Customer Reviews

Combination Challenge

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

More than 900 of this book's 1100+ problems appear in Reinfeld's "One Thousand and One Winning Sacrifices and Combinations," also available from Amazon.com. That book is available for approximately half the price of "Combination Challenge," so unless you absolutely cannot handle descriptive notation, buy the original.

I looked forward to getting this book. Imagine my regret when I found out that most of the positions in this book come from Fred Reinfelds combination books such as 1001 combinations and sacrifices. I thought I was getting a book that would offer ORIGINAL material. If the book was original this book would be a sure classic, but its nothing of the kind. I gave the book to charity and hopefully some good will come out of it. I should have listened to the previous reviewer about saving your money. If you want combination books Reinfelds are the best. Read his chess books and you will see why he was an early inductee to the chess hall of fame. He was an original and not taking material from other writers.

I have a chess library of approximately 100 different books covering all aspects of the game of chess.

After years of playing in, and directing tournaments, as well as teaching scholastic level chess- I have concluded that tactics are the most important part of the game of chess. They are also the most exciting! The best part is, you don't have to be born with tactical ability; you can learn it.

By practicing tactics through the method of diagram training you can become a much stronger player.

This book is the best algebraic notation book available on the market today. It is very similar to Reinfeld's 1,001 chess sacrifices and combinations in the old descriptive notation.

It is preferable to solve problems in the notation currently used by a majority of players today because it will transfer to your over the board play and help you visualize the board better.

I would recommend this book strongly for players rated between 1400 and 2000 USCF. Players rated below 1400 would do better to find a more basic book, and players rated above 2000 USCF would do better to find even more advanced books.

P.S. I have no relationship to the author or publisher.

If your rating is below 1700, try Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors first. It's an edited version of Combination Challenge, but with just 1-3 move problems from that book. It's not in a kiddie format, althought it's a smaller book-- the problems just have fewer moves than Combination Challenge and there aren't as many problems in it. In the forward of Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors it says to do this book 3 times and not to move on to Combination Challenge until you're around USCF 1700.

This is a book with 1100+ tactical problems, arranged by theme, with solutions provided in algebraic notation (the easiest kind to read). I've been told that a lot of the problems here are identical to those in Reinfeld's 1001 Brilliant Sacrifices and Combinations, so if you own that book, you might want to spend your money elsewhere.

This is a very good book for intermediate players who want to improve their computational and pattern recognition abilities. The book presupposes that you already have a firm grasp on the fundamental tactics (pins, forks, skewers, elementary checkmates, etc.) , as many of the solutions involve the use of such simple tactics to get to the final solution. If you do not have a firm grasp on the fundamentals, don't expect to get better with this book; rather, expect to get annoyed and frustrated.

As mentionned earlier, the problems of the book are divided by tactical theme, making it ideal for those who have mastered basic tactics but who want to work on specific areas of tactical study intensely or who are just not good enough to dive into random positions and figure out what the appropriate tactic is. Having said that, the book does not indicate how hard any of the problems are. A two move mate can be followed by a 7 move tactic designed to win a pawn. Thus, this book is really the opposite of Lein's "Sharpen Your Tactics", which indicates the difficulty level without telling you what type of tactic is involved. It's really a matter of the reader's preference when deciding which style of book he/she wants.

The book does not get five stars because of
1)the size of the book. It's annoyingly large. In fact, it's a square. What's more, the cover, introduction and basically all the text is cheesy. Fortunately, the meat of the book is simple diagrams

2)the fact that there are errors in the book. Some of the solutions can be "busted" by a computer program (or a keen reader). In other words, if you were to play out the "winning" side of these problems according to the solution provided, your opponent would still have the resources to mate you or come out with a material advantage

If your skill level is appropriate, I recommend this book.

This is a very thick book with a large number of tactical problems. Personally I like to learn tactics by seeing how a tactical situation is reached, and therefore prefer opening Trap books such as, "101 Opening Chess Traps" or even better yet "Winning Chess Traps for Juniors", or complete games containing tactical themes. However, a book with just point blank problems to solve has its use and this book gives you a lot of bang for your buck.

It is true about what the other reviewers have pointed out that "Combination Challenge" has most of the same positions you find in Reinfeld's two books, and even along with the mistakes in some of the answers! Whereas, chess positions and games are not copyrightable, exact copying from another book is. "Combination Challenge" falls short of that infringement.

