"A Puzzling Book"
by Glenn Budzinski

"Chess Combinations: the Improving Player's Puzzle Book" by
John Walker, 1999 Everyman Publishers, Softcover, Figurine
Algebraic Notation, 128pp., $15.95

Those of you who have read our reviews in the past know the
significance that we place on a book's Introduction.  It is here
where one expects to find an explanation of why the book was
written and for what audience it was intended, key issues in
determining the success (or lack thereof) of the work.  Since
"Chess Combinations: the Improving Player's Puzzle Book" does
not contain an Introduction, we were forced to turn to the back
cover in the hope that some light would be shed on the purpose of
this work.  Here it states that "This book is the latest in John
Walker's best-selling series aimed at young and improving
players."  Apparently, the book is intended to be a "unique chess
puzzle challenge.  First of all, the necessary techniques are
carefully explained, then it is just like a competitive game: your
task is to find the best move, whether it is a brilliant, mating finish,
or a sensible, calm plan."  The publishers blurb goes on to add:
"Carefully graded exercises help you assess and improve your
skill; clues are provided for the trickier puzzles; Puts you into real
game situations". 

An element as basic as determining the number of chapters listed
in the Table of Contents even proved to be unexpectedly
challenging.  In addition to a couple of pages addressing chess
notation and analytical symbols, there are 15 unnumbered titles
presented which, at first glance, this writer assumed were
individual chapters. Upon further investigation, it became obvious
that several were actually sub-titles under one particular chapter. 
All total, there appear to be 13 separate chapters: "What is a
Combination?" defines a combinations and provides a few
examples; "Why Solve Combination Puzzles?" discusses three
reasons why it's important to solve "combination puzzles"; "How
to Tackle the Puzzles" provides some advice to problem solvers;
"Tactical Weapons" discusses four elements of tactics and offers
an apparent separate chapter of 24 puzzles applying the learned
elements; "Target King!" looks at three general approaches to
attacking the opponent's King and also includes 24 puzzles of
King attacks; "Dealing with Defenders" covers four elements and
gives 24 test problems on the subject matter; "At the Death"
discusses unexpected mating nets, stalemates, passed pawns and
"tactical weapons" such as knight forks, along with 24 puzzle
exercises; there are 32 actual sets of "test" problems, each
consisting of 6 questions, plus a scorecard under "The Tests"
heading; the final heading, "It's All in the Mind" touches upon the
psychological aspects of finding and playing a combination. 

Walker's definition of a combination ("One blow comes out of the
blue. It is usually a sacrifice.  The opponent has little choice of
reply and is caught by a follow-up blow which either forces
checkmate or wins material." Page 6), would probably meet the
approval of other authors who have previously tackled this subject,
such as John Collins, in his "Maxims of Chess", Eugene Znosko-
Borovsky in his classic "The Art of Chess Combination" and Bruce
Pandolfini in "Weapons of Chess".

On the other hand, we have some misgivings about Walker's
reasons  for solving combination problems.  Are two of the three
primary reasons really because "they're fun and you can get a lot of
pleasure and satisfaction out of finding the right moves" and to
"keep your chess brain alert"? Isn't the most important reason for
studying combinations the necessity of learning tactics? Collins
quotes Teichmann and Tarrasch, respectively: "Chess is 99 per
cent tactics" and  "Tactics is the most important element in the
middle-game." Perhaps one can interpret Walker's third reason that
"you build up a store of knowledge, ideas and memories of
beautiful tactical tricks which will stay in your mind ready for you
to use in your own games" (page 9) to be a variation of the tactical
necessity idea.  But, at least on this point, we believe that Walker's
audience would benefit more from clarity of expression rather than
touting the subject as all fun and games (so to say).

"Tactical Weapons" and "Dealing with Defenders" do seem to hit
briefly on the principal elements that one would expect to find in a
book on combinations, such as skewers, double-attacks, pins,
discovered attacks, deflections, etc.

The "Target King!" chapter, however, leaves something to be
desired. Other than short discussions of three general approaches,
"Storming the Fortress", "The King-Hunt" and "The Back Rank",
there is no identification of individual elements associated with
these categories.  Znosko-Borovsky, for instance, suggests specific
ways of attacking each pawn in front of the castled King.  No such
specifics are offered by Walker.

Nor are any specific combinational themes discussed, such as the
single or double Bishop sacrifices directed against the opponent's
King. Znosko-Borosvky illustrates the common single Bishop
sacrifice through the game Yates - Marin, 1930 Hamburg. (See
Diagram)

White: Ke1, Qg4, Ra1, Rh1, Bd3, Nf3; pawns - a2, c2, c3, d4, e5,
f2, g2, h2
Black: Kg8, Qe7, Ra8, Rf8, Bc8, Nb8; pawns - a7, b7, c4, d5, e6,
f7, g7, h7.

