Logical Chess
Last week, I happened to watch a videos by National Chess Master Nelson Lopez on his Chess Vibes Youtube channel. In the video, Nelson took us through one of the games in Irving Chernev's book, Logical Chess. Watching the video reminded me that I had bought the Kindle version of Logical Chess a few years ago and it was "gathering dust" somewhere in my Kindle library. Nelson's video inspired me to go back to Chernev's book. Since Nelson has made a whole series of videos of the games in Logical Chess, I'm reading the book a chapter at a time, and then watching the corresponding video on Chess Vibes.
Who Was Irving Chernev?
Irving Chernev was born in Ukraine in 1900. His parents emigrated to the USA in 1905. Chervev wrote a series of chess books, the most famous of which is probably Logical Chess. He died in 1981.
Irving Chernev: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Chernev
Game 1: von Scheve versus Teichmann, Berlin 1907
Giuoco Piano
- e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Qe7 5. O-O d6 6. d4 Bb6 7. a4 a6 8. a5 Ba7 9. h3 Nf6 10. dxe5 Nxe5 11. Nxe5 Qxe5 12. Nd2 Bxh3 13. gxh3 Qg3+ 14. Kh1 Qxh3+ 15. Kg1 Ng4 16. Nf3 Qg3+ 17. Kh1 Bxf2 0-1
In his analysis of Game 1 of Logical Chess, Nelson Lopez noticed that von Scheve needn't have resigned when he did. What he found prompted me to use the Lichess engine to check some of the other claims that Chernev made about the game, and it turned out that things are not quite as clear-cut as they seem in Chernev's commentary.
That is not to take anything away from the lessons Chernev is teaching. In Game 1, for example, he teaches us not to move our pawns or the knight on c3/c6 after castling on the kingside, and not to open up the game with pawn exchanges if we are behind in development. These are useful lessons.
My Walkthrough of Logical Chess Game 1 + Engine Analysis
Here's game 1, with some comments based on Chess Vibes and Lichess engine analysis of some of the positions.
Errata: 2:22 if then Bishop takes a5, d5 strikes the Knight here, and if the Knight moves away then the Bishop will fall the The Rook can take the
KnightBishop and pick up a piece for a pawn, Rook takes A5 winning a piece...
Shoutout to Chess Vibes
Thanks to Chess Vibes for inspiring me to have another look at Logical Chess:
Follow the game on Lichess
Someone has posted all the games Chernov discusses in Logical Chess on Lichess.org.
Here's Game 1, von Scheve vs Teichmann:
https://lichess.org/study/Wn7aMkPy/CbCCUZWm
Chernev's chapter on this game is available on Google:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Logical_Chess/Q5ZdDwAAQBAJ?gbpv=1
Irving Chernev, Logical Chess is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4cHTXJ1
David Hurley
