Customer Reviews

In the World of Tactics

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It's dificult to describe just how worthless this "book" is. It really is that bad. I thought it looked like an interesting puzzle book. Boy was I wrong. All this guy did was to choose some so called key positions in some big tournaments and print diagrams of them stating white or black to move. Then at the end of each chapter he gives the game continuation as played by the players and some times includes what looks to be some computer analysis of cetain moves. That's it. Any body could have wrote this book. There was no original thought put into it at all. To bad (only in this case.) Chess games aren't copy righted. Also many of the games he chose weren't even that important, the only criterion for chosing them that he seemed to use was Geographic location. This book is deciving because it has a beautiful cover and great print quality. The publisher obviously cared a lot more about producing a good book than did the author.(If you can call him that). Please do not spend a penny on this book, if you do you'll be sorry.

I read the above review and I bought the book anyway, mainly because Anatoly Lein did a great job with Sharpen Your Tactics. But this book really is worthless. What Lein does is stop at a point in the game where he thinks it is interesting and you guess the continuation. But then you look at the solution and there is no solution, only how the game continued (or how it should have continued). Apparently this book was the first of a series, but sales were probably so bad the publisher had no reason to continue it. A truly worthless chess puzzle book. Don't buy it.

In this fine book, Lein shows 200 complex positions from GM play in 1997, and the reader is invited to analyze the position and choose a continuation, as in the typical puzzle book. What is atypical, and seems to have bothered some reviewers, is that the continuations, though tactical, often don't lead to an immediate win. In other words, it's more like real chess. In many cases the result is a small advantage that must then be further exploited, and in other cases the tactic serves to avoid a loss. But Lein always gives the continuation to the end of the game or to a clearly winning position. If you're looking for an ordinary puzzle book for the bus ride to work, this may not be the one for you. Some of the positions may also be too subtle and complex for some readers. But if you're looking for something deeper and highly instructive, you'll find this book valuable, as I have.