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Review: 303 Tactical Chess Puzzles. Book of Fred Wilson and Bruce Alberston to train chess combination skills.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

EricL wrote on Wed, Nov 26, 2003 03:22 AM UTC:Poor ★

There are THREE ERRORS IN THE FIRST TWELVE PUZZLES THAT I COULD FIND...
and
I am a novice... so I didn't bother looking at the book any further! 
I'm taking the book back... although it may be useful as kindling.  Who
did the editing... DID ANYONE ACTUALLY WORK THROUGH THE SOLUTIONS??? 
Sample solution 'errors':

Puzzle #8: CORRECT ANSWER should be 1 Qa5 threatens Qxc7#, and 2 Qxh5.

Puzzle #10:  White responses are illogical.  White could at least gain
one
of the Rooks for its lost Queen... rather than leaving Black with both
Rooks as the authors suggest.  CORRECT ANSWER and replies should be:
1 ... Rd4+, 2 f4 Rxf4+, 3 Qxf4 Nxf4

Puzzle #12: CORRECT ANSWER is the AMAZINGLY complex SINGLE move of 
1 Qg8#!  It seems UNBELIEVABLE that the author suggests some round about
two move alternative when MATE is plainly staring at you.

Very disappointing.  An 'Official American Mensa Puzzle Book'... HA!

Gary Gifford wrote on Thu, Apr 8, 2004 12:34 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

This is in regard to '303 Tactical Chess Puzzles' by Fred Wilson & Bruce
Alberston.  Luckily I won this book... I say 'luckily' because based on
the very negative EricL review who could possibly want the book?  However,
I am pleasantly pleased with the book and I gave it 4 stars (out of 5) on
Amazon.com.  How could this be if the other review is accurate?  Simple, I
find the problems in the book to be stimulating.  The diagrams are large
and clear, easy on my aging eyes.  As for the errors... they aren't much
to write home about.  In fact: In reference to the 203-11-26 EricL review,
Puzzle # 8: A basic double threat problem.  The answer in the book is a
simple typo... it is no big deal to me.  I solved the problem and the typo
didn't upset me.  #10. I agree with the authors and white wins, even if
black replies other than indicated.  In the EricL suggestion Black gets a
Rook at the cost of a Queen and a Pawn... might as well resign.  #12. The
authors were teaching about'Removing the Guard', amazingly, after having
done a few other 'remove the guards' I saw a 'mate-in-two' for this
position in a fraction of a second.  In a chess tournament I'd have
played that in a heart beat, it was so clear and it wins the game.  True,
the mate-in-one is best... but would it make much difference in a
tournament?  No. It is still a good brain excercise.  You still learn to
calculate and force a win via a nice combo.  If you find a nicer combo,
great.  In a review elsewhere I saw that someone complained that playing
for black, black pieces were still starting at the top of the diagram and
that wasn't realistic if playing a game.  How silly.  'White at bottom'
is a standard.  If that bugs somebody they should set up a board and then
sit down at the black side.
Anyway... the book has 100 diagrams for 'Advanced Beginners', 100 for
Intermediate, and 100 for 'Tournament Players'.  At the end there are a
few pages dedicated to Defense, a few on Computer Chess,  and a small
section about a Philidor game.  Overall, I find 303 Tactical Chess Puzzles
to be a very enjoyable book.  If I have enough chess students this summer,
there will be a chess class for the city... and this book will certainly
help.

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