Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games (Hardcover)

by Laszlo Polgar (Author), Bruce Pandolfini (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
If you love chess puzzles, this massive tome is for you. It's simply one chess challenge after another. With problems fit for beginner and grand master alike, Polgar's collection will feed your craving for years. Better yet, it's a major bargain. When I first pulled it off the shelf I was expecting a price tag three times higher.

Product Description
The biggest book of chess challenges ever--1,120 pages! 5334 fully diagrammed problems, games, and endgames (with easy-to-follow solutions in the back). Includes every known checkmate position. Covers a complete range of levels, from beginning to master. Offers what both serious and casual chess players want most--thousands of absorbing problems with which to hone their skills and have fun.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1104 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (January 9, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884822312
• ISBN-13: 978-1884822315
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.9 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #131,507 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feel your chess muscles grow!, January 24, 2002

By	tepi "tepi" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

CHESS training in 5333 + 1 positions. By [Laszlo] Polgar. 1104 pages. Koln: Konemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1994. ISBN 3-89508-094-2 (hbk). Reissued by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers as 'Chess : 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games', with a new Introduction by Bruce Pandolfini. ISBN: 1884822312 (hbk).

Laszlo Polgar (1946- ), Hungarian Olympic champion, master coach, and father and trainer of the famous Polgar sisters, has here given us a training book to beat them all, one intended for beginners and amateurs from the basic level to master candidate (2,200 Elo). Since it includes the basic rules of chess and explains, with the help of large diagrams, how each piece moves, and since the foreword and all explanatory matter have been given in no less than ten languages - English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Hungarian, Russian, and Japanese - it will appeal to chess lovers of almost any age, level, or nationality.

Basically the book consists of over 5000 problems, many taken from over-the-board play, and most of which can be solved within a few minutes - though if you're anything like me some will probably take you much longer! Polgar explains that there are "very few books containing chess problems, games and endgames which are not only easy to solve but elegant and instructive as well. And there are even fewer that offer a sufficient number for regular and intensive training over a relatively long period." His aim is to help us develop our tactics and powers of pattern recognition, and his book, which is great fun to work through and involves practically no reading at all, certainly does seem to improve one's ability to see the possibilities a position may hold.

After a brief Foreword, and a 'Key to symbols' which explains, simply and concisely and in a way that even a small child could understand, the basics of the game, how the pieces move, capture, and mate, and the algebraic notation used throughout the book, the diagrammed positions follow - Mate in one (1-306); Mate in two (307-3718); Mate in three (3719-4462); 600 miniature games (4463-5062); Simple endgames (5063-5206); Polgar sisters tournament-game combinations (5207-5333+1). The book concludes with the Solutions (which give the first move of the Mate in two problems, and complete solutions of all other problems), a Biography of Polgar, and a Bibliography.

The original edition of Polgar's huge book is without doubt one of the most useful and certainly the most impressive and sumptuously produced chess book I have ever seen. The book is of full quarto size (9 inches wide x 12 tall); beautifully printed on high-quality paper with each page holding just six (or later four) large and wonderfully clear diagrams; its spine stitched for durability; bound in thick boards with full cloth; and with gilt-embossed spine and front cover. In contrast to so many of the 'books' that are being inflicted on us today - trashy (though far from inexpensive) products on cheap and nasty paper with glued spines that will not open flat and which seem designed to self-destruct after a few hours handling - Polgar's is a magnificent piece of book production that will hold up for a lifetime, a rare treasure that belongs in the collection of all chess enthusiasts.

So if anyone out there has a bright kid they would like to be the next Bobby Fischer - or if you yourself would like to be the next Bobby Fischer! - don't pass this one up. It's a chess library in itself, and we don't often discover something that is not only so useful and beautiful, but is also an incredible bargain to boot. Keep it open on the coffee-table. Study a few pages a day. And feel your chess muscles grow!

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No explanations, no theory, just plain practice, December 18, 2001

By	Sergio Romero (Mexican in Montreal) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I would say this is the best chess book I've seen my whole life, and the one that took my playing really up in very little time.

You won't find any text in the book, just diagrams with mates in one, two, and three moves, and that is what's going to make you a better player, forget all the opennings books.

Just to tell you what happened to me thanks to this book, I was a 1200 player on the Internet, after spending my time with this book and solving five puzzles every day, after a month I became a 1700 player, and each time I dropped the book, my Internet rating dropped with it, but went up again after I started solving puzzles again.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to play much for a while because of work, but I can assure you that if you solve five puzzles every day of the more that 3,000 that are in this book, your game will improve dramatically in no time.

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great for beginners, but..., December 1, 1999

By	Vernon Walker - See all my reviews

I have to disagree with some of the previously posted reviews here. While this book is quite good for beginner/intermediate players (under 1700), it's really quite useless for more advanced players. Luckily, Laszlo Polgar has written two further books in the same format as this one for more advanced players. The titles are "Chess Middlegames" and "Chess Endgames", and both have over 4000 positions to play through. Moreover, the great majority of these positions are not one move solutions, but full-length (up to 30 moves) game continuations. The best way to learn chess is through pattern recognition, and Mr. Polgar has done a great job in his other books. I have yet to see this book on amazon.com, hope they have it soon. Until then, however, the only place to get it is at the chesstalk.com website. By the way, I'm a strong expert class player, so my comments are geared towards other players of similar strength.