Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games

This book is of very little use to anybody who can play chess to any decent level, the first third of the book show's the moves and a few rules and then provides hundreds of completely facile mates in one. Not even tricky or interesting mates in one, something completely simple like moving the rook in order to backrank mate a king stood behind his pawns. However, these are great little excersises to give to kids who are just learning to play. My daughter and I have done just 6 of these every night before bed for a week, and it has significantly strengthened her play from almost random to weakly focused, so heading in the right direction. You could easily create a problem like this yourself without the book, but could you create 600 of them without making a mistake? Probably not. The endgame chapter is pretty much the same thing, overkill mates, queening a runaway pawn and so on. Again, great material for kids. For those chapters alone it is worth the price. You also then get a load of sample games And a tonne of mates in 2 and 3. Unfortunately these are not complex enough to provide any calculation training, it is all about pattern recognition. If you are an adult who either wants to learn chess or has just started to learn, if you don't know what a back rank mate is, even if you have played graded chess and your grade is below about 800 elo, then this book will be great for you, below 1200 elo there is probably something in it for you. Above 1200 elo, I would say this is a complete waste money.

Excellent value giving the number of problems. Problem difficulty progression seems fine. Excellent idea of including all the 'beginner' chess rules etc as not everyone plays the game but enjoy puzzles. Also as c. 1500 OTB player I think its actually better concentrating on mates rather that random game positions. I bought the Kindle version - which works very well - as suspected the book would be a bit of a door stop. That said, if I was buying another copy for a junior player I would be tempted to go with the physical book to get a sense of progression. Reading through the book reviews the strong suggestion is it's only for youngsters and beginners, however Intermediate players should consider the book as well. There are three reasons for this. One, it's not enough to be able to solve a chess puzzle, you have to instantly see the possibility of a mate in a position - as you do with piece movements - because that possibility poses a threat which often results in your opponent having to make a compromise. Two, most Intermediate players will do puzzles on LiChess/Chesscom/etc and within a short period of time will hit a rating plateau where solutions take longer and longer to obtain and the activity becomes time inefficient. This is a clue you need to double back and absolutely nail simpler puzzles as the complex puzzles are generally composed of lego-bricks of patterns found in the former puzzles. Platform puzzles systems don't allow you to double back! Three, most Blitz games are decided by simple tactical errors, as neither player has the time to consider anything overly complex. Same applies when there is a time scramble in longer formats - checkout the trivial errors GM's make! Hence a book of this sort can be an invaluable long term resource for stronger players.

An enormous collection of chess problems for a very modest cost. Polgar is famous for teaching his 3 daughters to be top chess players, so the learning method has good provenance. The early problems are easy enough for the weakest player to find them unintimidating. Just work through a few problems yourself to get some insight into checkmate & thinking ahead. Ideal for working through with your children - set a mate in 1 up on the chess board, & even a new chess player can get the satisfaction of solving a problem. The advice given to chess improvers is to practice problems. A page a day will give learners a chess workout. I have noticed myself finding the problems easier, and visualising moves more straightforward. The only better value chess learning tool is the amazing VFM Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition (PC DVD) .

It was a highly recommended book. I gave it to my son as a present. I 'm going to get my own copy now. Can't have him beating me!!!

If your looking to improve tactics it good the only reason I gave it 4 stars is trying to do hundreds of mate in 2 can get boring will take time but will test you later on

beginners and intermediate players must get this !!!!

When I saw this I thought it might be ideal for our 12 year old. Certainly enough problems that he can achieve and plenty more for years to come. Probably this year's most successful Christmas present!

Very good compilation of chess problems. They are organized with progressive difficulty.