50 Essential Chess Lessons is divided to five parts:

1. Attacking the King (3 games)

2. Defence (4 games)

3. Piece Power (10 Games)

4. Pawn-Structure (25 games)

5. Endgame Themes (8 Games)

There are two conclusions to be made from the partition of the book. The first and easy-to-notify fact is that the book is not evenly divided. The main focus of ECL is pawn-structure and this is for the good because Giddins is really at his best when he talks about the typical pawn formations in chess. The second fact is that ECL is much better organized than its predecessor, MIG. Not only is ECL divided into chapters but every chapter also has a short introduction that tells the reader what is the theme of every game, which makes the book very easy to search when one is looking for a specific theme. Quite the opposite is the situation in Chernev’s book where the games have no logical order at all. What makes MIG even more difficult to navigate is that Chernev gives a creative title to every game. At times, Chernev’s titles mean something but other times he gives titles like “Prophetic Strategy” or “Surprise! Surprise!” Can you tell what the theme of the last game is? (Answer: shifting of the attack from the queenside to the kingside.)

As you can see the match started with an edge for ECL over MIG, but let me warm things up by going for a real hand-to-hand fight. I will compare two games, one from ECL and one from MIG and see which book teaches its reader more. I chose the game Smyslov – Karpov from ECL and the game Burn – Znosko-Borovsky from MIG. The reason for choosing these two is that in both games there is an isolated queen-pawn that becomes a passing pawn and ends up winning the game. It is not difficult to see that Giddins treatment of the subject is much superior. First, for Chernev the pawn is just “an isolated pawn” that somehow makes it to greatness while Giddins tells the reader that this is an isolated queen pawn (IQP). I guess that when Chernev wrote his book the IQP was not highly known in the West but today the pluses and minuses of the IQP are common knowledge and must be mastered even by club players. For this reason Giddins devotes no less than three games to the lone d-pawn.

But even if you ignore the other games Giddins gives on the IQP and compare only the two games I mentioned above (one game from ECL and one from MIG) Giddins teaches much more than does Chernev. The latter gives the reader a great time and he knows how to create a drama but I wonder how much benefit, in practical terms, one can make from reading Chernev’s analysis. You will see a lot of fireworks but not enough rules and insights that you may apply in your games. Giddins, on the other hand, does an excellent job in helping the reader internalize the lesson. He teaches the importance of the square before the pawn, the thematic knight maneuver to control that square (the maneuver Smyslov prevents), the queen and bishop line-up and what to do after this line-up has achieved its goal. The whole thing is backed-up with the right amount of analysis and topped with a short summary of the crucial points. The experience is similar to spending an hour with a very good chess teacher.

The only point in which Chernev wins over Giddins is that in the Smyslov – Karpov game, Giddins does not tell the reader what was the mistake that led to Karpov’s defeat. I know that at the modern top level games there are times where a loss is due only to a minor inaccuracy in the opening but I think that a student, especially one that is not quite advanced will feel that he did not fully understand the game if the losing side’s mistake has not been emphasized. However, the positive side is that we see a game where the defending side (Karpov) gives stubborn defense, unlike the game Burn – Znosko-Borovsky. In the latter game Burn fails to play 25 exd4 and actually creates the passed pawn for Black. I did not see anything terrible for White after 24 exd4 and Fritz evaluates the position as equal. I do not think that any modern chess master would have failed to exchange the pawns (the game Burn – Znosko-Borovsky was played in 1906).

