Modern chess is a little bit different and to understand why GMs break the rules could be interesting. In some situations a pawn in front of castled king gets moved and he's like "what a terrible move, don't violate the king's safety! I know all the chess players here have already written love letters to this book, but I could not let that stop me from writing mine.

I found the print in this reprint to be a little light for my taste, and the diagrams a bit too small. I'm not sure why I read this book, but I bought it a few years ago for some reason (probably mentioned by some Youtuber) and so I finally finished reading it.I'm sure it's more complicated in practice, but I didn't realize before reading this what a powerful defender the knight is on f6, and how quickly things can get scary without it.

It helped me study queen's pawn openings that I feared playing as black like Queen's Gambit and Colle System. With that proviso, I would recommend it heartily to anyone just starting to explore the game, and therefore, to scholastic chess teachers as well. It is notable, for example, that by far the most popular opening represented is the Queen's Gambit Declined; by contrast, today's favorite Sicilian Defense is found in just one game. Infact the best advice that you might receive is to throw away your chess engine, stomp on it, poke it with a big stick and make sure its dead. Chernev was extremely well-read in chess literature, and shares insights of many grandmasters, as these insights are illustrated in the games in this book.Aready black will be feeling some pressure, and you can try bringing a knight and/or rook into the attack from there. Considering that the books is written for Beginners it would have been helpful to at least outline the path or to choose a completely different game.

My first chess book was a Dover paperback copy of Irving Chernev's "The Most Instructive Games Ever Played". Highly recommended to any enthusiast who wants to build a platform to be more than just a hobby player. If you haven't got a chess book, then I can think of no better way to start a collection than this one. If one might wonder if this book is difficult to read, one does not need to worry since this book is simply written and is packed with information that in a short time one will see by how he plays others that he has improved quickly. Eschewing development to attack, when Black’s indiscretion of moving Knight so many times can be punished by constantly giving him problems to solve, rather than regroup.

Ruy Lopez (Spanish Opening): follow up e4/e5 f3/c6 normalcy with searing Bb5 that pressures the Knight, and opens line to pinning king’s pawn.

This all being said, I wouldn't recommend this book to beginners really - I think it could be nice for people trying to learn more games and learn about the masters though. Perhaps it isn't as timeless as it once appeared to me, but it should prove useful to any aspiring player wanting to better understand how to develop logical plans, moves, and thought processes in chess. When you "look inside" a book and see algebraic notation, what you expect is to get a book with algebraic notation.When I believe that I have identified the critical turning points, the main positional ideas, and the key tactical alternatives, I read through Chernev's annotations. In fact, one of the games, Blackburne-Blanchard, probably gained me 100 rating points in my class days. The author leaves no mysteries about why some moves are a waste of time, why some squares are better than others, and why you want to complete a full development before starting an attack. This is no dry theoretical tome (it's a regular sized paperback) that makes you feel like you're back at university wishing you hadn't chosen this elective.