out. If we break a sequence of many related moves into many single moves and explain one by move, the idea may be lost or confusing. We are grateful that Chernev took the task. If every move has a paragraph of note, a normal length game may take up to 20 pages; this has a negative effect on intermediate level (such as me); we have short attention span. (Point A). Because of this Chernev chose short games to illustrate his book. His book has 3 parts: 1) King Attack (average length = 20 moves), 2) Queen pawn game (25 moves) and 3) Master games (35 moves.) As expected, a "successful" King-side attack would be over quickly. A queen pawn game take longer than the king pawn game. For player with lack of patience as myself, the short game examples hurt a lot. With time game, I often work hard to find good move, and sometimes gain minor advantage, from that on I try hard and look long for a quick win while burning out the clock, the opponent wisely uses his clock and keep the position complicated. The time pressure cost me the game. To combat this bad habit, hope to win short game, I sometimes come back to Alekhine, Petrosian, Botvinnik's games to prove to myself that even champions just could not ask for more than what the position could yield.
In summary, Chernev's love for chess is obvious. To write this book he spent lots of time and efforts. To avoid some difficulties he chose not very representative games (short ones). As long as we can see some of this short-coming, this book is helpful. One more thing: due to lack of computer-aided analysis, it's not fair to compare this book to Nunn's "Move-by-move..."

Rating:
Summary: Good Games but Repetitous
Review: This is a wondeful book for an advanced beginner. The idea behind every move is clearly explained. Some repetition, but this is ok to get some of the ideas into your head.


Rating:
Summary: Every Move Explained
Review: This is one of several books I own that has move by move commentary. I find this to be the best way to learn from books using complete games. I give this four instead of five stars because at early stages of the games where the same move was playe in a previous game the author uses nonsince filler to meet having to comment on every move. Also, the openings need to be updated.
The other two books I own and enjoy using a comment on every every move are, Understanding Chess Move by Move (for advanced players) and Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors (for beginning and advanced players).