In this position, White is on the move and played 1 Bxh7+,
prompting Black's immediate resignation due to 1...Kxh7, 2 Qh5+,
which leads either to win of the Queen or checkmate after 2...Kg8
3 Ng5. This is one of several common, thematic combinations
aimed at the opposing King which, in this writer's opinion,
warranted some space in the narrative of the "Target King!"
chapter.

While combinations do not necessarily have to involve sacrifices
of material, they often do.  Of course, one could not expect a book
on combinations to offer a categorization of sacrifices as
systematic as that found in Spielmann's  "The Art of Sacrifice in
Chess". But, on the other hand, to ignore the details of this aspect
almost entirely, strikes us as questionable.  Let's take a look at the
following position, given as one of two examples under "Storming
the Fortress". (See Diagram)

White: Kh1, Qc3, Rc1, Re1, Bf1, Nc5; pawns - a2, b4, d4, f2, g2,
h2 
Black: Kg8, Qf4, Rc8, Re6, Bg4, Nh4; pawns - a7, b7, c6, f7, g7,
h7

Walker mentions that "There are three things to notice: 1) The
white king, although sheltered in his fortress behind a row of
pawns, is short of space. 2) Black has a large number of pieces
pointing straight at the white king's position. 3) White's pieces are
aimed at the centre and the queenside. They are not well placed to
defend their king" (page 26).  It should be quite obvious, even to a
novice player, that "Black should have good attacking chances
against White's king."  He goes on to add "He should be looking
for checkmate and to achieve this he needs to storm the fortress..." 
The difficult part here, omitted by Walker, is what specific types
of sacrifices should Black be considering? Can this position be
viewed as an example of a thematic sacrifice?  Once this position
is reached, what ideas should the player be calculating? 

Solving the 192 test problems (32 tests of 6 positions each) is a
worthwhile exercise and, perhaps, the highlight of the book.  Each
set of positions ranges from easy (the answer is almost
immediately apparent) to tricky (might take several minutes or
longer).  All the positions are from actual games, mostly at the
grandmaster level. Many solutions begin with a spectacular
response.  There is no suggested time limit but, usually, the
solution can be found in a couple of minutes or less. A 2000+ rated
over-the-board player for nearly twenty years, we took about ten of
the tests.  In general, five of the six problems on each test were
solved after only a few seconds of thought. There seemed to be
one question per set, however, that provided much consternation.
In fact, more times than not, our proposed solution was at least
partially incorrect.  To gain a better understanding of the type of
problems presented on the test, here are a few of the ones that gave
us pause to think. (See Diagram)

White: Kg1, Qb7, Re1, Bb4; pawns - a2, e3, g2, h2
Black: Kd8, Qd3, Rc8, Rh8; pawns - a7, c7, f5, g7, h7

This writer vaguely recalled seeing Position #108 somewhere, but
couldn't remember where.  He also was stymied by the solution. 
The position, it turns out, is from Morphy   Maurian, 1864, a game
we should've remembered, being a big Morphy buff.  White to
move and win. Do you see how? (Hint: It's a quiet move.)

Position #120 is from Najdorf   Curtoy, 1932 Mar del Plata. 
Black is a whole rook down, but is on the move.  How does he
save the game? 

White: Kg5, Qc3, Re8; pawns - d5, g4, h3
Black: Kh7, Qf2; pawns - d6, f7, g6

The answer is 1...f6+ 2 Qxf6 Qh4+!! 3 Kxh4 g5+ and it's
stalemate after White responds to the check.

A position (#119) that did not cause us any distress - because we
happened to remember it - was from the famous game Marache  
Morphy, 1857 New York, the First American Chess Congress.
(See Diagram)

White: Kg1, Qe4, Ra1, Rf1, Bf4, Nb1; pawns - a2, f2, g2, h2
Black: Kg8, Qg6, Rc8, Ba5, Nd4, Nf5; pawns - a7, b7, c3, c7, f7,
g7, h7

Although the Great Morphy has things well in-hand, he finds a
typically spectacular way to finish off his opponent.  What does
Black play here? (Solution: 1...Ng3!!)

Okay, okay, enough fun for today. One word of caution about
taking the test: although a scorecard is provided and points are
awarded for solutions, there is no explanation given for the scoring
system.  Since Walker mentions that the score is only intended to
chart one's own progress, why bother to identify answers as
anything but correct or incorrect? What's the point to awarding
points?

This book tries to be something more than a simple quiz book, but
falls short of an instructional guide.  It is probably best considered,
as its title implies, a chess combination puzzle book for the
improving player. Lots of examples of positions involving
combinations are given, covering most of the key elements.  But if
you're seeking more than puzzles, you may be disappointed with
this selection.