Win at Chess (Dover Books on Chess) [Paperback]

Fred Reinfeld (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dover Books on Chess | Publication Date: March 28, 2012

Players at all levels of ability will welcome this new edition of a classic, now completely revised by chess authority Fred Wilson and converted into the current algebraic chess notation. The 300 practical chess problems included contain scores of traps, sacrifices, mates, winning combinations, and subtle exchanges. Helpful hints are given for each problem. 300 black-and-white illustrations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (March 28, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486418782
• ISBN-13: 978-0486418780
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,709,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great little book of tactics, March 30, 2003

By 

C. Dunn "independent thinker" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Win at Chess (Dover Books on Chess) (Paperback)

About 300 tactics puzzles, divided into 20-question tests. According to the intro, the questions get progressively more difficult. Since there is a grading scale for the number of correct answers out of 20, I assumed that the questions must get harder throughout a given test. Unfortunately, the tests themselves get harder, so the grading scale is worthless.

But maybe this is a good thing. For learning, it is better to have puzzles grouped by difficulty. (For accurate grading, try Test Your Chess IQ.)

The difficulty seems to be around 1400-1800. There is a book by Lein (Sharpen Your Tactics) which has about the same range.

These are combinations mainly, not checkmate puzzles. Reinfeld's How to Checkmate would be a good companion. And if you can find it (OOP) Chernev and Reinfeld's "Winning Chess" is, in my opinion, the very best way to learn the types of combinations to look for. (Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics and Znosko's Art of Chess Combination are also good for that, though the latter is quite a bit more advanced.)

This book is nothing but diagrams for drilling. No explanations. And no hints! That's closer to real conditions than some puzzle books are. And as the puzzles are from real games, they are of course realistic, not contrived compositions. However, many of them point out real blunders and real oversights!

The diagrams are very clear, not old-style--maybe a bit small, but only because the book's dimensions are small. At the bottom of the page is a little comment about the game, usually revealing nothing about the solution. This really does make each puzzle more interesting. The answers, at the end of each 20-puzzle section, are described in words as well as in algebraic notation, and that helps to make the book less dry as well.

New algebraic edition, thankfully. A 5-star book for the money.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great problems with some frustrating errors, March 6, 2007

By 

Ardith E. Fox (Tucson, Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Win at Chess (Dover Books on Chess) (Paperback)

I agree with the other reviewer; the problems are very good, but the errors are frustrating and should have been corrected since this is a new edition.
I spent quite a bit of time on two problems looking for a good move...only to find that "White to move" should have said "Black to move" and vice versa.
To spare future readers from wasting time, here are two errors:
p. 8 Problem 21 "Black to move" should read "White to move"
p. 9 Problem 26 "White to move" should read "Black to move"
I'm sure I'll find more errors as I proceed.
I do like the fact that some problems involve finding a move for black, since many chess books bias the reader towards thinking only as white. (I'm still waiting for an iconoclastic book where some diagrams are reversed so you see the board as if you're playing black...I haven't found one yet.)
While each problem has a little one-liner such as "Euwe wins a Pawn by a clever maneuver", or "Is Black's position worth a piece", you're not told which type of tactic (discovery, pin, etc) or how many moves the tactic involves. You're also not told whether the problem involves a forced checkmate, or winning a piece or pawn, which makes it more like finding a move in a real game. Also, the back cover says that all problems are taken from actual tournament games.
Another good point is that the solutions are not given on the same page as the problems; I really appreciate this since I have other chess books where I'm supposed to cover half the page with an index card to avoid seeing the answer, and I find this very annoying. Each solution gives a brief explanation that I found to be adequate.
If you like these types of problems where you're asked to find a good move without being told too many specifics, I also recommend "How good is your chess" by Larry Evans (which happily seems to have no errors at all).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars unfortunate mangling of a book with potential, October 25, 2006

By 

B. McKeon "polypus" (somewhere in the bush) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Win at Chess (Dover Books on Chess) (Paperback)

this book is riddled with typos, both in the algebraic notation and in the diagrams. there are often several per page. the editing and 'translation' to algebraic were probably at fault. i know it's cheap but common dover. i would recommend this book only for a player experienced enough to see through all of the errors, and with nerves of steel and a forgiving disposition. what a shame, would be a great one otherwise. i gave it three stars because of the low price, otherwise it would have been lower.