TITLE: Proof of the Reidemeister theorem
QUESTION [27 upvotes]: While preparing for my introduction to topology course, I've realized that I don't know where to find a detailed proof of the Reidemeister theorem (two link diagrams give isotopic links, iff they can be connected by a sequence of Reidemeister moves). The students in my class are not really very advanced and I'm not sure all of them would be able to reconstruct all the details of the proof given in Burde and Zieschang's Knot theory or in other sources I know of. And, being a lazy man, I would like to avoid having to type a detailed proof with pictures when I can refer the students to a book. So does anybody know of a source which would have a proof with all details spelled out?

REPLY [2 votes]: Messer and Straffin's book "Topology Now!" provides most of the steps starting from their definition of a knot (able to decomposed into a finite number of linear segments), building up the ideas of general position and triangular moves, and then proving the Reidemeister moves. I say "most of" because some of the steps are left as exercises. The material is very accessible to undergraduates.