Customer Reviews

Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not just a tactics workbook for juniors! It is useful for anyone wanting chess tactical problems to solve that are not too easy and not too hard! I like chess tactics workbooks and books that cover opening traps to learn the tactics in the openings as well.
Recommended.

There are over 500 different tactics positions to work on and solve. They are arranged by type of tactic so you can focus on the type of tactic you like. The answers are in the back (would have rather had them at the bottom of the page so I wouldn't have to go all the way to the back each time).

Some of the tactics are harder than others so there is a variety. This is in a work book style. I also learned a lot of good opening tactics from "Winning Chess Traps" that i also recommend. If you learn tactics you will win a lot more games.

Ever see those chess diagrams in the newspaper? Well, essentially this book has 534 of those type of problems for you to solve. I'm going through this book for my 3rd time now, which is what Hayes recommends. My tactical ability has improved greatly--not so much being able to pull one over on others, but in being able to AVOID allowing others to pull one over on me. In the end, that is just as good for me.

The book covers the major tactical themes: discovered attacks, Queen sacrifices, pins, Knight forks, double attacks, attraction, overloading, removal of the guard, and back rank mates. If you don't know what each of these is, Hayes explains it to you. Additionally, there is a section that mixes all of the above and leaves it to you to figure out which tactic is at play-just like in real over-the-board play.

Each problem diagram is solved either in one, two, or three moves. Generally there are 6 diagrams to solve on each page. The print quality is not as sharp as I would like, but its not so bad as to make the book unpleasant to use. On the whole, this is a good book for those who have some basic knowledge beyond the rules, and who want to take the next step to improve their play.

I often keep my copy in the car, and also take it to appointments. Is not a large book, so can fit into a large coat pocket. Its amazing how many diagrams you can go through when waiting at the physician's office or for an oil change. My copy has taken a great deal of abuse from day to day use, and I found that for a paperback it really takes a beating without losing pages.

I don't really disagree with the other reviewer, but you have to understand what this book is. Hays basically just took a bunch of the easier tactical diagrams from other books -- mostly Reinfeld's 1001 Winning Chess Sacs, and Chernev & Reinfeld's Winning Chess -- and put them into one thinner book for novices. That's not a complaint; the result is useful. But if you have those other two books you don't need this one (it adds no discussion or other new value).

I own a pretty large collection of chess books, but I've always been partial to this one. There are some things that a reader must know first hand. Yes, it is part of the larger "Combination Challenge" and yes, it is simply a workbook, not an instruction book. But as far as helping you learn tactics, I loved it. It's full of simpler problems so it's obviously better suited to beginners or intermediates. (Maybe 1000-1600) I agree with other readers that it has very few errors and I really liked it's sense of pattern recognition. There are times when it will have 3 or 4 very similar puzzles within 2 pages so that when you don't get it the first time, by the 3rd or 4th time you think to you yourself "I see, I get it now." I've gone through it 5 times and my copy is worn and dog-eared but definitely cherished. Plus its only 8 bucks, how can you beat that? Watch out for those small diagrams though, they'll hurt your eyes after a few hours of reading.

This book is wonderful for helping you see patterns that can occur in your games. The positions are very practical. The best thing I like about this book is that there are hardly any errors (that I can find!). Secondly, the puzzles are made so that there is usually only one correct solution, not a billion other possible ones. This is a major plus. I've heard that many of the positions in this book were taken from Combination Challenge, and many of the positions from Combination Challenge were taken from Reinfeld's 1001 book. THis makes me want to look into Reinfeld's books more.

My suggestion would be that, if you are class D or C you should buy this book because it's a great value (only $10 and it has 534 problems), the organization by theme is great, the positions are very practical, there are no errors (I only found 1 and I am almost done with the book) and most puzzles have only one solution. If you are a better chess player than this, I recommend 1001 Chess Sacrafices and Combinations. This is the type of book who's patterns you would want to drill in your head because they are so practical and recurring. I've been through the book once and plan to go through it 3 or 4 or 5 times. Overall, a great book.

Tactical problems are presented for the reader. No verbal explaition, so therefore this is to simply be considered a workbook. As such, it has a good number of problems for the money organized by theme.

