Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games

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.

Very good product, I love the verity of challenges that it have

Great.

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!

Full to the brim with problems (ranging from simplistic to perplexing) and games. In terms of content, there's more here than any other book re chess that I'm aware of.On the downside:1. Games are not annotated. This decreases their value as learning tools significantly.2. Some of the print is extremely small. The games and the solutions are difficult to read. Font looks to be about #9 Publisher likely concluded "1,100 pages! Enough is enough."Conclusion: If I edited out the simplistic problems such as "checkmate in one move," and took out the games, I'd still have about 600 pages of complex problems and endgames to savor. So for a player of my skill level, about half the book is useful. That's still a bargain for the price.

It is explicitly says in every page what is the puzzle, which makes is easier than some online websites. The puzzles are ranging from easy to hard which is very good when you want to see a progress.

Everything is as advertised about this monster of a book, it's full of puzzles of various ratings, it alternates between white and black to move with a heavy emphasis on white being the main mover. There is something to look out for however, in some editions when looking for the answers, some editions will only give the first move of the solution in the hopes once it gets the ball moving you can figure out the rest. However if you arent as strong or would like to see the full line, you would have to get a different edition that gives the full answer to each puzzle. I personally like getting jist the one because that allows me to still try and figure out the rest but others may be better off seeing the full logic.

When I received this book to give as a gift I was surprised at how thick it was. My step son loves chess and he loved this book it has so many chess moves you’d never imagine there could be so many. Well put together book and perfect for any chess lover. Great value for the price.