By Irving Chernev The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played: 62 Masterpieces of Chess Strategy (Dover Chess) (New edition) Paperback – 30 Mar. 1993

It must be good. It was great when I was a kid, and is obviously still a book to be coveted, because I leant it to a friend, and he loved it so much he ghosted me and I never got it back. Going to reorder and HORD it, once I'm paid. Top tip, buy this, play the games through on the board and don't loan it out (unless you're trying to get someone to dump you. Then it's worth it.)

I bought this as a present some 40 years after I bought my own copy. It's a great second or third book for a someone who has learnt the moves, a has a grasp of the basics of strategy ("Control the centre! Knights before bishops! Rooks on open files!") and wants to move on from there.Descriptive rather than algebraic? It's a twofer - learn chess strategy and a foreign language at the same time.

Brought for my dad. His started playing chess on the computer. It's a good book.

Excellent instructional chess book. Played through all the games and did gain some improvement. Will re-read in future. Glad to have this in library.

Chernev, the doyenne of chess writers, hits the spot yet again. Excellent

Excellent book one of the author's best.

Good book.

The games are undeniably superb, well chosen, and enjoyable to read, but if you expect to use this book to improve your chess then the superficial notes are not going to be much help. They suffer the usual failings of assuming that the winner played well, and overlook many opportunities for the losing side to have resisted more strongly. In one game (An Alekhine defence, Chernev says of one mpove "This is the sort of move that MUST be played" ... but it demonstrably loses, whereas there were alternatives that kept the result in doubt!!Chess is not so simple as the notes would suggest. You are going to have to do most of the work of figuring out what was REALLY going on for yourself.Chess has changed a lot since this book was written. No-one these days, not even average club players, rolls over and gives up when they have drifted into a difficult position. Greater ability to calculate variations and to cross up an opponent with fiendish resources have made 21st cnetury chess into a real fight. It is no longer possible to play well largely on positional principles or heuristics. Those strategic masterpieces where it seems that a clear plan unfolds from right in the opening are a thing of the past between any well-matched opponents.It is worth having, but be critical!!

Livro fantástico para um primeiro contato com o xadrez dos grandes mestres. Não há muitas variantes, os lances são muito bem explicados e as partidas são muito instrutivas. Diagramação, impressão e tamanho do livro ajudam o enxadrista nos seus estudos. Não dou 5 estrelas pelo fato de o livro utilizar notação descritiva, que convenhamos: é algo no mínimo retrógrado.

If you're searching for this book you probably know what you're in for: a good compilation of good, classical games. Some lines can feel a little outdated by modern standards but the games are undeniably very good and, more importantly, they are instructive indeed. The accent is always put on what main lesson we can learn from the game, emphasizing that even the masters of old followed the core principles often taught to beginners as well as the subtleties that make it more than a beginner's game.A word of warning though: it is written in descriptive notation. Seasonned players won't find that to be an issue, but it can throw a beginner off.

I am an OTB USCF A class player. I read through half the book before deciding to review it. I have had the pleasure of owning and reading through Chernev's other works, such as Logical Chess and Capablanca's 60 best games. Game collections are what you make of them. If you are expecting for chess improvement over night, look elsewhere. If however you want to go over chess games that will bring you delight in the evenings with your choice of hot coco, tea, or coffee then look no further! And ultimately if chess isn't something you enjoy, then why bother with it indeed? These aren't a collection of swashbuckling games, though indeed the game that features the Vienna sure comes to mind as being that variety. No rather these are of a more positional nature, that feature classical openings (plenty of QGD, Ruy Lopez, and Sicilians galore) by many chess giants of a bygone era (Botvinnik, Petrosian, Capablanca, Tarrasach, Tartakower, etc) written in that forgotten tongue of yester-yore known as descriptive notation. Now Chernev's comments are light and human in nature, not those of a computer engine - which makes it accessible and his prose is witty to say the least. To the modern generation, they will simply watch grandmaster's explaining their thought processes for free on youtube. But for those of us stuck to our old ways of reading physical chess books, this is worthy to add to your collection ( only if you have already read the other books in your chess library).

Very good chess book to read consists of 62 chess masterpieces but the problem with this book is it is not written or printed in algebraic chess notations. So only buy this book if you know old chess notations.

great book