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Winning Chess: How To See Three Moves Ahead

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I agree with the reviews here, but they say nothing about the contents. If you're thinking of ordering it used, you'll want to know what's in it.

The lessons are arranged in some logical order, by the frequency with which a given pattern is seen is practical play, as well as in order of necessity, according to the authors. Later combinations use tactics described earlier in the book.

For each lesson, the authors explain the basic idea, then they show you a dozen or so examples. What's great about this book is that each combination includes TWO diagrams. The subtitle of the book is "How to See Three Moves Ahead", and the 2 diagrams are what make this possible. Without the extra diagram, it would be difficult for a player rated around 1200-1400 USCF, the target audience, to visualize the entire combination. These are not, afterall, just simple tactics. They are "combinations" of tactics, and they can be pretty difficult to spot. But because of the extra diagram, you have a real chance of solving the tactic from the 2nd one, and then you can compare that position to the initial one to see what was necessary for the combo. This is just incredibly helpful. Your pattern recognition grows by leaps and bounds.

At the end of each lesson is a quiz with for problems. These are always much easier than the earlier examples, so they really just make you feel good. The way to convince yourself that you know what you're doing is to re-read the whole book, which is a joy anyway.

After the lessons you'll find a bunch of elementary checkmate patterns, which you can run through quickly several times to pound them into your brain. Then there are some relatively simple checkmates. I'm not sure why they're there, but they don't hurt. Then there are some examples of how to AVOID tactics, called "The Manly Art of Self-Defense".

Then there are 6 fully annotate tactical games with sundry openings. The winners are Chernev, Nimzovich, Berlin, Marshall, Sargeant, and Reinfeld. Only 6, but they're fun games.

Finally, no index. Just the answers to the simple quizzes.

It's all in Descriptive Notation, which is explained at the beginning, along with a few bits of advice.

The chapters are:

The Pin
The Knight Fork
Double Attack
Discovered Attack
Double Check
The Overworked Piece
Removing the Guard
No Retreat
The Skewer
Queening
The Vulnerable First Rank (Isn't this the most common?)
Breaking Communication
The Surprise Move

Combined Operations (the most difficult chapter)

Then Design for Checkmate, The Manly Art of Self-Defense, and Illustrative Games.

So there you have it: The contents of my favorite chess book of all time, and I own nearly a hundred. I just love this book!

This is one of the best introductions to chess tactics [1] ever written. For clarity, wit, and instructional value, it has few rivals. The following quote, from the authors' chapter on the skewer, is a case in point: "The skewer is a piercing attack which menaces two hostile pieces placed on the same line. As the piece directly attacked moves away, the piece behind it is transfixed on the skewer. B. H. Wood, who credits the invention of this term to Edgar Pennell, contrasts the skewer with another common kitchen utensil: 'Just as a fork is something with more than one prong which can stick into two lumps of meat on your plate at the same time, so the skewer is something that pushes right through a lump of meat, and out the other side.'" You are then shown the basic pattern for the skewer. This is followed by several pages of examples. The chapter then ends with a brief quiz. What makes this book outstanding, and sets it apart, is the thoroughness with which each example is explained. You are left with the feeling, at the end of each chapter, that you have mastered the concept (pin, knight fork, skewer, etc.) under discussion. No wonder this book is held in such high esteem.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW: This 231 page book, published in 1948 in descriptive notation [2], has twenty-one chapters. The first three chapters are by way of an introduction, then the authors cover various tactical motifs beginning with the pin, knight fork, double attack, and so forth. Each of these chapters follows the format outlined in the preceding paragraph. The last chapter contains six illustrated games. There are approximately 700 diagrams (most diagrams are setup in pairs: the first diagram sets the stage for the execution of a particular motif and the second diagram describes the execution of that motif). Chapters are arranged according to the importance of the tactical motif being covered (for example, the pin is considered the most important motif, followed by the knight fork, double attack, etc.). The book ends with a five page "Solutions to Quiz Problems."

AS A GENERAL RULE: The lower your chess rating [3], the more time you should spend on studying tactics. Michael de la Maza, author of Rapid Chess Improvement, claims that he became an expert by focusing exclusively on tactics. The previous claim may be an exaggeration, but even Susan Polgar, former Women's World Chess Champion and International Grandmaster, stated: "Solving thousands of puzzles really helped me become the player that I am today." Maurice Ashley, first Black chessplayer to earn the International Grandmaster title, stated, in an interview on ChessFM, that he would not let a day go by without spending at least an hour or more studying tactics.

