Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games

This book speaks volumes, in the sense of enhancing and fine tuning, one’s chess positional problem solving. I’ve just received this book and I’m breezing through the mate in one section so far. I know as the book progresses the problem solving will become more difficult. This book is very beneficial, for developing as a better chess player, and should be in every chess player’s collection. It’s worth more than it’s weight in gold and it’s a heavy book.

Great chess book! Great author!

Awesome puzzle. Some easy and some way advanced for me currently

I just recieved my 2nd copy of this famous chess tome: the first was falling apart after 3 1/2 years. But not from poor quality but from daily use over the last 12 months or so. It's a classic; the story goes that Lazlo put together this book based on the exercises he gave to his 3 daughters, all of whom hold master's titles. My advice is this: 1. He gives only white's 1st move as the answer, not all the moves as most other books do. 2. Some, not a lot, of the puzzles have more than one correct answer; at least in the Mate-in-2s as I've yet to get to the later ones. So check your answers closely, you both may be right. FWIW, Reddit seems to confirm this too. 3. They begin to get tougher around the #1470 and up level. There are so many problems that, especially if you are a novice, you should expect to hit several plateaus on the way; just step away for a day or two and re-try. You will improve and really none of them would stump a real expert. Hang in there! 4. Here's a clue for you: once you get above about #1500 you will hit a string of literally 100's of problems where giving a check on your 1st move is rarely, rarely correct. Almost any combination involving a check on move 1 can be discarded up front in favor of calculating other lines first. 5. Finally, many combinations involve a lone black king who would be in stalemate if black moved first; your job as white is to first release the mating net, allow black a move, then close the trap on move two. Good luck!

Full to the brim with problems (ranging from simplistic to perplexing) and games. In terms of content, there's more here than any other book re chess that I'm aware of. On the downside: 1. Games are not annotated. This decreases their value as learning tools significantly. 2. Some of the print is extremely small. The games and the solutions are difficult to read. Font looks to be about #9 Publisher likely concluded "1,100 pages! Enough is enough." Conclusion: If I edited out the simplistic problems such as "checkmate in one move," and took out the games, I'd still have about 600 pages of complex problems and endgames to savor. So for a player of my skill level, about half the book is useful. That's still a bargain for the price.

This is a great book. With even the most introductory material on how each piece moves, you can literally start at the very beginning. Other reviewers will tell you all about the mate in one, mate in two, mate in three sections, and about the endgame studies, the combinations, and the game miniatures. Enough material for many years study. If you love chess, and desire greater insight into how the pieces work together, then this book is a tremendous resource. Of course, tournament players will want to know if this book is suitable for their rating level, and if it will increase their tournament results. One reviewer has said that if you're over 1300 Elo, then the book is a waste of money. Let me strongly disagree. I know of one Grandmaster who claims that this book was a significant part in their training and who also continues to solve (and re-solve) the problems daily. My own rating is 1600 USCF and I find the material very helpful in gaining greater insight and skill. Highly recommended.

Purchased and made it a vase /book for my uncle’s wife instead of sending flowers when he passed. I just Pinterest it and it was perfect. Aunt loves it and displays it in her home.

I first borrowed this bad boy from the library totally on accident. I had no idea how good this was. The worst part was returning it. I was making a habit out of re-barrowing it until I figured its obviously worth the money to just buy it and make notes in it. Ive improved more from the puzzles in this game then the ones on chess.com. If your serious about improving your game, this is a must have.

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.

Este libro es una joya, fue lo que hizo a las hermanas Polgar lo que son hoy en día. Si lo que buscas es mejorar en ajedrez debes practicar este tipo de ejercicios de mate para ejercitar tu visión a futuro y visión panorámica (así le llamo a la capacidad de ver y ponerle atención a todo el tablero). Recomiendo la versión física solamente si lo usas en casa (ya que el libro es literalmente del tamaño de un tabique de construcción) pero si lo requieres para clases y tienes proyector en el aula o viajas mucho y quieres practicar o entretenerte, la versión Kindle es muy buena (tengo ambas). Si lo quieres comprar para niños que juegan ajedrez (a partir de 9 o 10 años le entienden fácil) y nunca han hecho un ejercicio de estos, debes explicarles la mecánica con uno o dos ejemplos del libro y luego ellos solitos seguirán, aún si no saben escribir en notación algebraica.

Excelente livro para aprender xadrez. Os exercícios são ótimos, mesmo sem um conhecimento profundo de inglês. Vale o investimento.

レビューを書く前に、一言。 囲碁・将棋・チェスなどのマインドスポーツの世界は、完全な男社会です。トップは全て男であり、性別が力量に大きな影響を及ぼすのは常識です。 そんな中、この本は圧倒的な問題数によってひたすら鍛えられる仕組みになっていきます。私が初めて手にした入門書はボビー・フィッシャーの本でしたが、その次は、これしかありません。一部のレビューで”Mate in two"（将棋でいう三手詰め）などの回答部分に最後まで手順が書かれていない、というのがありましたが、私に言わせればこれは最後の手順まで考えさせるための著者の意図的な手法なのだと思います。 私の手元にこの本が届いて約一週間ですが、全部終わるには二年以上かかるかもしれませんね。言い換えると、この本が終わるまでは他のチェス本を買わなくていいということですから、大変な経済効果です。また、ひたすら図面による問題ばかり続きますから、英語力はほとんど必要ありません。 最後に。 実は著者のラズロ・ポルガー氏は独特のメソッドにより自らの三人娘を全員チェスのトッププロに育て上げた人物です。この場合のトッププロとは、男性プロも含めた全世界のプレーヤーの中でトップクラス、という意味です。 それだけでも、この本は絶対的な信用をおけるのではないでしょうか。

Kitap kullanılmış öncelikle zaten uygulamada used good condition olarak belirtilmiş normalde gerçekten iyi bir kondisyonda fakat kargo firması ve paketlemeden dolayı daha çok hasar alıyor. Ben iade edecektim fakat vazgeçtim uğraşmamak için kitap gayet güzel binlerce bulmaca minyatür oyun ve kombinasyonu içeriyor. Yeni başlayıp gelişmek isteyen birini ortalama bir seviyeye getirecek nitelikte fakat koleksiyon niyetiniz yoksa ortalama bir oyuncunun beklentisini karşılamaz.