Excellent tactics book for beginners and improving players. Start with this one before moving on to "Combination Challenge" also by Hays or other tactics and puzzle books. Good for players up to USCF 1500.

Let me make one thing clear: I am going to use this book, solve all the problems and do so several times. I will recommend it because of the price tag, which may matter for more people now than before the economic crisis.
I write this review for two reasons. One is that I don't think it is the best choice at this level. The other reason is that I think it might be useful to compare its level of difficulty to some other books.

Well, this is good, still not the best book on tactics on this level.
The solutions are not checked by computer and you might find correct solutions not mentioned in the Solutions.
That the bulk of the problems are taken from Reinfeld and perhaps Reinfeld/Chernev is no complaint for me, since I don't have those books.
The book is organized by theme, i.e. by tactical motif employed, 1. Discovery, 2. Queen Sacrifice, 3. Pin and so on, i.e. you will know what to look for. At my level, knowing what tactic to look for, doesn't make finding the solutions much easier, these giveaways are no problem for me (for reasons I don't know; I've tried both ways).
There is no progression of difficulty, there is rather a chaos, a mix of very easy problems and a little more difficult ones, but you have to solve the problems to find out which are the easy ones, perhaps the too easy ones.
The diagrams are normal size. All this is OK, but there are better books on the same level, but to a higher price tag.
This book can be compared to Sharpen your Tactics, which has a few more problems, many as easy as the ones in this book, some even more easy, some much more difficult, but in which you find a progression of difficulty, from one star to four stars. That book has no hints to the type of tactic. Some problems in Sharpen Your Tactics are way too easy, which diminishes the value.

I have found one much better book on this level, Manual of Chess Combinations 1b. It is part of a series called Chess School and it follows a plan for improvement. The first book, Manual of Chess Combinations 1a is for beginners only, the first level is easier than Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors.
The one I link to has no disappointingly easy problems, except that the first half of it has the same level of difficulty as Winning Chess Tactics. It is made up of 579 problems and divided in to parts, level 4 and 5 (the first three levels are in the Manual 1a, of course). Level 4 is more or less the same level as the present book, level 5 takes you to the next step in difficulty.
Diagrams are much bigger and much more pleasing to the eye. There are no mistakes as far as I know. The problems seem to be selected with a didactic aim and I feel that by going through it. There are no hints to the type of tactic, and the actual hints, like win a queen doesn't help so much. There are sections with no hints at all. Often you find more tactical elements employed simultaniously in the problems.
But the book is more expensive.
If I were using the book in order to improve my play, I would have found it even more superior than I do, but I am using these books as brain gymnastics and enjoyment and that's all.

Some juniors may need a beginners book before Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors. So which books are more easy? From my experience now I would probably have chosen the Manual of Combinations 1a as an introduction. I didn't know about that however, so I purchased the very simple Beginning Chess by Pandolfini and the slightly less simple Susan Polgar's first tactics book, A World Champion's Guide to Chess.
The Manual of Chess Combinations 1b and the present book and Sharpen your Tactics and Susan Polgar's second book are going to keep me busy for some months now, if not for more than one year. Sharpen your Tactics ends with problems that are more difficult, how much more difficult I don't know yet.
Then how to proceed? I have read a lot of reviews on the web, looking for assumed level of difficulty, but I don't have any personal experience. There is no doubt that the next step for me will be The Manual of Chess Combinations 2, which is more difficult, perhaps much more difficult; what I know for sure is that the edition is good. And after that? Well, I don't know how much I am able to improve, of course, but in case I would probably go for The Complete Chess Workout and Chess Gems: 1000 Combinations you Should Know after that the Manual of Chess Combinations 3. But frankly, I doubt that I ever reach that far.
I am not disappointed with Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors, I need to exercise with many problems and this one will surely increase my ability to solve problems.

This book is simply amazing.

This book had 534 problems-that's alot!(not even comparable to Polgar's 5334, but that's a little too much...isn't it?)

Very thin and light. Easy to carry to anywhere-trains, subs, cars, etc.

Diagrams are easy to see, not like some which have weird diagrams that's not even understandable.

The diagrams may be a little small, but they are enough to see the combinations.



Bottom Line: If you're struggling with tactics and under Class A(1800~1999)....

THIS IS IT!!!!!!!!!!!