For everyone who asks, It's "Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games" by Laszlo Polgar (father of the famous Polgar sisters). It's odd that nobody's actually naming it outright, but rather just saying 'It's in the link!'
If you are struggling to see the relevancy of these mate-in-2 puzzles, just understand that difficult calculation is extremely helpful no matter how likely it is that you will actually see anything like the wacky compositions you will find in this book. Especially for beginners like me, I think what's great about solving mate-in-2 compositions is that you can practice difficult calculation and visualization without being overwhelmed with figuring out an objective or evaluating a position. Before centering my training around the 5334 Polgar and Practical Chess Endings by Keres, I used to be completely overwhelmed by chess books. The difficult part for me was that many combinations found in books have lines that are not "forced", and I would end up spending so much time tediously refuting the irrelevant variations with a board or with an engine because I didn't have the capacity to do so in my head. Mate-in-2 puzzles on top of pawn endgames really opened up my training because I was able to practice difficult calculation while I only had to evaluate whether I had mate or whether I had a queen. After months of exclusively using these books as my training, I'm finding it much easier to read my other books now that two-move calculation with multiple pieces on the board is not so much of a hurdle. Calculation helps you gain a much deeper understanding and appreciation for positions found in chess training, and in my opinion any type of calculation practice will benefit your training regardless of how relevant it will be to your actual games.
I've gone through 1925 of the mates so far as part of the program, and I completely agree that it's exhausting. That level 2 thinking though really does beef up a muscle that you don't actually get to work when doing the puzzle rushes of the world instead. I'm a big fan of this book.
I had this book as a kid and hated it because in my mind if I'm up 30 points of material, who cares if I find the mate in 2. I figured I'll mate my opponent anyway. 25 years later, I finally see just how valuable it is. I'm picking up a copy today. Thanks for the video!
I have the Hard Cover version. I was gifted this back in the 90s and it’s amazing. It’s so good. I can say it’s one of the single most instructive books I own.
Super informative,Jesse. Level 1 and Level 2 thinking, stuff I subconsciously know, but do not really appreciate. Thank you for putting it into a very practical perspective.
Just what I needed Jesse. I was tempted to message you guys but this video answers the question. I have done 6 sessions with this book so far and once I got to the mate in 2s I keep having thoughts in the back of my head like, this is pointless I can easily win here, oh look I can do it in 3 instead of 2 what's the point or I would never play this way in a real game. I was just starting to notice I was starting to see the squares my pieces had control of better and therefore where the king is cut off. Funnily enough I found I had the most progress in that aspect when I set up a problem wrong on my board. I spent like 90min determined to work this thing out. Then checked the diagram again and realized 2 pieces were on the wrong rank lol. It is good to know that you mention this and other things as a benefit despite the often-weird positions. So I will stick with this book until completion (of the mates at least) and see how it goes. Hopefuly it helps me get better. Cheers.
OK, you convinced me to work through the book ;) But I think, apart from the book, this video has amazing advice for chess improvement and thinking in general. When I first saw the book I rejected it, thinking "meh, this are just basic mate in 1, 2 or 3 puzzles, I can get that with any puzzle website". But I think I underestimated how important it is to drill this concepts and how hard even simple patterns can be, if you have many options to choose from. This is better training for beginner-intermediate players than buying fancy opening or strategy books. Calculation and visualization are the fundamentals that you need to work on first
I worked through the bulk of this book as a kid and attribute a large amount of my chess ability to it. I watched this video thinking oh surely i will remember these at least subconsciously...and was shocked at how hard i find them (still) now! Clearly a sign i should take it off my shelf and review, maybe in subsets with some woodpecker method. Thanks for dispelling the illusion i had that i had "graduated" from this book.
Years ago I bought Polgar's massive hardcover book shortly after it was released. I wanted to have it at work so I could do some positions at lunch, but it was just too heavy to carry to work every day. I was very happy when the smaller paperback version was released, as it made it much easier. I have since given that paperback version to a young player at my club, as I now have it on Kindle. I am so glad they finally released the Kindle version of this book. My aching back is also happy. I also have the Middlegame and Endgame big hardcover books as well, but sadly there is no Kindle versions of those.
I am currently at almost 1700. At first I thought the tasks are quite easy, but when the mate in two composition started I slowed down in solving these a lot. I really underestimate how hard a mate in two problem can be. I have no idea when I will ever finish this book
I just bought a bunch of books and tagged you guys on Twitter the other day! Thank you so much for the inspiration to buckle down and start studying the right way :)
I just received a signed copy of Polgar's book! I don't think the seller realized it was signed based on the low price I got it for! I had a copy before but lost it in a work reassignment move. This is a most valuable book!
For Kahneman, "system 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control". In his "Thinking Fast and Slow" book, he proceeds to give "find a strong move in chess (if you are a chess master)" as an example of such thinking. Wouldn't it be limited to coming up with good _candidate_ moves? To me chess is typically system 2 thinking, except maybe when blitzing an opening or playing a simple technical endgame. Are there really moments when we/you just play intuitively?
I read that book as well and it’s very relevant for chess! I used to think chess is all about calculation, but the more I’ve studied and played I’ve discovered that pattern recognition is actually crucial. This is how strong players can still play very well even with little time, since they often see the critical moves at a glance. I’m not sure where long term strategic thinking comes into the fast/slow picture, but the ability for grandmasters to evaluate a position is another area where they are far stronger than the average player.
every moment is a moment when you play intuitively but there's barely any moment in which you ONLY play intuitively, this probably never happens because I think stronger players are likely to check, double check or triple check their intuition, so that it is not only intuition.
