That isn't much of a quote, have to say.>

True. That could be said of any endeavor.

"Every concert pianist at one time could not play a note"

"Every brain surgeon at one time picked his nose"

"Every woman was once a girl."

"Every computer was once just computer parts."

But...

Logical Chess was the first chess book I found (Jr. High). I read it over and over, highlighted the italicized advice, and didn't understand a bunch of it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-m...

It was dome by Pushpin Studios, whose founders include the legendary Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser.

The cover for Logical Chess looks to me like a Glaser design: simple, direct, and original.

Among the things for which he's famous are the "I Love New York" logo and the Bob Dylan poster:

< "Every chessmaster was once a beginner." >

< Judged by today's standards, Ajeeb was a fairly gimcrack mechanical fraud, but audiences then were not too fussy. >

~ Chernev

<Introduction

He once went to a wedding in Las Vegas, where he had a successful battle with the one-armed bandits: "I managed to wrest $900 from their clutches. Of course I had to invest some $300 to do so, but I prefer to regard it as a clean profit of 900 smackers.

I enjoyed Irving's irreverence. Among his large chess library, his favorite book was Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch's heavy volume Dreihundert Schachpartien ("Three Hundred Chess Games"). He had read this so many times that it fell apart; accordingly, he took it to a local bookbinder and asked him to bind it in black leather. Then came the question of what should go on the spine. "Gold blocking," said Irving. But surely, said the binder, you don't want all that German stuff? "No," said Irving, "just put 'Holy Bible.'"

Irving didn't really need to win. For most chessplayers, winning is what chess is all about. For Irving, however, the game itself was what mattered. He didn't want to beat anyone; he wanted to show everyone just how beautiful chess can be. Turn the pages of this, his final book, and you will see.>

< "Every chessmaster was once a beginner. " >

---Chernev

That is a fair criticism. There is no concept of counterplay, or of how to defend a difficult position, in Chernev's books. One always gets the impression that the winner played like a genius and the result was foreordained. Even in his book on Capablanca's best endgames, when he analyzes Kevitz vs Capablanca, 1931, a game where Capablanca went into a pawn-down ending yet managed to win, Chernev fails to explain any point at which Kevitz could have improved. Come on, the guy was a clear pawn up! Surely he could <at least> have drawn?

Chernev's books are always entertaining, but not the best books for the serious student. I do highly recommend <1000 Best Short Games of Chess> - not for the notes, which are spartan, but for the games. If you study them you'll learn all the basic tactical motifs. (I got through, and annotated, about the first 800 when I was a teenager.) <Chessboard Magic!>, a collection of studies, is very entertaining. Some beautiful stuff there, although you may have to enlist Houdini or Fritz to figure out the variations not given in the book. <Practical Chess Endings> is also good, although there are a lot of great endgame books these days. <Wonders and Curiosities of Chess> is great fun, as is <The Fireside Book of Chess>, which he and Reinfeld wrote. Chernev's love of chess always shines through.

If you can find it, it is well worth owning.>

I quite agree. I looked the other day and some sellers at amazon.com were offering it used for $10 and up. There's also an almost identically-named book, <The Art of Defence in Chess> by Polugaevsky and Damsky. (The only difference in the two titles is the spelling of Defense/Defence.) I have it and it looks good, but I haven't read it yet.

Soltis' book and the Chess Digest pamphlet <Middlegame: The Defense Triumphs> by Soviet Master Kotkov (also available used through amazon, starting at $4.47), changed my life, convincing me I could defend any position. (Actually I can't, but I try.) If you look at my games, a lot of them are games where I successfully defended and/or swindled my way out of a difficult position. See, e.g., S Tennant vs F Rhine, 1982 (held draw from bad position); F Rhine vs G S DeFotis, 1988 (in terrible trouble in early middlegame; sac'd a pawn for counterplay and won after he blundered); K Thompson vs F Rhine, 1992 (accurately defended against sacrificial attack, won with surprise counterattack); F Rhine vs A Boerkoel, 1996 (defended well against sacrificial attack; opponent secured draw by perpetual check); D Fleetwood vs F Rhine, 1997 (great counterattacking game, ending in draw by perpetual check); F Rhine vs S Nagle, 1997 (played horribly from moves 14-21, won with shocking swindle beginning on move 28); V Pupols vs F Rhine, 1997 (defended horrid position, eventually reaching ending down the exchange for a pawn, which I held); F Rhine vs Dmitri Sergatskov, 2011 (grabbed a pawn and let my opponent bounce my king all over the board; he missed a subtle win, but that happens in real-life, not fairy-tale, chess). (Of course, there are games where my defensive efforts failed, too.)