RECOMMENDED FOLLOW-UP: When you finish this book, you will want to complete the exercises in Fred Reinfeld's 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations. This book further illustrates the tactical motifs covered in "Winning Chess." I also highly recommend Renaud and Kahn's The Art of Checkmate. This book classifies various mating patterns and is indispensable! Now, if you really want a tactical workout, try the software program CT-ART 4.0. This program is based on Maxim Blokh's book, Combinational Motifs, and is without doubt one of the best software programs on tactics. [4] Unquestionably, software is the best way to study tactics, but, in order to optimize the benefits gained from this type of software, you should first read the aforementioned books.

TARGETED AUDIENCE: If you have never read a book on chess tactics and you don't mind descriptive notation, then this is the book to begin with. [5,6]
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[1] According to Nikolay Minev, "In most positions a number of strategic and/or tactical elements will be present. The ability to recognize and combine them is the art of conducting a successful game." For more information on strategy, I highly recommend your reading one or all of the following books: I.A. Horowitz & Geoffrey Mott-Smith's Point Count Chess, Ludek Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy (an abridgment of his three volume "Complete Chess Strategy"), and Jeremy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess (4th edition).

[2] In the past, most chess games were recorded in descriptive notation (for example, 1. P-K4 P-K4 2. N-KB3 N-QB3 3. B-N5 P-QR3, etc.); today, most chess games are recorded in algebraic notation (for example, 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6, etc.). In their book, "Winning Chess," Chernev and Reinfeld devote four pages to thoroughly explaining descriptive notation.

[3] A chess rating is a mesurement of chess performance. According to the system used by the United States Chess Federation (USCF), a Master is rated 2200 or above. FIDE (an acronym for Federation Internationale des Eches, the International Chess Federation) is responsible for granting, among others, the IM (International Master) and GM (Grandmaster) titles. The FIDE Master title is awarded to players with a rating of 2300 or above. (For more information on ratings and the Elo rating system, see "The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present" by Arpad E. Elo and the "U.S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess" (5th edition) by Tim Just and Daniel B. Burg, pp. 259 - 273. The controversial, but interesting, Sonas rating system is discussed in detail at the Chessmetrics website.)

[4] In his book, "Rapid Chess Improvement," Michael de la Maza uses the software program CT-ART 3.0 as the basis for his "Seven Circles" training program on tactics. The software program "Chessimo" (formerly known as the "Personal Chess Trainer") uses a similar method but is much more thorough. You can get a FREE trial version and more information on this program at the Chessimo website. It should be noted that Michael de la Maza's book is based on his article that originally appeared in "Chess Horizons" magazine. This article is available for download in PDF format from the ChessCafe website. You can locate this two part article as follows: ChessCafe website -> Archives -> The Skittles Room -> 400 Points in 400 Days.

[5] When studying chess tactics for the first time, it is important to begin with a book that is appropriate to your playing strength. If "Winning Chess" proves to be too difficult, then read John A. Bain's "Chess Tactics for Students" and/or Al Woolum's "The Chess Tactics Workbook" (expanded 4th edition). I would also recommend your reading chapter 1 ("Safety and Counting") of Dan Heisman's "Back to Basics: Tactics." These books should thoroughly prepare you for Chernev and Reinfeld's "Winning Chess."

[6] If you cannot obtain a copy of "Winning Chess" or you prefer a book that uses algebraic notation, then I would recommend John Nunn's Learn Chess Tactics and/or Martin Weteschnik's Understanding Chess Tactics.

Everyone has praised this book, and rightly so. I thought I'd give an anecdote on my chess in school and this magic little book.

About 15 years ago, my brother-in-law gave this book to me. He explained that it helped him improve more than other book when he was in the chess club during high school. I remember him saying he played board 2 for his team. He didn't have a rating, but I suspect it to be around 1500.

It was the only chess book I had. I read the book several times, amazed how much I learned from it because it was 'just ahead' of where I was and allowed me to reach that next step.

I got much better at chess, and in high school I played board 1 my Junior and Senior year going undefeated in our regional competitions. I had lent this book out to several people on our team, so much that it became quite tattered! I remember lending it to our board 4 player, whom I consistantly beat every practice game we played. Some weeks later, I saw a noticeable improvement in his play to where I was losing much more often against him in practice. My studying of Reinfeld's "The Complete Chess Course" helped my positional play, and studying my favorite MCO-12 lines gave me a good opening start, but I would at times falter in our practice games, often in the middlegame. Having been awhile since I had seen my book after lending it out, I kept reminding that I wanted it back!

I lent this book to our board 2 player, with good results. But after lending him my MCO-12, his game seemed to suffer. MCO seemed to contribute to our team's chess 'illnesses.'

