Most Helpful Customer Reviews
161 of 169 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nicely Choosen Puzzles, September 18, 2006
A Kid's Review
This review is from: The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book (Paperback)
I am a firm believer that tactical work books, books on chess traps in the opening, and going over analysis of instructive games are the best type of books to improve your play.
There are one thousand nicely choosen problmes containing some of the more important tactical patterns that will prove helpful in actual play. I don't like problems that are composed and have patterns that you would never come across in real play.
A suggestion for improving most tactics work books. I would like to see a building of the same tactical pattern. Start of with a simple use of a knight fork, then make it so that the same type of knight fork must be found in two moves, then an even more complicated position that requires ideas to set up that knight fork in 3 or 4 moves!!! Are there any tactics work books that do that with at least 500+ problems? Yet to be seen.
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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
REALLY! This is the ULTIMATE Chess Puzzle Book!, December 21, 2006
A Kid's Review
This review is from: The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book (Paperback)
It is all in the selection of the puzzles and their organization. No doubt about it book that teach you tactics that are well written and organized is key to improving to tactical pattern recognition. There are two ways to go about it. Getting books on short games containing traps in the openings (learning tactics and the ideas behind the openings at the same time while using complete short games). Actually that is my favorite way to learn tactics.
The other very good way is to have a book provide tactical problems for you to solve. "The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book" really has gathered over a thousand positions that contain the most important tactical ideas. They are arranged so that you progress logically. I found the organization and selection of the problems in this book by "Emms" to be far better that the massive "5334 Chess Puzzle" book that had so many problems simply insterted to make it "big". Too many, disjointed problems, not well organized in sequence" I feel is just confusing and is not an efficient way of getting what is important across to the student. Big doesn't mean better! And, around 1000 puzzles is just about the right size! Plenty of problmes, but not overwhelming the student with unimportant materal that is just filler. I recomment to improve your tactics get a good book on Chess Traps (opening tactics) and "The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book! You will have it all!
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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is the best puzzle book for improvement for players rated 1700-2000, September 13, 2006
This review is from: The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book (Paperback)
Highly recommended, the best book for tactical improvement. So why do I only give it 4 stars? The reason for this is that some diagrams/puzzles are repeated in this book. For instance, puzzle 53 is the same as 113, 59 the same as 114. Not good, but I think not only Emms is to be blamed for this, but the whole staff at Gambitbooks. But this shouldn't keep you from buying the book; this is an excellent chess puzzle book for tactical training. My advice about books on tactical improvement depending on the rating:
900-1100 : Chess Tactics for Student
1300-1600: Winning Chess Exercises for Kids
1700-2000: The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book
2000-> : John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book.
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