Rating: 
Summary: A Masterpiece of Teaching in all aspects !
Review: Three Women with the family-name of Polgar have made
The Art of Chess even more exciting and beautiful !
The reasons are many, of course, among others,
their own outstanding capacity, but ONE stronger than all ! They have chosen the right Mother and Father. That's obvious ! Mr.Polgar is an absolutely Outstanding Pedagogue ! I am playing chess because of that two persons can create something interesting together. My philosophy : Better to lose a real good game, than to win one, where Your opponent commits suicide. In here I see the greatness of this heavy book that also can be used for not only training one's brain-muscles. The professional players do must win, but I am also sure that they want to win, because of playing even better than the opponent.
Mr.Polgar shares with us the love of this Art, called Chess. He teaches us, in a very well divided book full of interesting problems to solve, how to "think chess". All the aspects are presented. A sign of a great Teacher is, for instance, the way of making the pupil feeling that she/he is making a progress. He has chosen two-three difficult problems to solve, and then all of a sudden comes an easy one. This is great from many point of views.
The pupil feels that there is a progress, and this is not false.
We all know that learning is a procedure of two stairs up and one down, and again the same in an never-ending development, until we become better players on different levels. This is very encouraging ! I think that Mr.Polgar would have been an excellent Violin-teacher, or in whatever subject, as well.
He is simply a Great Pedagogue ! Are not the positions of Mr. and Mrs. Polgar's Daughters in this very complicated discipline Chess,
enough proof of this Great Master Mr. Laszlo Polgar. STUDY THIS BOOK !!!!!
Mr.Polgar makes a Thinking Chessplayer of You ! And all the languages presented !!
Study and compare and one gets this as an
extragift from the Family Polgar, who is bringing us so much happiness in our hard World ! Thank You ! Ingemar Ariel LINDGREN (arielmar2001)
Strasbourg, France
Rating: 
Summary: Emmm...you do *have* a back brace, don't you?
Review: What is immediately noticeable about this book (apart from its size!) is the last name of the author: Polgar. One immediately wonders if there's any relation to the Polgar Phenoms (the "PP" sisters, I call them) and whatdayaknow, it's none other than their father (and first coach) Laszlo. To have such a pedigree is quite nice for a Chess book and it doesn't disappoint. Filled with all those problems, combinations and games, there's plenty for everyone regardless of their Chess strength. The one-move-mates were a little too easy until I realised the author's intent must have been to reinforce by repeatition the basic mates that any Chess player worth his salt simply must know. A job well done. 4 stars for the effort, the remaining star witheld-after all, it's only a problem book! ;-P
Rating:
Summary: Emmm...you do *have* a back brace, don't you?
Review: What is immediately noticeable about this book (apart from its size!) is the last name of the author: Polgar. One immediately wonders if there's any relation to the Polgar Phenoms (the "PP" sisters, I call them) and whatdayaknow, it's none other than their father (and first coach) Laszlo. To have such a pedigree is quite nice for a Chess book and it doesn't disappoint. Filled with all those problems, combinations and games, there's plenty for everyone regardless of their Chess strength. The one-move-mates were a little too easy until I realised the author's intent must have been to reinforce by repeatition the basic mates that any Chess player worth his salt simply must know. A job well done. 4 stars for the effort, the remaining star witheld-after all, it's only a problem book! ;-P
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book - looks great on your bookshelf
Review: When I first saw this book I knew that I had to have it. It is the most beautiful chess book that I have ever seen (the worst probably being one of the ones with Lev Alburt and a beautiful model on them). If nothing else buy this book because it will look really great on your shelf, and will impress your friends! It is huge, and I really like how the side says CHESS in gold letters on the black background. This is not the type of book you take with you on an airplane! By besides my shallow opinions of how great the cover is, and judging the book on that alone, the inside is quite good also. I enjoyed the puzzles a great deal. If you have a choice between the softback and hardback, definetly pay a little more and get the hardback. You won't regret it!
Rating: 
Summary: There are now better works available
Review: When Polgar's "Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games" first came out (in 1994), many chess coaches, including myself, thought of it as a great learning tool. I purchased a number of copies for my students to use. And although it is still a great tool, since its publication a number of excellent tactics manuals have come out and I no longer think of this work by Polgar as being one of the best. Many of these 5334 problems are seemingly artificial, they lack the feel of a real game (of coures, real games can get sort of bazaar looking). What would I recommend instead? Those at the top of my list would include: "Winning Chess Exercises for Kids" by Jeff Coakley (2004); "Combinational Motifs" by Maxim Blokh (2000); "The Times Winning Moves" by Raymond Keen & Byron Jacobs (2003); and "The ChessCafe Puzzle Book" by Karsten Muller (2004), just to name a few. Of course, the right book depends on one's own chess strength (and so, it will vary from person to person).
Rating:
Summary: There are now better works available
Review: When Polgar's "Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games" first came out (in 1994), many chess coaches, including myself, thought of it as a great learning tool. I purchased a number of copies for my students to use. And although it is still a great tool, since its publication a number of excellent tactics manuals have come out and I no longer think of this work by Polgar as being one of the best. Many of these 5334 problems are seemingly artificial, they lack the feel of a real game (of coures, real games can get sort of bazaar looking). What would I recommend instead? Those at the top of my list would include: "Winning Chess Exercises for Kids" by Jeff Coakley (2004); "Combinational Motifs" by Maxim Blokh (2000); "The Times Winning Moves" by Raymond Keen & Byron Jacobs (2003); and "The ChessCafe Puzzle Book" by Karsten Muller (2004), just to name a few. Of course, the right book depends on one's own chess strength (and so, it will vary from person to person).
Rating:
Summary: Most Comprehensive Problem Book!
Review: Wow! This is a massive text providing a wide variety of problems for an intermediate or advanced player to learn from.
As a chess teacher I usually recommend this book after reading the problem workbook section in "Winning Chess Tournaments for Juniors" (a very condensed form of Polgar's book - see my review on that book).
No more need be said - if you are a fairly experienced player and are looking for a great book on problems this book will fit the bill!
Rating: 
Summary: Sorry, "only" 3 stars!
Review: Yeah, the book is massive, the price is good. It will certainly do much good for anyone's brain cells, but.... unfortunately I have noticed some irritating tendency in it, although probably not even meant by its author! I would call it: if you have a Queen, sacrifice it! So, my way of working on the puzzles in this book became the following:
Step 1: Do you have a Queen? (answer: yes in 90% of cases)
Step 2: If yes, look how to sacrifice it! Unfortunately, it worked with me in 80% of cases. Only sometimes the Queen goes only on second move, versus on the very first one in majority of cases...
Well, what I would expect is a little less obvious (and trivial...) "pattern" of solving the puzzles. I would expect more of a variety, rather than a "prove correctness of a Queen sacrifice" theme.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive tome deserves space on any chess bookshelf.
Review: You will not fly through this book quickly. These puzzles could keep you busy for months, or possibly much longer. This is an excellent tool for improving the skills for chessplaying. See how many problems you can solve without consulting the solution page. Sleep on the difficult problems, the satisfaction comes when you find that right move! Note that the solution page gives only the first move of the winning sequence. YOU must find the follow up. This could be a problem for a beginning player. (If you're really stuck try this: load the position into a PC chess program, or a dedicated electronic chess board, and solve for mate). This book will make you think along the lines of finding the conclusive and strongest moves when looking at a chess position. The stronger players "see" more at the board. These puzzles will help you do that. This BIG hardcover book will last. At a time when many flimsy paperback chess books are going for twenty dollars or more, t! his book is a value.
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