Customer Reviews

More Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps 2 (Fireside Chess Library)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the book that continues beyond the 1.e4 e5 type openings with the traps from the first book. I thought that the first traps and zaps book was "OK" but the second volume takes the three problems the first book had and made them worse.
Let me explain:
The problem with both books is there is a lack of analysis of the moves. When a trap point is reached, then, and sometimes only then does the book tell you the ideas. The opening is certainly not covered, even briefly. You are not told what alternative moves are available and when a terrible blunder is made the book often gives a question mark (bad move) or two and does not tell you what should have been done it its place. This is bogus quality.
Now, are learning opening traps useful? VERY much so!!! You can improve your tactics and openings and see what leads up to the tactics and actually have in your mind what the ideas are in certain openings. This is great. But the Traps and Zaps books fail to teach by leaveing out so much. A little better I found was "101 Chess Opening Traps" by Giddins. But he often does the same stuff by not explaining details. I found "Winning Chess Traps for Juniors" by Snyder to be very detailed on traps and the openings. I will leave that up to you to look up those books reviews. I am just not happy with the Traps and Zaps books lack of detail. The second book is even less detailed than the first.
I hope this has been helpful to you finding the Opening Traps book that suits your needs best!

There just isn't much out there when it comes to books that cover traps and tactics in the openings. But, knowing the major pitfalls and traps in the openings is very important. And this and the book before it by Mr. Pandolfini do a decent job. True, as some have said, "Winning Chess Traps" is better, but then again it is so old it has long been gathering dust but still a good book.
If you are getting "More Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps" then get the one that comes before it first, or better yet get them together. What a lot of people complain about is that this book is very basic and doesn't cover as much as it should, buy hey, show me better!

This book is as bad as the first book. I can't believe they published a sequel to the first one. Fireside was created by Pandolfini, so I guess they pretty much have to publish any piece of trash he writes. This book is telling you how to win in hte opening, but it assumes that the opponent is a complete idiot!! Also, it has so many typos and stuff like that. Both the prequel and this book are wastes of money. I'm sure the person who gave this to me as a gift will be sorry they did after I tell them how worthless this book is.

This book is even worse than the first one! I can't believe they published a second book. Fireside Chess Library will publish anything! If you want to improve at the game of chess then you want to avoid this book and seriously question any book published by Fireside Chess Library. Did anyone with a high school diploma even read this before it was printed? How can you have grammar, spelling and other random mistakes on this level? Writing a book does not make you a good author...writing 100 books makes you no better....Bruce needs to give it up and just stick with writing solitaire chess games for Chess Life. Do you want to know who CAN write? Silman, Soltis, Chernev, Nimzovich, Baburin, Evans....and many more. Use extreme caution when you see names like Eric Schiller, Horowitz, Pandolfini, ...and others.

I own over 100 chess books (sickness) and the first edition of this book is among the top 3 worst buys that I have ever made. I previewed this second edition at the San Lois Obispo Chess club. This book has no educational or entertainment value at all.

It took me a couple years before I figured out a good method of buying new books. I made many poor choices and wasted hundreds of dollars. I have a huge book collection but only about 20% of the books are worth the paper they are written on.
If you click on my name you will get my personal information and see a recommended study list. I put together this list of books and software with only one thing in mind...to improve your game without wasting your money. If you want to get better at chess this list will give you the most bang for your buck.

This is for beginners, rated below 1300 USCF. Most of the traps are fairly obvious (though some have snagged Grandmasters) but the point is to be aware of them before they occur, so that they do not occur!

In that sense, a book on traps is important before you prepare an opening repertoire. I would look at this book first, then the one by Chernev, and finally the one by Graham Burgess, the last of which is from high-level play. Only then does it make sense to spend any time thinking about the theoretically BEST moves. Chess is about tactics far more than it is about memorization. Just play SAFE moves, and study tactics.

Personally, I use this book for drilling simple tactics into my head. I do not go over the opening lines. I just look for the best refutation of what is shown in each diagram. Already, I have improved dramatically in Internet blitz games, because I make fewer blunders and take advantage of my adversaries'.

The coverage of this book is White-king-pawn two-step (1.e4) followed by something other than Black-king-pawn two-step (e5). Pandolfini's first Traps and Zaps book covers the dual king-pawn openings, and the zaps are a bit less obvious in that book. Unfortunately, neither covers queen-pawn openings. I recommend Chernev's Winning Chess Traps for broader coverage (and for deeper, less blunderous traps in general). (Addendum: There are d4, c4, and other openings in the undiagrammed "Related Zaps" at the bottom of each page, useful if you're willing to take the time to walk through the moves.)

