Chess Combinations: An Improving Players Puzzle Book [Paperback]

John Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

Bestselling chess author John Walker presents a feast of exciting and challenging chess positions for young and improving players to solve.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Acclaimed author John Walker presents a unique chess puzzle challenge. First all the necessary techniques are carefully explained, then it is just like a competitive game: your task is to find the best move, whether it is a brilliant mating finish or a sensible, calm plan. In this handy title, carefully graded exercises will help you assess and improve your skill, clues are provided for the trickier puzzles, and you will placed in real game situations. This book is the latest in John Walker's best-selling series aimed at young and improving players. Once again he provides excellent training in an enjoyable form. John Walker, several times Chess Champion of Oxfordshire, is a schoolteacher who has taught chess to children for many years. His accessible writing style has gained him many fans. He is also the author of several other popular Cadogan instructional work, including 'Attacking the King,' 'Chess Openings for Juniors' and 'Winning in the Opening.' (5 3/4 X 8 1/4, 128 pages, charts)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Everyman Chess; 1st edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857445392
• ISBN-13: 978-1857445398
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,321,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Tactics Introduction And Review, April 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Chess Combinations: An Improving Players Puzzle Book (Paperback)

Great for introducing and reviewing tactical chess, this book provides numerous practical examples. The author outlines the themes and motifs of the standard tactical tricks that every player must be aware of if he intends to improve. I appreciated the author's combination of explanations and testing. I think that any player wishing to review their tactical abilities should consider this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best short tactics books, February 1, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: Chess Combinations: An Improving Players Puzzle Book (Paperback)

Are you studying tactics till they come out of your ears, but you're still a patzer? That is probably because you do not know what the signs of "there might be a winning tactic here!" are in a real game, when, unlike in books, you don't know in advance that there *is* a tactic. Or else you are so excited once you actually *do* notice a tactic in a real game (once in a blue moon) that you play it instantly, without taking into account all of the opponent's defensive resources, or without noticing your "brilliant queen sacrifice" is just exchanging queens into a lost pawn ending, or that you had a better tactic that would win the game outright, not just gain a pawn.

The author of this book understands your pain. First, as one expects in competent books, the author gives only examples from real master games, and each of his "tests" is arranged by difficulty. That each "test" is six positions with the solutions on the other side of the page is a nice feature that saves you from going to the back of the book all the time, and also allows for many puzzles per page--there are over 30 tests, not counting the "practice" ones, or about 220+ positions all told, very good for a 130-page book. A praiseworthy feature is that there are many *drawing* combinations (usually by stalemate)--a common way to save the draw in amateur games, that is usually neglected in such books.

Second, after a few "practice" tests where the *general* theme is given ("target king" or "dealing with defenders", but NOT "knight fork" or "skewer with the bishop"), he gives the tests with *no* instructions--just like you'll see them on the board. This is very important--you don't get someone to whisper to you, "look for a knight fork NOW!" in a real game.

Third--and this is what really sets this book apart from others--the solutions do not merely give you the wining line. A typical solution tells you:

(a) the important points about the starting / ending positions. This divides into both tactical issues (did you notice the black queen is loose? That the back rank is undefended? That a piece is overloaded?) and to no-less important "strategic" ones: did you notice you are a rook down, so a tactic that wins a bishop is pointless? Did you notice your opponents is about to queen a pawn or mate you on the back rank, so "regular" strong moves on your part will not do?

(b) all the possible tactics available, and, especially, why you should always look for a better tactic: yes, you get partial credit for noting you can win the rook, but did you notice you could give mate--or did you stop thinking the moment you found a good move? This is especially important since very often if you find *one* tactic, even if it doesn't win, it means there are others available that *do* win, since tactics are generally based on some weakness in the enemy position, and there's often more than one way to exploit it, some better than others.

(c) being throughout: yes, you gain partial credit for finding the right move by "feel" and noting your bishop sacrifices forces the king to go on a walk. But can you actually calculate the king hunt to mate? If not, how do you know the king will not escape, leaving you a piece down?

To sum up, the book teaches you to be throrough in evaluating the position, both before and after the tactic itself. It improves your ability to spot the possibilty of tactics, to look for different tactics, to note opponents' counterchances, and to evaluate what the tactics are worth. This book isn't a "database dump" like so many other tactical training books; you really learn real-world tactics from it.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars User friendly chess book., August 19, 2005

By 

jgrier (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chess Combinations: An Improving Players Puzzle Book (Paperback)

This book teaches you tactics as well as combinations. It manages to teach you in a way that will keep your attention. It gives you plenty of puzzles to practice your newly learned skills and improve your ability to read the board.