- ISBN13: 9780879801113
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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BOOK HOW TO THINK AHEAD IN CHESS BY HOROWITZ REINFELD | US $74.99 End Date: Thursday May-24-2012 6:46:45 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $74.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
This is a wonderful book on the dynamics of chess strategy.
The author acknowledges that chess is a game for the young.
Skill peaks at about the mid-thirties and then declines.
There are detailed explanations of strategies to protect the
king and queen, as well as schemes aimed at wearing down
an opponent. This work is excellent for an intermediate chess
player.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
The content of this book so far is great (5 stars), but the fact that I only made it to page 16 and pages are starting to fall out makes me wish I had bought something else.
Amazon User Rating: 3 / 5
This book sets up tactical positions for you to study and try and solve. The are broken down by theme. Just going over these problems with greatly improve your game. The only drawback to the book is that is not in Algebraic notation.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5
Reinfeld’s “1001″ compendia are two of the enduring classics of chess literature. There is no doubt that they are a valuable addition to your chess library. Most of Reinfeld’s books (i.e. the ones in which he wrote something) are slapdash and contain outdated and misleading opening advice, valueless annotations, and sweeping generalities that are helpful to noone, and could actually set the learning curve of some players back. Fortunately for Reinfeld, he chose to write this series, which has only diagrams and (with the exception of the introduction) no writing, and thus made a lasting contribution to the chess world.
Consisting of 1001 diagrammed positions, the book calls for the reader to find the sequence of moves that leads to a win for either Black or White. The diagrams are organized by tactical theme (i.e. pin, fork, x-ray, etc.), and thus give the reader a hint as to the solution. There is no indication as to difficulty, and order of appearance in the chapter seems to have nothing to do with it. The benefits of this are obvious. Here is a book which can be stashed in one’s pocket and taken anywhere, and studied without the benefit of a chessboard. Solving these diagrams can, and in most cases will, greatly improve the tactics of any player, and may help the more advanced player keep his or her tactical eye sharp. In addition, the sequences tend to be somewhat flashy, the kind of swashbuckling, romantic combinations that even the stodgy positional player (perhaps secretly) enjoys, so there is great entertainment value to the book, as well.
This having been said, one must still have a healthy respect for the limitations of this work. Because it includes no exposition on how to scent the possibility of a combination, the book will not help us realize when a combination is in the offing in everyday or tournament play. No one is there during an actual game to whisper in our ear “There is a combination here and it has an x-ray attack in it”. Thus, another book on middlegame or combination play, one that talks in more depth about what preconditions make combinations possible, will prove to be a helpful companion to this book. For this purpose, Silman’s “How to Reassess your Chess” or Znosko-Borovsky’s “Combinations-The Heart of Chess” would be good choices. The introduction, the only real piece of writing in the book, is another case of misleading generalities on Reinfeld’s part. He says that tactics are “just what we need to become first-rate players” and intimates that “Tactics is 99 percent of chess…and 99 percent of the fun, too!”. And towards the end of the introduction, he writes that “The first step toward mastery is to become familiar with many types of tactical motifs. The second step is to study…examples of these tactical themes.” “So chess mastery is a two-step process”, thinks the novice. Another set of sweeping unilateral statements from Reinfeld, whose incautious wording completely negates the value of positional play as an element in the mastery of the game. I am not suggesting that Reinfeld should have included an exposition of position play here-obviously that is not within the scope of this book. However, tactics should have been presented as merely one (albeit indispensible) facet of becoming a good player-not as the alpha and omega of chess mastery. For the more advanced player, an indication of where the diagrammed positions came from (i.e. the players, the tournament, the year) would be an aid in researching the positions-how they were arrived at, and who played the games, would be interesting and helpful to know. With all due respect to those players who still cling to descriptive notation (‘B-KN5 dbl ch’?? Give me a break!), this book would be more accessible to the general public and to most modern players if it were translated into algebraic notation. All in all, I highly recommend this book-as long as the buyer realizes its limitations, and that it should be used as one useful tool-not as the whole toolbox.
Amazon User Rating: 3 / 5
As a strong chess enthusiast, I can tell you that the two most important things that a chess player needs to study in order to properly improve are tactics and endgames. Books on endgames are usually extremely dull and filled with variations, and in truth, endgame study is probably best done by setting up complex endgame positions from grandmaster games that showcased strong endgame talent(Capablanca and Lasker’s games for sure).
Tactics, on the other hand, are a matter of repitition. The aspiring chess student must go over a litany of examples of tactical brilliance if they are to start seeing it, and using it in their own games. Fred Reinfeld’s two masterpieces: 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate, and 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations are without a doubt the greatest tactical teaching tools for anyone over 1200 strength(strong beginner). Since this review is for the latter of the books I’ll talk about that one, but it is important to remember that practicing mating nets and mating combinations is just as important as other tactical schemes, so I highly recommend getting both 1001 books.
In this book, Reinfeld breaks down the problems into a number of topics. You might think that it makes the problems too easy to solve if you know which device you’re to use in order to get the solution, and sometimes it does, but to be honest, many of the problems are challenging enough that even knowing that you have to use a pin or a double attack or a discovered check to get the answer, you still have to search a while to find it. A nice feature of breaking down the problems by tactical device is that if you find yourself struggling in one area(I had problems in the pinning section, which is ironically the first chapter), you can really focus on those problems until you get a better feel for them. In this respect, you learn quickly what your weaknesses are tactically and can try and fix them.
The book is compact, and features six problems per page. Despite what others have said about the book having squares that are too dark or pages falling out, all I can say is that I’ve never had any problems seeing the diagrams and my pages are in nice and tight. Perhaps these people should spend the extra dollar or two to buy a new or better used copy instead of one from the 1970s that’s falling apart.
I would recommend starting with 12 problems a day, change topics each day, and then when you start getting better at them, try 18, then 24, and so on. Also, I encourage people to write down their answers for problems on a sheet of paper and not look at the solutions in the back for about a week. Believe me, there’s a sense of satisfaction in finally getting a problem correct all on your own without any cues or cheating involved. Also, I encourage readers to do as much as they can with the book WITHOUT setting the position up on a board or using a pencil or pen on the book. Learning to move pieces in your mind is crucial to tactical learning. For some problems this may be unavoidable, though, and you should find that setting the problem up makes it much easier to solve.
Descriptive notation is not a deal breaker. When I first started studying chess books I hated it, but it takes a very short time to learn, and many of the best chess books are written in it. Also, books written in descriptive notation are MUCH cheaper than newer books of equal or lesser quality, and are of course cheaper then reprints with algebraic notation. Imagine being able to buy three chess classics for the price of one classic reprinted with new notation. Think of it as learning a second language and enjoy the pennies saved.
Amazon User Rating: 5 / 5