Customer Reviews

POWER MATES : Essential Checkmating Strategies and Techniques

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

 

 

I think that the negative reviews here are based on the assumption that Pandolfini tried to write a different kind of
book but somehow failed. It's not a book of "checkmate puzzles"
(although there are 70 of these)but, as its subtitle says, of elementary checkmating strategies. Its purpose is to show how a game develops from the opening to the point where one side is able to force mate. The 70 short games with light notes are not intended for the advanced player, but for those under USCF 1400 or so. For this purpose, it's an excellent book. Sure, more advanced players should look elsewhere, but so what?

this book is great for beginners, but is probably best suited for midlevel players.Instruction is done by selected tournament games, many by former(and current) world champions,while these games are short, each has 4 diagrams, and plenty of analysis by the author. eahc game is categorized by the opening,which by the way,teaches good and bad opening moves, and how to pounce your opponent when he makes a mistake. in this way, this book is like an advanced form of traps and zaps, also by pandolfini.At the end of each game, a diagram is presented, for you to find forced mate, with all solutions at the back of the book. hence this book becomes good for puzzles, as well. But the most valued thing i personally got from this book was sacrificing pieces. i used o be somewhat timid at doing this, but thanks to this book, i now sacrifice to shatter king protection, deflection, ect. sorry for the long review, but this is really a very thorough, handy book.

I enjoy playing through short games, and games that end in checkmate. That is the kind of games this book has, with the added bonus that the author pauses to give the reader a chance to figure out how the checkmate is accomplished. I keep hoping there will be a "More Power Mates " soon!

I have over 15 chess books and I can truly say that this is the only one that is the most FUN! I approached the 70 games in this book by studying one game per day over & over (what's 2 months! ). Through reading this book, I really got a much better concept of one of my martial arts concepts: use the flow. I really wasn't looking for that at all, but by the time I got to the third game "the flow" of how to reach checkmate just hit me like that big ocean wave sweeping away John Ritter at the moment he shouted, "THAT'S IT! " in the movie "Skindeep". I had a lot of knowlege from other books that started out with diagrams of a game already in progress as the author's way of teaching a point, but this book excellently shows you various methods of how to arrive at the points to which many of my favorite chess authors delineate. You really have to be aware of a very good "unspoken" point that this book brings out: since it's typical for so many of us sub-grandmasters to struggle with winning an endgame (many times to no avail without having read Lev Alburt's "Just the Facts") then you can use the various techniques mentioned in "Power Mates" to (attempt to) checkmate the opponent in under 30 moves; ideally entirely avoiding the endgame. Pinning was a very often-mentioned technique (go, get this book to find out others). Yes, it's a good book for begginers who already know how to play chess, but please don't go in to any tournaments until you have thoroughly covered Jeremy Silman's "How to Reassess Your Chess". And one more point: Next time you play chess, remember to have fun! Laugh, even, for crying out loud!

Pandolfini manages to squeeze only 70 mating problems into a book of over 300 pages. He does this by giving a lightly annotated score of each of the games in which the mating positions arose (or could have arisen). If you're looking for a game collection, you can find much better analysis in other books (E.g. Bronsteins "200 Open Games" and Euwe's "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur"). If you're looking for instruction on how to achieve checkmate, Renaud & Kahn's "Art of the Checkmate" or Koltanowski & Finkelstein's "Checkmate!" will serve you better. If you're looking for mating problems, Fred Reinfeld got 300 problems into only 111 pages in "How to Force Checkmate." 300 problems into 119 pages in "Win at Chess," and a whopping 1001 problems into 224 pages in "1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate."

I was rather disappointed with this Pandolfini's book. Generally they're rather instrustive, presenting concepts and taking you by the hand through examples that present, support & reinforce the concepts discussed. Power Mates was different - it was "just" a collection of mating sequences from famous games. I didn't spend 5 minutes with this book. It'll be a great giveaway / door-prize at our next tournament, but it won't have a place in my personal chess library. I'm seeking more 'one on one' conceptual instruction. Attacking Chess: Aggressive Strategies and Inside Moves from the U.S. Junior Chess Champion (Fireside Chess Library) + followed by The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance was a *MUCH* better investment. I highly recommend the audio book version of "The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance"[...]
Sorry to say it, but of the 80+ books Pandolfini has written or co-authored, Power Mates is NOT Pandolfini's best effort by far. If Amazon offered my money back, I'd return the book! Reviewing mating sequences of masters & grandmasters may be your thing... it wasn't mine.

Some have criticized this work of Pandolfini's on having only 70 mating positions. If it were only a puzzle book that would be a valid criticism, but it's not one of the 1000+ problem type books that are out there. Rather what it is, and also what Pandolfini excels at, is a good intro/beginner/kid friendly book of 70 lightly annotated games showing mating attacks from modern chess praxis. The book provides you with the final diagram before the mate, so that in this instance they are "puzzels" but also for the beginning chess player having the full game allows them to learn opening systems (and opening mistakes) as well as to see how the mating position was arrived at. I have always believed that there are two sides to tactical chess first, seeing tactical oppurtunities and secondly, creating positions that have the potential for tactical shots. In chess literature the first skill is emphasized will the second is downplayed. I do not remember off hand who said once that he could see combinations as well as Alekhine but he could not create them, i.e. the positions of potential as well. Pandolfini here allows us to see both the how and the why.

Length:: 4:12 Mins

Review of Power Mates explaining why I find it to be one of the better intermediate books out there.

If you got this book you fell into Fool's Mate! Basically this book is 300 pages and only has 70 puzzles ;)... So tell me if you think that is a bit cheesy :)... He fills in spaces with some bad annotations. I find it funny for a no talent bum like him to annotate games. Like what did Pandolfini ever do, I never see his games in databases. I search for openings and I can't recall seeing any of his games ever. Yet this no talent bum writes book after book. Charges I hear 200 dollars an hour to be a chess coach. You can learn more about mating from Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess to be honest. Basically this book is an essential checkmate of your wallet. It is priced to make people who are cheap to consider buying this book. Basically its 70 game collection trying to pass itself off as a book on mating. So it is up to you what you decide to do with your well earned or ill gotten cash. Basically I have about 100 chess books, so you decide who you listen to. Really matters not to me, what you end up doing. Waste your time on this book, ......