If lots of tactical problems is what you are looking for, you have found it!

Great material for study of positional/situational responses and combination practice. Board positions are not simply contrived but actually "feel" like real game scenarios... something that other books for beginning players lack at times. There are plenty of challenges within the pages to keep a 1400-1800 rated player joyfully busy for a long time and with good results.

With that said there are a few problems with the work...

One problem which I have encountered that troubles me is that there are a few "attacking" diagrams whose solutions overlook the opponents options. In one case, (diagram 13 of the July 1991 Edition) the citation for the solution leaves off with the words "4.f7 and wins." I was disturbed because it seemed that the opponent wasn't quite done in. I set up the diagram on a board and played through the given solution... and as my response to the solutions last move placed the readers king in check with Qd5+. The only response was Bg2. Qxg2# settled the matter and the reader was mated. Use of 4 PC chess programs confirmed my moves. I have the first Edition and this problem has, I am certain, long ago been corrected (the Edition listed here on eBay is dated 3 months after the one that I own). With that said...

I still recommend the book (4 stars), but I encourage the reader to carefully explore the solutions given that do not end in a clear "Checkmate". This may actually have been an intentional slight in order to engage more experienced or observant players who otherwise may become bored with some of the more obvious combinations. Thus, I'd recommend it, I certainly won't throw it away... it is excellent food-for-thought when games are hard to come by or when one is preparing for tournament play.

This is an excellent training book for practicing tactics. There are over 1,110 diagrams sorted by theme; pins, forks, skewers, overloading, back rank weakness, Queen Sacrifices, etc.

This is not a primer. Beofre tackling this book you should read an introductory tactics book such as "Winning Chess Tactics" by GM Seirawan.

Once you are acquainted with all of the different themes, use this book for further practice.

There are enough diagrams to keep you busy for months (even years).

The intended audience for this book is most likely players rated between around 1400-2000 USCF.

The main beef that some of the other reviewers seem to have is that the book contains most of the same problems as Reinfelds "1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations". My response is "so what?". If you are comfortable with descriptive notation then buy that book. But for those folks who either don't know descriptive notation, or who actually prefer solving problems in algebraic notation then this is your book.

As far as the occasional error or ambiguity in a few solutions - I'm sorry but I have not seen a tactics book that is completely free of these errors. This book is no exception.

Overall, you would be hard-pressed to find a better tactics review book.

Great material for study of positional/situational responses and combination practice. Board positions are not simply contrived but actually "feel" like real game scenarios... something that other books for beginning players lack at times. There are plenty of challenges within the pages to keep a 1400-1800 rated player joyfully busy for a long time and with good results.

With that said there are a few problems with the work...

One problem which I have encountered that troubles me is that there are a few "attacking" diagrams whose solutions overlook the opponents options. In one case, (diagram 13 of the July 1991 Edition) the citation for the solution leaves off with the words "4.f7 and wins." I was disturbed because it seemed that the opponent wasn't quite done in. I set up the diagram on a board and played through the given solution... and as my response to the solutions last move placed the readers king in check with Qd5+. The only response was Bg2. Qxg2# settled the matter and the reader was mated. Use of 4 PC chess programs confirmed my moves. I have the first Edition and this problem has, I am certain, long ago been corrected (the Edition listed here on eBay is dated 3 months after the one that I own). With that said...

I still recommend the book (4 stars), but I encourage the reader to carefully explore the solutions given that do not end in a clear "Checkmate". This may actually have been an intentional slight in order to engage more experienced or observant players who otherwise may become bored with some of the more obvious combinations. Thus, I'd recommend it, I certainly won't throw it away... it is excellent food-for-thought when games are hard to come by or when one is preparing for tournament play.

This is one of the best tactics workbooks for an advanced player. A large number of puzzels are presented, broken down by theme. This book will help you improve your tactic skill.

A word of warning! This book is not for an Intermediate player or even a beginner. Though the author "Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors" would be for an advanced beginner or lower end intermediate player I would recommend getting the two intermediate books in the "Chess For Juniors" (by Snyder) first, "Winning Chess Tournaments for Juniors" (which focuses on the most important tactics and in many cases has the tactics build on each other - plus this book has much more) and "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors" (great tactics in these games along with comments on every move to explain things).