Chernev Irving. The Russians Play Chess

New York: Dover Publications, 1964. — 215 p.
Wonderful collection of 50 Soviet attacking games from the years 1925-45 (in the 2nd edition, Chernev added 6 games from 1951-60). Most of the games are spectacular (with many sacrifices), many of them are short. Lots of them are won by lesser-known masters or even 1st category players, a fact that proves the high standard of Soviet chess from those years. The book itself has a remarkable property: it features a diagram each 2 to 4 moves! This makes it possible to read it without a board. You can take it anywhere: to the beach, on a train... etc... and enjoy the games. Get this book! Unfortunately, it's out of print and available only used, but not difficult to find at all.
Funnily, the copy I've got shows clearly that it has been read exactly until Game 6 - and no further! The rest of the book has obviously remained completely unread by the previous owner. But now it's my turn to do what he has missed - and to draw full enjoyment from doing so.
In a similar manner as Chernev's 'Most instructive games of chess ever played' is as well a textbook on strategy as it is a great game collection, you can use his 'Russians play chess' as an (unsystematic) instructional book on tactics! In my opinion, it's much more fun to learn strategy and tactics from entertaining games than from dry lessons.
The level of 'The Russians play chess' is a bit more advanced than that of 'The most instructive... '.
56 games in .pgn format, cover in .jpg format.