Great video as always, I have a question, how many of them should we do per day? I know that more is better but how much time of our total training time should be trained on this topic?
My coach tells me to do 1.5 hours daily which I don’t. I like studying chess and taking lessons but slowly realizing I am more a chess fan than a serious player.
Is there a difference to this book compared to things like The Checkmate patterns manual (Chessable), CT-ART ( mobileapplication), or other puzzle books, like the woodpecker (I guess that would be way harder)?
Alex Colovic said Kasparyan's Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies was an important part of his becoming a GM. I'd wager slogging through tons of hard puzzles is a common theme in the backgrounds of GMs.
I have Lazlo's Tome, and while it's great to have over 5000 problems in one place, outside of it's quantity, the quality is just average. I'm an old-timer, who learned tactics from the books by Chernev, Reinfeld and Horowitz -- not the best, but quite adequate. And I became a pretty good tactical monster, getting to over 2000 USCF OTB. BUT, I never really developed a good strategical approach to the game and, while I could confuse and dazzle class players, I was easy prey to most players >2100. In every game, at every position, I looked for a tactical continuation... yeah, captures, checks, threats, yada yada yada. I became the living embodiment of that old saying, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem will begin to look like a nail."
Thank you sir for the amazing instructive content, I have a question.. how much time should I put to each puzzle as I believe making a time limit for each puzzle improves calculations speed but it only consumes more energy.
I think it can be very useful to talk to a coach about the individual position. He can take a look and give you some time as in: in a real game you should spend between 10 to 20 minutes in such a situation, but you can also try it yourself.
Very important tips! Is there any book that you would suggest for a complete beginner to read before starting the training program from the 1st level (0-400)?
@@giovannicole5561 Maybe try "Simple Chess" by Michael Stean, for basis of positional play, or "Chess for Tigers" by Simon Webb (the one with the cartoons) for blitz and then there are collections of players games, I personally like "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings" by Irving Chernev. Regards from Edinburgh Chess Club.
The purpose of this chess puzzle book Jesse is recommending called Chess by László Polgár, is to cement checkmating 'pattern recognition' (a.k.a. board vision). For a true beginner, consider the book 1 titled Learn Chess the Right Way by GM Susan Polgár (László Polgár is her dad). Her book has the same purpose.
Not an expert. I believe it all started w a quip by Sapolsky, the guy who wrote Behave. But there was no evidence. I think though if you put some players and made them do level two for an hour doing Polgar mates you'd have a better study than having them play. Everyone checks out for brief periods when you play, you gotta.
I just checked out the Dojo with a view to maybe signing up. Does anyone know where on the site there is an overview of what they are offering for the various levels? It looks like you just have to pay up in advance and hope that what you have paid for will be good..
The thing I don't understand is even if I don't find the mate in 2 I'm still going to win these positions being up so much material. So whether I win in 2 moves or win in 10 does it really matter?
@@francesco3479 I know it does come up often , I just don't understand why we need to practice being so accurate when basically any move is winning. If it was a mate in 2 puzzle where you had to find only moves or its equality for example that'd be different. But it seems like most of the book are puzzles where one side has huge material advantage
@@jeremysmith2370 accuracy may not be important to win in some of these positions, but you can apply these patterns in more complex positions where it could mean an immediate win!
@@jeremysmith2370 "If it was a mate in 2 puzzle where you had to find only moves or its equality for example that'd be different." How would it be different? The point of the puzzle is to find mate in 2, and the point of finding the mate in 2 is to get better at chess. Even with all your extra material, the puzzles are still hard, and the thing that makes them hard -- seeing how the pieces work together -- is the skill you are improving by solving them.
It trains your peace coordination and visualisation. It literally forces you to use your peaces in ways you haven't done before and later in game youll in completely different situation, because of that, subcontiously have an idea or combo that your oponent will completely miss. That being said, it is hard. I do 10 or 20 of them for an hour and im tanked up. Its probably gonna take years to finish it, especially as im working a bit on positional chess and openings atm, but yea at some point if you want to get your tactics you have to grind this out. It really helps in situation where 3 or more peaces are under tension
Hello,I like your videos very much but, when you said as if we come from monkeys,I got sad, because we come from God not from any kind of animal!SOme of us ask worse than any animal on earth.God Bless,very good chess videos!,,
First of all, much respect Jesse and your sensei brethren, for making great content and posting for all on RU-vid, even those of us not yet in the Dojo! You're doing a great service for the chess community. On your recommendation, I bought 5334 and am at about 1500 complete of the 5334. Question: I feel that doing the puzzles which are "studies" isn't such a good use of my time, while the ones that resemble more or less balanced middlegame positions do feel worthwhile. My point is, solving a mate in 2 of a lone king vs. overwhelming material seems not so valuable, since the position is completely winning already. I feel that doing tactics from other sources (like Neishtadt's book or the Blokh book you recommended in another video) is more worthwhile, since these positions come from actual games. The way I understand your position is, the 5334 mates force you to calculate precisely. I get that, but do you think it should definitely be done in conjunction with these other tactics sources, or that those real game based positions will be sufficient to improve calculation?