The more Pandolfini books I try, the more I like them!

Oh. Only 4 stars because of errata. Annoying, but always easy to find and fix.

That is right this is Trap and Zap your Wallet part 2!!! The first book was bad enough to say the very least. Some Patzers talked good about the first book is the funy part. Even those Patzers seemed to realize that this book was bad. So even if people with no clue can realize how bad this book is. Don't you think that should be a hint to you as well?? Basically if your dumb enough to buy this book. I really can't save you, cuz your beyond help. Try drinking or getting a real chess book if you wanna get better. Go on ICC watch the Mr. Spock lectures, they will help you perhaps. The only thing this book helps, is Pandolfini if your patzer enough to buy it...

Not as good as it previous book but still with valuable tools. When I hear about all the others criticize this book the way they do, it appears that they do not see the author's point (and no my name isn't Bruce). This book is focused more on early traps as stated and not so much on opening repertoires. If you utilize this book move by move explicitly to 'sucker punch' your opponent, then, yes, obviously this book will not meet your expectations. But if it is used to clean up your own act in the openings and also to learn the different trap "ideas" as opposed to every single move by "the book" then perhaps there is something to learn. Maybe not the best for opening, but a legitimate book for traps.

This book had a great idea. Show intermediate-level players (like me) how to improve their game by showing common opening mistakes, how to avoid them, and how to take advantage of your opponents' mistakes. I found the first book, and after playing through some of the examples, I noticed that the Sicilian and French were not even mentioned.

Then, I noticed here that there is a sequel.

Compared to the first book, this one is dismal. Comments on errors and poor play have shrunk to only one-half of the commentary in the first book, and rarely actually explains where the loser screwed up, instead offering adages which sometimes are as obvious as "Don't bring your queen out so early." The only reason I bought this book was that it covered the Sicilian defense and French defense, which were omitted in the first book.

Many reviewers missed the value of this book. They thought they are supposed to memorize all these variations and hope their opponent makes those mistakes. The reason one side makes 2 bad mistakes in the opening in the beginning of the book is so Pandolfini can give you an easy problem to solve so you immediately see the pattern he is trying to teach. As the book progresses, the patterns are repeated, but the losing side makes stronger moves, and the winning side must recognize the mistake/pattern and take a few moves to set up the trap while avoiding being trapped. All traps are forced. You do not have to play compromising moves and hope they fall in. Pandolfini is strongly against playing your opponent and says many times to play the board.

The openings typically are 6 full moves and include (in the first part of the book) moves most intermediate players would never play, just out of habit. Pandolfini even explains how the situation occurred because of an opening principle that was violated. The solutions are pretty easy to spot, at least in the beginning, but not too difficult to spot even towards the end. Every puzzle starts with a hint, such as "fork". Often that means you will set up a fork that happens 3 moves later while avoiding that same fork happening to you. First you threaten and pull the enemy pieces into the right positions.

Even though my first guess was correct in some situations after thinking about it, it was very nice seeing how to escape some tactics I've used before, so that I know them off the top of my head instead of having to think about them. This can greatly speed up my planning speed.

The value in this book is pattern recognition. Pandolfini displays at least 10 types of traps in the first 24 diagrams. I have not finished the book, but as I work through it I see the same trap again, but this time the attacker must take an extra move to set it up, as well as avoid moves that would allow the defender to use them back. Some pieces look free but are not, at least not right away.

Knowing these tactics, and even just threatening them, can force your opponent to make other compromises. It also will mean you'll know in advance to stay out of certain situations you know can't be won.

Because most of the openings are only 6 moves, and the puzzles are not terribly difficult, you can also use this to build up your blind fold chess abilities.

Even though Pandolfini advertises 200 some puzzles, each page also gives 2-3 others in notation, without a diagram. So you actually get 500 puzzles, though the answers are right there on that page and you have to cover them with your hand.

If you are really rusty on tactics, my advice is to do this book first, and then do his other opening book, which is more difficult.

This book is one of my least favorites by far.All this teaches is tricks like Pin,Skewer,Fork,Windmill,and Double Attack.If you want some GOOD CHESS ABILITIES,buy The Complete Book Of Chess Strategy,by Mr.Silman.