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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the Inside Jacket,
By
This review is from: Test Tube Chess: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Chess Endgame Study (Hardcover)
The beginner--and the enthusiast--discover new joy in man's most challenging, scientific pastime in this introduction to a fascinating study that opens new worlds for good players, new players, and potential champions.
A game--but so much more than a game--chess is also a science and an art that has occupied warriors and scholars, peasants and kings for centuries. The subtle scheming and cautious manipulation heighten when the game element is removed, there is no cross-the-board opponent, and the scientific and artistic elements come into play. This is endgame study...an entrancing and often neglected aspect of chess introduced and developed comprehensively here to reveal the endless excitement that 32 pieces can create. Even when no one else can--or will--play, hours of personal, concentrated satisfaction at the board come from hundreds of amusing, challenging, and baffling positions--and their solutions; scores of 'real life' episodes from Master and Grand Master practice; ways to use chess pieces like musical instruments for composing; clues to the endgames of Bobby Fischer and Edmund Peckover. With "Test Tube Chess" initiation to endgame study is easy because so many positions--even some extraordinary ones--are taken from practical play. As the initiate moves into the advanced category, more difficult positions and solutions tease the mind and hone performance. No one who has ever become absorbed over a checkered space with pieces on it will doubt the endless possibilities here. The truths underlying endgame studies are the eternal verities of the Powers of the Chess Pieces, and their study not only provides hours of diversion for everyone who has been captured by this mind-grabbing game, but improves the standard of play when opponents face one another for action. Fascinating as straight reading, "Test Tube Chess" is completely cross-referenced for terminology and techniques to make it comfortable for browsing, complete as a reference, whatever the level of skill and interest of the reader-player. Dr. Jonathon Penrose, O.B.E.--the player who has won the British Championship more often than anyone else in its entire history (ten times between 1958 and 1969)--writes a foreword to the book that poses some points to ponder about the advantages of endgame studies and their application to 'real games.' Chess may be unique in the opportunities it offers for independent study and movement. "Test Tube Chess" uniquely explores the ways this can be so.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The first of its kind, and the best,
By Petrosian (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Test Tube Chess: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Chess Endgame Study (Hardcover)
This book, to my knowledge, is the first English language work devoted to explaining endgame studies to the general chess playing public.
Many other books on this topic have been written in the decades since, but it is arguable as to whether or not they have improved on Roycroft's masterful work. Highly recommended!
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