Chernev says that after 24 exd4 Nxd4 25 Nxd4 Rxd4 “the doubled rooks bear heavily on the open file” this is a general statement that amounts to nothing. After 26 Re1 White has his own open file and the position is even

So far Giddins is in the lead with an impressive advantage. Let us check another pair of games, both dealing with the bishop-pair. From ECL we take Makogonov – Keres, 1939 and from MIG Rosenthal – Steinitz, 1873. On this subject the difference between Giddins and Chernev is not as significant as in the first example. The relatively good covering by Chernev can be attributed to the fact that the theme of “the bishop-pair” was already understood well by many when Chernev wrote his book, back in 1965. Still Chernev has a tendency to generalizations and inaccuracies. After Steinitz’s third move, Chernev writes  “The book move is [3…Bb4] but Steinitz prefared to throw his opponents on their resources.” This makes it sound as if Steinitz is a wily, spontaneous guy playing in your neighborhood club. A short check in chesslab.com showed that Steinitz had played this move in Baden-Baden 1870 against Paulsen and that Anderssen played the same move in the same tournament against the same opponent. The player of the White in the current game, Rosenthal, also played in Baden-Baden 1870 so how can one say that he never saw 3…g6 in the given position? As a matter of fact Steinitz played the move many times in his career so I speculate that he just thought 3…g6 to be a playable move. It is obviously much easier for me to check these details (having the internet and chess software) than it was for Chernev but the bottom line is that Chernev is not a match to a contemporary serious writer, such as Giddins.

Leaving Chernev behind, I have a few more remarks about ECL. First I love Giddins’ balance between prose and move analysis. The book is focused on positional understanding and is tailored for club players but Giddins does remember to give the critical lines. At times I missed more explanation on the losing moves (another example apart from the one mentioned above is in Game 24 after Black’s 16^th move)  but I can see the instructional value of concentrating on the typical plans rather than diving into the specifics of a position which may cause some readers lose the plot.

The most important thing to remember about this book is that it will teach you pawn-structures. IQP, hanging-pawns, pawn majorities, backward-pawns, minority-attacks and so on. These are the best lessons that Giddins has to give and through them he also teaches attack, defense and chess psychology. The parts titled “Attack on the King” and “Defence” are, obviously, far from being conclusive. I suppose that any book directed at club level players must have a chapter called “Attack on the King” but three games on this subject are clearly not enough. Yet, as I said, the games in the “Pawn-Structure” and “Piece Power” chapters contain many beautiful king attacks. In general, there is a lot of beauty in chess beyond direct mating attacks. If the title “Pawn-Structure” sounds boring to your ears you will change your mind after reading ECL.

Giddins is quite modest when he says, in the introduction that he tried to produce a “21st century version of Chernev’s concept”. ECL is not an update of MIG but a great improvement, not only on the level of analysis but also on the concept and general organization. The reason is that even more than chess has evolved since the 1960s, chess publishing has evolved. Much thanks to the pioneer actions of Gambit (the publishers of Giddins’ book) we see a new standard for chess books in the last decade. With Gambit, followed by Everyman Chess (PKA Cadogan Chess), Quality Chessbooks and others the market is booming: paper quality, binding quality (remember the falling apart Cadogan books?), diagram look and most important, content, all these improved dramatically. The difference is well felt when comparing a modern book with the old classics. I will still open Chernev’s MIG for the special warmth, the drama and for the nostalgic value, but for improving my positional play, I, with no doubt, prefer 50 Essential Chess Lessons: A Modern Look at 50 Immensely Instructive Chess Battles.

 Who is it good for? This book is for those who look for their first or second game collection or looking for a book on positional play.

The Good Things:

·         The book is well organized and easy to navigate

·         Giddins is an excellent, very practical teacher

·         The central part of the book, on pawn-structure, is the best guidance on the subject that I have seen for players with an ELO less than 2000

·         Well thought game choice

The Bad Things:

·         The chapter on “Attacking the King” and the one on “Defence” are much too short, they contain interesting games but they should have been longer

Quote: “If there is one subject that the reader should take from [the chapter “Endgame Themes”], it is the idea of not hurrying, and being prepared to seize any little advantage, no matter how insignificant it appears to be. Do not be in a hurry to put the opponent out of his misery – the endgame is one area where it definitely pays to be a sadist!”

The Bottom Line: Highly recommended for 1200-2000 players seeking for a game collection, especially those who would like to improve their understanding in middlegame pawn-structures. Giddins tried to update Chernev’s Most Instructive Chess Games but he outdid his teacher.

Rating: 9/10

Review written by Chessbug.

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