| Chess Tactics for Champions: A step-by-step guide to using tactics and combinations the Polgar way |  | Authors: Susan Polgar, Paul Truong
Publisher: Random House Puzzles & Games
List Price: $17.95
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Seller: chess, language & other
Rating:  39 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 081293671X
Dewey Decimal Number: 794.12
EAN: 9780812936711
ASIN: 081293671X
Publication Date: April 11, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780812936711 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
Susan Polgar became the first female Grandmaster at age 15—and it wasn't luck that got her there. Her use of tactics, combinations, and strategy during her games gave her the critical advantage she needed against her opponents. In Chess Tactics for Champions, Polgar gives insight into the kind of thinking that chess champions rely on while playing the game, specifically the ability to recognize patterns and combinations. With coauthor Paul Truong, Susan Polgar teaches the tactics she learned from her father, Laszlo Polgar, one of the world's best chess coaches.
• Teaches players how to calculate the effect of a move in order to gain an edge over an opponent
• For intermediate to advanced chess players of all ages
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
 Wish I had discovered this years ago! June 9, 2010
J. C. Davis (Milwaukee, WI)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Whenever you want to get better at chess, there are so many guides out there, it's hard to know where to start. Does one start with the opening? Does one start with "positional play" or "strategy"? With studying classic games? I wish I had not fumbled around so long before I realized that the place to start is with tactics and with the end game. When you study tactics or small combinations, you learn to view each chess board like a snapshot, a world of its own, with its own particular problems (pins, skewers, forks, etc.). It is more like a puzzle to be solved and less like a "story". This is how the greatest players view the game. Anyone who wants to get serious about chess would do well to buy this fine book on tactics written by Grandmaster Susan Polgar. After buying it and studying the puzzles for a while, my rating has steadily increased, and I now find that I have a greater capacity to understand what's happening when I watch high level games. I have applied principles learned in this book to all elements of my game, from the opening to the end-game, and I haven't even gotten through the whole book yet. It is also important to study the end-game because no one wants to get to a winning position but be "unsure" of whether or not it is a winning position. I've found that my ability to deal with openings has come of its own accord.
On a related note, if you're enjoy chess but you are at a crunch for time like I am, look into the Internet Chess Club (ICC). I joined one day when I got sick of Yahoo chess. They offer a free trial membership. You can play against real people 24/7, and I've found their ratings to be reliable as well. It opens up to a whole world of internet chess with great people, and Grandmasters regulary play there. One of the best perks is that they offer tutorials by Grandmasters annotating games, and these tutorials are included in the reasonably priced membership (7 bucks a month?). I am part of a "league" that operates in connection with the ICC. The league is totally free to members and a lot of fun.
A last bit of advice: Don't play speed chess!
 Removing The Guard ... Double Attacks, The Queen's Sacrifice May 13, 2010
Christopher Ammons (Pittsburgh)
The writing and diagrams in the book, first of all, are very honest, the author lays her mind out on the pages in a very honest way - something that makes a book great in any genre.
This is no chess puzzle book. The positions look indeed to be ones that occur in real games, ones that will show up. Learning is done best when there are a-lot of similar problems, by repeating and repeating on slight variations. I found this book and day one went through it all night, forgetting to sleep (of course). One of those "skill level is increasing like mad" feelings when I played chess the next few times. I don't doubt that there are other tactics books that are as good as this one, but this one certainly has succeeded with flying colors for me!
One problem I have with the book is that perhaps more than 50% of the examples involve a queen sacrice. This allows mental shortcuts, begin the problems with "let me first look at queen sacrifices" instead of having to look at the position in more depth. ... Hammers the point across pretty intensely that a Bobby Fischer Brilliancy is not necessary for a legitimate queen sacrifice.
Good tactics book May 5, 2010
Chess Quant (Sydney, Australia)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Tactics books are necessary to read if you want to improve. Its my belief what you are looking for is something that covers a broad range of typical motifs and a lot of problems that aren't to difficult. What we are looking for in a tactics book is drilling into your brain standard patterns so you can see tactics just on your move but at the end of a series of forced moves. I've lost and won many games because a series of exchanges that started off looking safe ended up bad because that rook actually couldn't retake because if it left the back rank it was mate.
This book gives a good coverage of typical tactical situations, and clear explanations. Despite the book saying its for intermediate to advanced - I would say its for beginning to intermediate players. A good book for anyone of this level who wants to sharpen their tactical ability.
enjoying the book April 22, 2010
david hongil kim (torrance, ca United States)
I've been playing for a while, but this is the first tactics book I've read. I'm enjoying it very much. The examples she gives are very instructive. I feel like I've improved already.
BobN January 7, 2010
Rolian (CO, USA)
I consider myself a beginner in the world of chess. Of all the chess books I have and have reviewed this one stands out among all of them. Susan seems to be the only one that understands most people don't want to READ 2 dozen chess moves just to get to the essential lesson information. Her book has 100's of puzzles / problems that teach tactics and are broken out into sections so that the tactics can be learned. She does not jump around from one tactic to another like most books so that reader has a chance of absorbing the concept before moving on to another tactic. I have taken this book with me on several long flights with a pencil so that I could write down what I thought were the solutions, and then check my answers afterword. Many of the puzzles / problems require only 2 to 4 moves so it is actually possible for most people to think that far and solve and learn from them. I recommend this book to everyone I know that enjoys the challenging and intriguing game of chess.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
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