Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games by Laszlo Polgar
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Book Reviews of Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games
Book Review: Ultimate chess book
Summary: 5 Stars
If you or anyone you know plays chess, this book is a must.Book Review: Excellent for Beginners
Summary: 4 Stars
I am relatively new to tournament chess (rating about 1300), and I have been working with many different puzzle books trying to improve my tactics. I picked up Polgar's book on chess because it includes simply so much material.
This book is good quality -- that is to say, the puzzles clearly have one solution, there seems to be no dispute. You get what you pay for: a LOT of problems. It also includes miniature games of 25 moves or less which, for me, were fantastic to see some exceptional tactics. On a mere practical stand-point, the book is BIG. That means, for one thing, you have thousands of problems and exercises. On the other hand, it means the book is BIG. It's hefty. It takes up a lot of space in a bag, so you can't always carry it with you.
As far as the book being organized, the first 306 problems are white to play, mate in 1, the next few thousand problems (literally) are mate in 2 -- both black and white to play in their respective sections, and then about three hundred problems of white to move, mate in three. There is also a section of miniature games (less than 25 moves), where you see a real game that was played and see if you can find the appropriate continuation (this description is very brief; technically you play out the game up to a certain move. You're given the hint only as to the key square, and there is a combination based on that square that mates. It's an excellent tactical exercise), along with a few basic end-game sections.
I have found this book to be much better for me at helping my end-game than at my tactics. Tactics are extremely useful, but most of the diagrams in the book end in mate so you are really looking to see how to kill the king again and again. The drills by rote are excellent practice, however, in that you can see some fundamental piece interaction and fundamental check mates (for example, how rooks + bishop can hem in a king, what kind of pattern to look for when you want to mate with a queen, etc).
In terms of difficulty the first 306 problems are very VERY easy. First, it's because it's mate in 1. Second, because you KNOW it's mate in one. This kind of mental prompting is not something you'd see in a real game. Third, some of the diagrams are simple enough that there's only one piece that can put the king in check, ergo the solution is pretty apparent. That said, they are useful for drilling the basics.
One you move past it, the diagrams become more difficult, but they still have this sort of artificial air about them. This kind of artificial-ness comes about because you know what's side it is to play, and you know in exactly how many moves there is mate. This prompting is again, not something you would receive in a real game, but even so Polgar's book is excellent practice none-the-less. If you're new in particular, this kind of prompting can help you build yourself up for the more advanced tactics books (like Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors, another book I've used and reviewed).
I recommend Polgar, but understand what you are getting. You are getting a big fat book that drills you repeatedly on the basics. That's NOT a bad thing. You are not going to get mind-numbingly difficult tactical problems, nor are you getting a realistic game simulation. You are going to get rote practice on fundamental combination, piece interactions, and basic end-games. You DO get realistic game simulation later in the book during the "miniature games" section, though that is not your standard problems where you can simply breeze through them, you really need a board to play through the game to see how it comes about. This is a very useful section for me, and a section most other reviewers have neglected to mention.
It's rote. It's basic. But everyone needs their fundamentals at one point or another. It also makes a very good test of your competence -- these problems ARE fairly easy, given all the prompting, so if you're having difficulty with the "mate in 2 problems" then it's a good sign to see you need to keep practicing. So again, it's not necessarily the best book on tactics out there, but this is a solid drill book that helps you improve your game.
Book Review: An important, easily-overlooked book.
Summary: 4 Stars
More than just a book of problems, Polgar's book is a training aid for serious study.
In order to win a chess game, chess players have to solve finite problems using elements culled from complex positions. One thing that separates good players from mediocre ones is the ability to intuit significant variations from the enormous cloud of possibilities each chess game offers to find the lines of play most likely to lead to advantage.
It is in this that Polgar's book differs from games collections and other books on strategy and tactics. Polgar's goal is not to give a bored or weak player something to pin his hopes on so he can say, "Ooh, I just went through 1000 spectacular combinations!" or, "Ooh, I just read a book on Alekhine!" His approach is different: his intent is to give the player the ability to recognize tactical themes buried in positions by flooding the player with thousands of tactical short problems in an attempt to imprint his readers with the kind of resource of experience that is the basis of the intuitive ability that great players have. More than just a book of mates in three moves, or five moves, Polgar's chess tries to teach the player to recognize possibilities for goal-directed play in any situation that may come before him or her.
If anything can be said to be `weak' in Polgar's approach, it is the lack of prose in it that limits the scope of its approach. A monograph on Capablanca's games can point out that tactical sequences can have purely positional goals, while Polgar sticks to the flashy, romantic idea of attack. Understanding Polgar completely would turn a player into a tactical monster, but understanding Capablanca leads to a player's deeper understanding of what works in chess in a broader and more useful sense.
Another difficulty in the book is its sheer volume and the time it takes to work with it: many players are put off by the enormous amount of work it implies; they want something easier, not realizing that the magic they are looking for to make them stronger is right in front of them.
There are a many reasons to recommend Polgar's Chess, the greatest of which is Polgar's best credential as a chess coach: that is, three daughters who happen to be Grandmasters. The approach in Polgar's book touches on the nature-versus-nurture question by asking which is more likely: did massive training early on in life make his three daughters world-class chess players, or does he happen to be the father of three geniuses?
Only the first answer makes sense.
This book needs a kindle edition in a big way.
Book Review: billions and billions
Summary: 4 Stars
Well, there aren't actually billions of puzzles here, but there might as well be.
Without a doubt, this is a very good book if you're a normal person who's never studied chess or has only begun playing. The basic checkmate patterns are reviewed over and over and over again - and eventually, I absolutely guarantee, your work in this book will lead to victories.
Now if you are really just beginning, I think the book to start with is Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess followed immediately by Chess Fundamentals (Algebraic).
Then I would have recommended Simple Checkmates, and there is still nothing at all wrong with that book. It is definitely easier to carry! But this book by Polgar is very nearly just as good, with the benefit of having kajillions of puzzles.
Beyond that point, you just need to study tactics forever, and ever. I can never stop recommending The Art of Checkmate to anyone above 1200 and under, say, 1500 (which I have again fallen under), but it is probably good for even better players as well.
Book Review: Pattern Recognition...
Summary: 4 Stars
Just bought this book and finished all the mate-in-one problems, many of which were quite instructive patterns I never knew about. That's about 306 problems.
The second section is mate-in-two, and is much more difficult of course, and 10x as large (about 3000 problems), but already I feel I'm getting benefit.
Laszlo Polgar says not to set up a board but do the problems in your head--excellent advice and the book is suited to this (most grandmasters learn this way, not by moving the pieces around).
The 3rd section is mate-in-3 and is shorter than the first section. The last section is combinations.
Some quibbles are:
a) there is more than one solution to some of the problems (yes there are)
b) the answer key only gives the "key move", but doesn't follow up with the following moves or possibilities (for a 2 move-3 move problem)
All in all, GM John Donaldson recommended this book in SF, so I took his advice and don't regret it!