Checkmate Strategies [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: Chess Enterprises
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945470789
• ISBN-13: 978-0945470786
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,632,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A major disappointment, September 22, 2005

By 

I. Martinez "National Master" (S.F, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Checkmate Strategies (Paperback)

I read Checkmate! by Koltanowski and Finkelstein as a young player trying to improve. I spent many hours studying this wonderful book. Both the mating patterns and the intriguing commentary held my full attention. I marveled at how well the basic mating patterns were explained and I learned much from studying them.
As an adult, I yearned for the chance to re-read the original book, but it is now out of print. I became very excited when I found out that "Checkmate Strategies" had been published. Thinking that it was a copy of the original under a new title, I eagerly forked over my $8.95 for a chance to re-live those fond memories. Boy was I misguided.
This new book is about half as long as the original, a ploy the publisher used to be able to sell the other half as an entirely different book. I could live with that, but I just can't abide by the droves of mistakes found in this new "work". The conversion from descriptive to algebraic notation went especially poorly and the errors start as early as page 15. There is more. I was confused by some of the particularly poor writing until I got to page 148 and found Hoffmann spelled Hoffmarm. The only way that could have been done is to use a text recognition software... and then not check your work. Hopefully some day the original will be republished. Until then, save your hard earned money.