Reviewed by P.P.O. Kane
Winning Chess
By Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld
Batsford, 2013
ISBN: 9781849941105
A welcome reissue, in algebraic notation, of a book that will be familiar to many. For myself, I remember receiving it as a present one Christmas and steadily working through the positions over the holidays.
It is a primer on chess tactics, successive chapters covering topics such as the pin, the knight fork, the skewer, discovered attack, double check and so on; and it is a worhwhile introduction still. The presentation is clean and the explanations are clear. There are plenty of diagrams to illustrate each theme and a short quiz at the end of most chapters. Twenty odd chapters all told.
These are not complicated positions either, so can serve as excellent material for introducing tactics to juniors and/or beginners. Pretty much all the positions hold up, however in No. 167A Black should really play 2…R8d4 and not 2…c5 as given. The latter move allows White to escape by 3.Qe4.
Good to see it back..
About the reviewer: P.P.O. Kane lives and works in Manchester, England. He welcomes responses to his reviews and you can reach him at ludic@europe.com