Customer Reviews

The Art of Checkmate (Dover Chess)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a classic and quite frankly, its hard to find chess books being written today that are this useful (with a few minor exceptions). Yes, it is in descriptive notation which makes it somewhat difficult. Yes, some of the commentary about the games is dated (see, e.g., the commentary about Bc4 as being a poor move in the sicilian defense) and there are a few errors. Despite all of this, the book is absolutely brilliant. The book categorizes many of the common mating patterns and then gives several examples and quizzes which are usually taken from actual game (or variations from games and occasionally a study or two). In my opinion, next to learning the basic endgames (to which too many amateurs don't pay enough attention -- quick, do you know philidor's and lucena's position cold?), studuing mating patterns is the most important step to improvement. How often have you gotten a really good attacking position against the king and had no idea how to proceed? An attack against the king is more dangerous than an attack elsewhere only because of the possibility of checkmate. If you cannot finish your opponent off then the attack fails. Often a sacrifice is required to finish off an enemy king. The best way to see the possibilities for such sacrifices is to know the mating patterns. Knowing these patterns will allow you to start looking for combinations, or play moves that set them up. Even if your opponent defends, it's not always the ability to conduct the mate itself, often it's the mere threat of delivering checkmate that allows a player to force positional (or material) concessions from an opponent. Maybe all you get out of a mating threat is a pawn, but that pawn may be enough to win the game! Maybe you win the exchange, or maybe all you have is a positional advantage heading into the endgame. Regardless, the ability to conduct an attack on the enemy king is important to all aspects of the game. The fundamental skill required to successfully attack the king is knowledge of the basic mating patterns and their variations. And there is no better source to learn these patterns than "The Art of the Checkmate."

I have very fond memories of this book. When I first started to learn how to play chess 12 years ago, my father suggested this book to me. After reading the first chapter concerning legal's mate (a queen sacrifice that occurs very early in the game and, if accepted, allows checkmate typically by 2 knights and a bishop), I went to my father and told him that the book was useless because there was no way that this checkmate would occur in a real game. My dad smiled at me and suggested I keep reading. I had been playing a friend and we were pretty evenly matched. We both knew the basics, but nothing more. The very next game I played (after telling my dad how useless the book was) I GOT LEGAL'S MATE!!! I couldn't believe it... my friend was in shock! Absolutely true story! Needless to say, I devoured the rest of the book (but still haven't learned to accept the fact that my dad is correct occasionally).

While not everyone will have quite the experience, I am sure that studying this very easy-to-read book will improve your game, both when you are on the attack and when you are on the defense. A serious study of this book, along with Vukovic's "The Art of Attack in Chess" should make you a terror when attacking the king. On the positional side, I would suggest reading Pachman's "Modern Chess Strategy" and/or Silman's two middlegame books, "the Amateur's Mind" and "How to Reassess Your Chess." Reading these books and studying the games of Alekhine (primarily to study brilliant attack in action) and Capablanca (primarily to study brilliant positional and endgame play) should make you a very solid player!

"ART OF THE CHECKMATE" simply put is the best book ever written covering all of the important checkmate patterns.
Each different checkmate theme is fully explained followed by examples using games and problems to solve.
Superb clarity, comprehensiveness and plenty of diagrams are highlights that make this book stand out. To complete your knowledge of tactics, a good general book on tactics and a good general book on opening traps will go hand and hand with this book that focuses on checkmates. This way you will have well-rounded coverage of all tactical situations.

Considering that the object of chess is to mate the opposing king, it's peculiar that so few modern chess publications focus on this aspect of the game. Beginners can find many guides to tactics and positional play, as well as opening and endgame manuals, but very few foundational works on constructing an attack against the castled king. Perhaps that's because in master play, the brilliant sacrifices and dashing sallies of a few generations ago lie buried in the variant lines. Nevertheless, the developing player needs to pass through a study of such attacks, and it is impossible to conceive of an attacking line unless you know mating patterns inside and out. This classic and attractively-priced text presents over 20 essential checkmates organized in logical sequence. Coverage of each mate is rather sparse, but emphasizes the primary theme of the book: visualize the final position, sac pieces to open lines, then finish with a forcing sequence. Chapters also contain a small library of games; these are rather dated and often amateurish, but they do demonstrate the mates in practice and occasionally illustrate an important chess truth--that the threat of mate is usually enough to induce a weakness in your opponent's position. Every several chapters the book pauses for a review quiz.

To get the most of this book, you should work through it carefully and slowly, making sure that you understand all the conditions and prerequisites for each type of mate. Not all of this information is explicitly laid out in Kahn and Renaud's brief chapters. Thereafter you will be ready to analyze game scores to see how these mates were executed or how the threat of them led to a winning position. Actually, any enterprising and skilled chessplayer could make a name for himself in chess literature by writing an expanded version of _Art_of_the_Checkmate_ that would cover these things.

