Big Book of Combinations (Competitive Chess S) [Paperback]

Eric (ed.) Schiller (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Hypermodern P (May 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886040141
• ISBN-13: 978-1886040144
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,211,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid Schiller if you're a serious chess student, November 16, 1999

By 

John Grabowski (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Big Book of Combinations (Competitive Chess S) (Paperback)

Eric Schiller once bragged to IM Jeremy Silman that he once wrote a chess book in two days. It's hard to tell which book it could have been -- so many qualify! Schiller is horrendous and any serious chess student, even beginner, should avoid him. His books are filled with typos, inaccuracies, shallow analyses, and embarrassing mistakes. He clearly cranks 'em out for the fast buck. It must be nice to get a book's worth of a paycheck for two days' of work, but he's not doing the rest of us any favors. In a world already overstuffed with chess books, there are plenty of better resources to turn to.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Review of Eric Schiller's "Big Book of Combinations.", January 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Big Book of Combinations (Competitive Chess S) (Paperback)

Although it is hard to imagine a totally worthless book on chess combinations, this book comes very close. The author gives no solutions to the combinations, only the first move of each. Space supposedly does not permit the author to give full solutions, but space never stopped other authors of similar books. M. K. Blokh's "The Art of Combination" has more combinations, complete solutions and a lower price than Schiller's book, as can be said for nearly every other book on chess combinations.

The author also fails to categorize the openings by theme; thus the novice student won't learn anything about thematic positions. Some of the key moves are incorrect as well, so there is very little to recommend this book other than its mildly interesting discussion of chess-playing computers.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Blatant Plagiarism, January 5, 2006

By 

Avital Pilpel "classics_lover" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Big Book of Combinations (Competitive Chess S) (Paperback)

As Edward Winter notes in his CHESS NOTES column (#2965, also in "Chess Facts and Fables", p. 234-235), Schiller had not actualy written a book of combinations. Rather, he simply copied, without credit, the 1980 book "Encyclopedia of Chess Middlegames". For example, out of 132 positions in Schiller's book covering 1900-1945, all but a half-dozen are in the "Encyclopedia"; so are all 13 positions from 1958, etc.

Schiller gives himself away by the fact that the information he gives about the positions is an exact copy of the one given in the "Encyclopedia"--including the mistakes. When the "Encyclopedia", contrary to what is customary, gives only "USSR" or "USA" as the venue of a game, that is the only information Schiller gives, too. When it WRONGLY says a game took place in the USA instead of Berlin (for example), Schiller--surprise!--also wrongly says the same thing...

That Schiller is a worthless author is well-known, but what he did here is not mere bad writing, it's actual plagiarism.