After mastering Winning Chess, I began studying the 1001 combinations book, but never quite got into that as I was graduating and left the chess scene for awhile. Now after a 11-year absence from chess, Winning Chess is the book I started back with again (still tattered) and now am studying CT-ART 3.0, ala Rapid Chess Improvement, in an effort to bring myself back to a respectable level of play and return to competition.

Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics is a fine book. Bain's Chess Tactics for Students is quite good. But this one, 55 years since introduced, is still the best. If you only had 1 book on chess, this should be it.

Without question this is the best book on chess tactics ever written. It clearly explains devastating chess tactics such as pins, skewers, and a host of others, from simple to complex positions that occur in master play. The authors also give advice on how to improve and how to use repetition to increase chess mastery. I have a master rating in chess-2250-and I have never come across a better book on tactics anywhere. Its just shameful that this book is out of print. Bring it back!

I'm amazed to find that this true gem is out of print. I have owned 3 copies of this book over the years. Alas, now I have none, since I have given them all away in a desire to share the transforming effect that this book has on a beginner's chess game. I would gladly buy another if I could find it. I have many chess books, and not much to show for them. This unassuming, simple, and humorous book has done more to improve my modest game than any other. It can be read in a weekend, but its lessons last forever. I continue to recommend it to beginners, and I fervently hope that it is reprinted.

Just a casual, occasional player, so take my opinion as you will...but this book probably taught me more than every other book I have consulted on chess, _combined_. It is utterly invaluable for teaching the application of the critical chess tactics: from pins and forks to double check. I can't believe it's listed as out of print--a great loss to beginning players everywhere. Find this book!

This book, Winning Chess, is an incredible book. It has changed my chess forever. I am probably a "D" class player, but maybe I'm approaching "C" level status, thanks to this gem.
This book explains tactics in such a way that no other I've come across does. Most of the examples are based on the exchange of pieces, and just how powerful the exchange in chess can be. In particular it explains the following concept, which is little known to most amateurs: if you, the attacking player, attack one of his pieces once, and his piece is defended once, then under normal circumstances this situation is uneventful and static. . . but if you initiate the exchange, you take, then he retakes, then that one piece of his that WAS defending a minute ago, is now the OCCUPANT of that square, and it itself is now undefended! In other words, you forced him to replace a defended piece with an undefended piece!. . . via an exchange! You capture. . . then he recaptures. . . and now that square, where this action took place, is undefended. Anyway, this book shows you how to initiate and exploit this technique. . . more importantly, this book shows you how to PREPARE, in advance, to exploit this exchange. A simple example of this is diagram 42A (I realize you probably don't have the book yet!). . . the black knight is defended by the black queen. . . so if white captures the knight, black will recapture, which is normally no big deal. . . . but when white does indeed capture the knight, he forces black to give up a defended piece (the knight) and replace it with an undefended piece (the queen). . . which white was ready to exploit, in this case, with a knight fork.

There are many more examples of this type of thinking. . . again, all in all, this is probably the best book on tactics for the average amateur. . . you can get it ...on the internet. Also, another simple-to-understand book on tactics that focuses on the concept of exhanging and substituting the undefended piece for the defended piece, is Bill Robertie's Winning Chess Tactics. You might want to read Robertie's book first, to get an introduction to this wonderful concept. . . then dive in to Winning Chess. You'll savor the anticipation in the process! Have fun!

Very simply: I have about 100 books on chess, and this remains my favorite. Going back to it and reviewing its wisdom ALWAYS wakes me up to what I've been neglecting. I return again and again for refreshers. When I start losing, and my rating goes down, I reach for that book, and start winning again.

Speaking of which, I need to find my copy...

Chernev and Reinfeld's book is the best tool available to significantly improve one's chess ability. I first found it over 25 years ago and it revolutionized my game. It is the book I use as the basis for teaching young people how to play chess. The value of the book is hidden in the simple fact that each tactic is clearly explained and demonstrated. The reader then gets to play through a number of different situations to reinforce the specific tactic. Each chapter builds upon another. The book's strength is its simplicity and singular focus. To top off the book's brilliance, position # 263 shows the reader how Frank Marshall made the most brilliant move in the history of chess!! If you desire to greatly improve your chess playing ability--this is the book. If you are already quite proficient, this book will keep you fresh. No Chess ever written will equip you to win as will Winning Chess!!!

This book is great. I was an average player in college and played regularly with friends of equal skill. During off-days in the exam period, I read _Winning Chess_. The next games I played I utterly destroyed my usual partners. This book can help you make a quantum leap in chess skill in a short span of time. The examples are simple, well-explained, and have an incrememental level of difficulty and complexity. An incredible book!