Time for the testimonial. I'm a fairly good positional player, at the intermediate level, and could often achieve a favorable endgame position, though sometimes I'd see my positional plus slip through my fingers. Studying this book has greatly improved my middle-game play--now I better understand what to do with those outposts or strong squares. Recently I played my first serious game since studying this book. I gained the upper hand in the center, and, had I played in my old style, probably would have tried to force through a Queenside pawn. This time, however, I saw that with some effort I could set up the circumstances for a version of "Anastasia's mate." It worked, and by the time my opponent realized what was happening, he had to give up the Exchange and a pawn to prevent mate. Study this book: improve your chess and have more fun playing it!

The Amazon website showed this edition was updated with algebraic notation when I ordered it days ago (now this description is gone). But when it arrived. I found no updates at all. It is still the old descriptive notation and still 208 pages (the same as old edition), not the 216 pages as Amazon states. The copyright dates 2008 not 2009 as Amazon states. But the ISBN number is same as Amazon states.

Something is wrong?! Buy the old edition instead, the old one is cheaper, this edition only has a new cover, other than that, there is no difference with the old edition I think.

It is quite simple: if you are new to the game of chess, you need to do only two things to improve: study tactics and study mating patterns. Why? Because tactics and mating threats are the reason that long term strategy works. The reason Grand Masters make such good moves is the fact that they are finding future tactical or mating threats in every move they make. (This is obviously a broad generalization, but it's true enough.) Start with tactics first. They are going to be your bread and butter throughout your chess playing career. After you have a decent tactical foundation, then it's time to learn the mating patterns. I mean really LEARN them.
Once you have gained a thorough knowledge of this part, you can then move on to positional considerations, as you will know what it means to have a positional advantage in the first place. For example, what good is it to have the two Bishops and an open position, if you lack the basic knowledge of tactics and mating patterns to do anything with it?

So why then do you need this book? Because it lays out in a very clear fashion a lot of different ways to mate the king. Now instead of wandering aimlessly through the middlegame, you can take a look at your position and see what sorts of mating threats you can create from move to move based on the mating patterns this book will teach you. Knowing these mates is absolutely fundamental to getting better at chess. Your results will improve.

You will learn the mating patterns by using and studying this book. The first time you spot one of these mates against an actual opponent, you'll have more than gotten your money's worth from this book.

It really is that simple.

The book uses descriptive notation, so watch out if you don't know how to read that kind of notation.

If you've just begun to play chess, look for the book "Simple Checkmates," which is just what it says. But this is the next book that everyone should read. Quite simply, if you're between 1200 and 1500 this book will probably increase your confidence and skill more than any other book. It's a true classic, written by the 1923 and 1934 champions of France. It covers the most important mates and attacks for beginners to know. I think no other book does this. This is the only chess book that I'd say you should practically memorize.

Hands down, this book is a winner!!! It clearly covers the most important checkmates there are for a practical player to learn. They are logically arranged by type of pattern and clearly explained. I got this book years ago and recommend to anyone from beginner to expert.

Actually, you don't need to know which name "belongs" to which mate (Is this Legal's pseudo-sacrifice or Greco's Mate? Who's Anastasia?). However, this book can be a great help in learning to more quickly and more often recognize the possibilities inherent in a position. You know: Is that open diagonal important? Can the rook be sacrificed usefully? Etc. And it's fun and quick to read. Plus it's a Dover book and sells cheaply.

With 26 short chapters covering the various mating motifs, quizzes, and solutions, the book is a very easy read (beginners may find it more challenging but still accessable) and it will impart the essential knowledge of how to conduct the mating attack. After having read this book my play improved considerably, and it also became much more aggressive (which was a welcome change).

The book is well bound (standard Dover quality construction) with clear diagrams and easy to read text. Notation is descriptive, but done in a column style that that makes it easy to follow.

This book also complements Znosko-Borovsky's "The Art of Combinations" well, the second half of which is devoted to thematic attacks on the castled king, and would make a good primer before tackling the more sophisticated "Art of Attack" by Vukovic.

I hate reading descriptive notation, so I usually don't take kindly to books that use it. In this case, I make an exception. I've seen many beginners play without any idea how to deliver mate, and every time I want to give them a copy of this book. It lays out standard mating patterns in a way that really sticks in one's mind. In my tournament experience, I've won with pretty queen sacrifices on 3 occasions that I would never have seen had I not recognized the patterns I learned in this book. I still go through it now and then.

Sure, some of the annotations appear a bit quaint next to newer books, but they're also pretty clear and provide less experienced players a good opportunity to look deeper and see if they can improve upon them.