Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games by Laszlo Polgar
|
List Price: Our Price: $13.93 You Save: $9.02 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $11.92 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games
Book Review: Not focused, and error ridden
Summary: 4 Stars
Yes, Polgar's book is huge, and it does look great on my coffee table. However, its size presents its greatest weakness, and the fact that Polgar had no good computer program in 1993 to double check his solutions is its second weakness.
Regarding the size, you will never finish 5000+ problems, and will not learn as much as you would with a more focused approach. I suggest using the more focused software product CT-ART 3.0, which has 1200 problems that you can group by difficulty or by tactical theme, and costs about $25.00.
Regarding the errors, well, let's just say I stopped after doing about 400 of the problems, and have marked about ten as having errors. For example, #994 (mate in two) has two viable solutions; the given Qxd4, but Qc3 will also work. #1071 (mate in two) gives Nxf6 as the solution, which indeed will lead to mate next move, but Nc7# is mate in one.
Buy it for the looks, but practice tactics with software.
Book Review: Buy this for the "600 Miniature Games" section
Summary: 4 Stars
This is not my favorite chess encyclopedia, but it contains lots of good material and, especially considering its price, is worth having.
I think the most useful part of this book is "600 Miniature Games." After having seen this book for years, I finally bought it for this section alone. Each of the games contains miniatures decided by decisive attacks on the King's Field (f7/f2, g7/g2, h7/h2, f6/f3, g6/g3, h6/h3), whether the king is castled or not. You can basically follow these without a chess set and sometimes I like to open this book and "do" some of these in my head as an attacking refresher. I have some of Convekta's software (CT Art, etc) but those compendia have more varied problems and with this section of L. Polgar's book, I can focus in on kingside attacking practice.
Recommended.
Book Review: For those that like chess puzzles...
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is massive, and it is only chess problems. Hundreds, thousands, of examples of mate in one, two or three moves take up most of the book. If you like to figure out chess puzzles, this is the book for you. I bought it for my chess-obsessed son and he disappeared into it for days. It also has many great games by leading masters through the decades, including many from the famous Polgar family. This is not an intro training guide for chess - it is exactly what the title says - 5334 chess challenges, good for those who love the game.Book Review: Good book to keep kids busy
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a good book for my 5 year old, as well as me. There are 1 move, 2 moves and 3 moves checkmate puzzles. My 5 year old could solve the 1 move checkmates, so I moved him to the 2 moves puzzles. Those are a bit of a challenge for him, as well as for me sometimes. However, the thousands of puzzles are without background or context, hence it is difficult to notice patterns or tips. Hence all in all, this is a good book to keep them busy when you run out of ideas about what to teach the kid next.Book Review: More Chess Puzzles than any other book I have ever seen!
Summary: 4 Stars
The word is WOW! Gigantic collection of chess puzzles. So many I have only just gotten started after a month!!! Question is which ones are going to help me improve my results in actual play. There are so many, and so many don't seem to be from real games and are filler. [...] But you get a lot of problems in this book and if you want everything probably ever made into a problem this is the book!