Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential checkmates you need to know, 19 Aug 2001
By A Customer
"If one points out to a player a position in which there is a mate in five moves, he will find it in time; but let the same position occur in a game and the chances are eighty to a hundred he will be blind to the fact."This excerpt refers to the all too common experience of overlooking some of the easiest mating combinations, the series of checks with forced responses. In this book the authors identify the patterns in 23 types of mate, presenting their material with depth rather than simply stating the intellectual knowledge needed to recognize typical mating patterns such as Smothered, Corridor, Boden's etc. (If these names mean nothing to you then you probably need this book.) Each mate pattern is discussed, wonderfully annotated complete games illustrate the mate threat/attack & variations, and the annotations cover development as well so there is a flow of action resulting in the mate attack. You are not given a cold position and left wondering how to get there in your own games. This book contains 127 games; the 299 board diagrams together with the clear discussion and game annotations should offset any reluctance that some people may have in following the descriptive notation used. I had originally intended to deduct one star because of the age of the book (descriptive notation and old analyses) but the content is so important and the presentation so clear that going through the book again was a real pleasure, therefore five stars. This is a Dover book and like all the Dover chess books in my small collection it is very durable, a quality worth having in a book that will see repeated and extended use. I saw the following statement from Dover on the back of this book and think it is worth including as it refers to quality and is certainly true in my experience: "We have made every effort to make this the best book possible. Our paper is opaque, with minimal show-through; it will not discolor or become brittle with age. Pages are bound in signatures, in the method traditionally used for the best books, and will not drop out. Books open flat for easy reference. The binding will not crack or split. This is a permanent book.."
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Drop everything else, read this book!, 11 May 2004
I'd been playing chess for two years before reading this book, and to be honest, I wish I'd started with this book. At first I was a little sceptical when I it was recommended to me, as I'd already done hundreds of 'White to mate in 4' problems and reckoned I had checkmating sussed. However not only did I learn about different mating patterns I wasn't aware of, but I feel that my tactical awareness increased sharply. Often I could aim for mating positions which my opponent wasn't even aware of.Overall a great book with plenty of exercises. I would recommend it for up to maybe 1700 Elo
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Checkmate Book, 21 April 2003
Endgame is the most important phase in the game of chess.Irving Chernev once quoted, 'If you want to win at chess, begin with the ending.' Therefore, this is the book which you should begin with.
Basically , this book gives an overview of various types of checkmates, eg. Greco's mate, Anastasia's mate, Blackburne's mate etc....you name it. This book tells you how to recognise the mate if it occurs in a game. For every types of mate, a simple concept will be explained and then followed by examples of how the particular mate is conjured in real games by chess greats (Rubinstein, Alekhine, Euwe, just to name a few).
After tons of studying, you may not feel satisfied if u can't put the knowledge u have gained, to test. Well, this book will fulfill your desire partly by setting quizzes after a few chapters. Do all the quizzes to reinforce your knowledge and after that you can test your brilliancies on other players.
Once, I managed to imply the Greco's mate in a game and I was delighted to know that I have certainly benefitted from this book.
As a conclusion, this is a good book which displays general patterns of checkmates. It doesn't go fully into details such as how to mate when you have a king,a rook and a bishop or a knight or something like that. For a slightly more advanced endgame book, one may go into Practical Chess Endings by Paul Keres. Furthermore, the price is proportional to the quality of the book and its material. Who can deny, it's a Dover Publication.
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