Award-Winning Chess Problems (Official Mensa Puzzle Book) [Paperback]

Burt Hochberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2005 | Series: Official Mensa Puzzle Book

Each of these 125 problems has won top prize in one of the many chess competitions held throughout the world-and they will help hone players' skills so that even beginners can learn to become winners too. As with all orthodox chess conundrums, the ones collected here stipulate that White makes the first move, and must checkmate Black in a specified number of moves no matter what Black does. This specification is inviolable: players can neither make more moves nor fewer, and each problem has only one correct key. A section offers hints for the really, truly stumped. But beware: while most hints provide instant help, some cryptic ones require a little extra thinking.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140271145X
• ISBN-13: 978-1402711459
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #850,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Caveat emptor: This is a challenging puzzle book., May 11, 2008

By 

Jay Kuykendall (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Award-Winning Chess Problems (Official Mensa Puzzle Book) (Paperback)

This is one of the greatest chess puzzle books, but be forewarned; it's also one of the most difficult. Some of the puzzles have easy to see white to move and mate in three, but can you find the mate in two? The whole book is "white to move and mate in two," and the puzzles are culled from award-winning puzzle competitions. My only potential complaint is that sometimes the position of white is unbelievably secure and racking your brains for a victory in two moves seems pointless, but they are puzzles that are guaranteed to pull you back from the vices developed from internet speed chess. This is why we need more books like this.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Only for extreme begginers, September 1, 2009

By 

Voltron "Voltron" (Parts unknown) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Award-Winning Chess Problems (Official Mensa Puzzle Book) (Paperback)

I enjoy chess puzzle books a great deal. I think this book is geared for people who don't play chess at all and on occasion like to try and solve chess puzzles as part of an overall IQ (Mensa) test. If you play regularly club, tournament, coffeehouse, you will find that the puzzles are very easy. Many take just seconds to solve.

If you are an advance begginer, intermidate level or above, this book will not help you much, as the puzzles are too easy. Other begginer puzzles books offer more of a challenge than this one.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ignore the first third of the puzzles, January 11, 2009

By 

Richard Drdul (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Award-Winning Chess Problems (Official Mensa Puzzle Book) (Paperback)

This is an enjoyable book, and is a great way to pass a few hours in a waiting room or on an airplane. The author has organized the book well, with a section of hints preceding the actual solutions, and with hints on alternating pages so that you don't see the hint for the adjacent puzzle.

I gave this book four stars instead of five because the first third of the 125 puzzles are uninspiring. Skip over them, and start with puzzle #43. In the first batch of puzzles, white has so much more material than black, that a win is inevitable anyway. A human would resign at this point, so who cares if white can mate in two moves? Things are better in the remaining two-thirds of the book, where white and black are more evenly matched.