Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games

This is a perfect book for learning basic common tactical pattern recognition in chess. I had the hard back version of the book many years ago and used it for myself and also to teach my kids, who were elementary school age at the time. Years later I got the kindle version, to carry around with me, and to work chess puzzles from time to time when traveling, many of which remain quite challenging. I have had zero problems with the kindle version. It is great for kids because they seem to pick up and internalize the patterns quickly and intuitively, and this can be helpful in making them stronger chess players. I’ve played chess since I was a kid and am a reasonable United States Chess Federation player, with a rating of 1700 to 1850 over the past 25 years. At my level of play, I still find this book quite helpful and entertaining, and many of the more difficult positions are still challenging and sometimes take me several minutes to work out.

This book has been a valuable tool for improving my chess several years ago. I was playing and analyzing games with experienced players in an Egyptian café, a space where intricate wooden screens cast dappled shadows on the boards and the air was thick with the aroma of potent coffee and the distinctive click of backgammon games. Several of us studied a wide range of strategies from this book over several cups of mint tea, often interrupted by the (lively) debates of other patrons. This book is excellent for anyone wanting to advance their chess skills.

Awesome puzzle. Some easy and some way advanced for me currently

I first borrowed this bad boy from the library totally on accident. I had no idea how good this was. The worst part was returning it. I was making a habit out of re-barrowing it until I figured its obviously worth the money to just buy it and make notes in it. Ive improved more from the puzzles in this game then the ones on chess.com. If your serious about improving your game, this is a must have.

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.

My 12 YO, gifted, autistic kiddo has turned out to be quite the chess whiz. He is at 900-1000 after playing for 4 months-ish. I gave him this book to read/solve/think about right before bed instead of electronics. The next day he thanked me profusely for the book! (Which never happens). He likes every aspect of it. He likes the chess moves problems to solve. He likes the play-by-play of famous chess games. And I think (?) it’s teaching him about famous chess players. He keeps calling it the biggest chess book ever, lol. I highly recommend this book for chess enthusiasts! It does teach the rules of chess in the very early exercises, but I’m not sure if it’s enough for a brand new player who doesn’t know anything.

I just recieved my 2nd copy of this famous chess tome: the first was falling apart after 3 1/2 years. But not from poor quality but from daily use over the last 12 months or so. It's a classic; the story goes that Lazlo put together this book based on the exercises he gave to his 3 daughters, all of whom hold master's titles. My advice is this: 1. He gives only white's 1st move as the answer, not all the moves as most other books do. 2. Some, not a lot, of the puzzles have more than one correct answer; at least in the Mate-in-2s as I've yet to get to the later ones. So check your answers closely, you both may be right. FWIW, Reddit seems to confirm this too. 3. They begin to get tougher around the #1470 and up level. There are so many problems that, especially if you are a novice, you should expect to hit several plateaus on the way; just step away for a day or two and re-try. You will improve and really none of them would stump a real expert. Hang in there! 4. Here's a clue for you: once you get above about #1500 you will hit a string of literally 100's of problems where giving a check on your 1st move is rarely, rarely correct. Almost any combination involving a check on move 1 can be discarded up front in favor of calculating other lines first. 5. Finally, many combinations involve a lone black king who would be in stalemate if black moved first; your job as white is to first release the mating net, allow black a move, then close the trap on move two. Good luck!

Purchased and made it a vase /book for my uncle’s wife instead of sending flowers when he passed. I just Pinterest it and it was perfect. Aunt loves it and displays it in her home.