Irving Chernev

This takes 33 classic games from 1889 to 1952, played by masters such as Capablanca, Alekhine, and Tarrasch, and explains them in an instructive manner.

Irving Chernev (January 29, 1900 – September 29, 1981) was a chess player and prolific Ukrainian-born American chess author.

He was born in Pryluky, Ukraine, then a part of the Russian Empire and emigrated to the United States in 1905.

Chernev was a national master-strength player and was devoted to chess.

He wrote that he "probably read more about chess, and played more games than any man in history."

Chernev's deep love for the game is obvious to any reader of his books.

Chess historian Edward Winter commented:

He wrote 20 chess books, among them: Chessboard Magic!, The Bright Side of Chess, The Fireside Book of Chess (with Fred Reinfeld), The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played, 1000 Best Short Games of Chess, Practical Chess Endings, Combinations: The Heart of Chess, and Capablanca's Best Chess Endings, the last of these being highly regarded by Edward Winter:

In 1945, he and Kenneth Harkness wrote An Invitation to Chess, which became one of the most successful chess books ever written, with sales reaching six figures.

Perhaps his most famous book is Logical Chess: Move by Move, first released in 1957.

Chernev died in San Francisco in 1981.

He was survived by his wife, Selma Kulik, and their son Melvin Chernev.

An algebraic notation version was published by Batsford in 1998, with minor alterations to the original text.