Customer Reviews

Chess Combinations: An Improving Players Puzzle Book

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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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.

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.

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.

Thought provoking puzzles with explanations. An excellent book for the Intermediate to Advanced Player.