Is "5334 Chess problems" worth buying?

Greetings everyone,

I'm pretty new to chess. Only a handful of games played. I've been lurking on these forums and have seen recommendations to review games, play tactics/puzzles, and read some books.

I'm at the point where I'd like to purchase a book to supplement my learning and improve my game (like I said, I'm very new). 

 

At this point in my journey, do you think it would be beneficial to buy "5334 chess problems, combinations and games"? I've seen this book recommended but am not sure if I should dive into it or if my time would be better spent studying other books for the time being.

Any advice for my course of action is very appreciated. Thanks a lot everyone. 

hey thanks for the reply. Have you used this book before?

Some people talk about the book here:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-5334-problems-combinations-and-games

 

Buy? Why?

Yes, I have the book, it's definitely worth it. Maybe not as packed with instruction, but it helps your tactics a lot and firmly embeds just about all tactical patterns into your brain. As a new player, starting from the beginning of the book with simple mate in 1s, 2s, and progressing on will help you see the board and its pieces a whole much better. As you improve the combinations and miniatures are a great source of entertainment, but covering up the moves and predicting the tactics is even better. There are a lot of other books that are good for beginners, but at some point you should absolutely get the book. 

hey thanks for the insightful comment!

hey thanks a lot for your response! Are there any specific themes on the tactics trainer I should be focused on? 

I have the book, but don't bother with the mate in 2s, even though they are half the book. There are also other books like the woodpecker method(I use it, but you could try the easy ones.), and you could try it. The puzzles are good on chess.com, but I recommend not having a theme because it makes it less effective

If you want to ignore this comment, do so because I am 12 years old and in year 7

Yes, it is worth buying. It worked for the Polgar sisters.

It’s a good book. The mates in 2 and 3 are not as easy as they sound as a lot are open positions with many possible variations to work out in your head. Great for helping you calculate. I would do a few a day and supplement it with other tactic books/sites.

i own & like that polgar puzzle book:  would suggest a diamond membership with unlimited lessons & puzzles over that, though... for reading material instead, jeremy silman's 2 books:  'how to reassess your chess' & 'complete endgame course' are probably the 2 most beneficial books for laying a solid foundation for one's positional & technical game.

"Is "5334 Chess problems" worth buying?"

Why would you buy a book when you can have unlimited puzzles and lessons on lichess.org for free?

That's my reaction to the title.

 

@tjayy81 said in #1:

"Greetings everyone,

I'm pretty new to chess. Only a handful of games played. I've been lurking on these forums and have seen recommendations to review games, play tactics/puzzles, and read some books.

I'm at the point where I'd like to purchase a book to supplement my learning and improve my game (like I said, I'm very new).

 

At this point in my journey, do you think it would be beneficial to buy "5334 chess problems, combinations and games"? I've seen this book recommended but am not sure if I should dive into it or if my time would be better spent studying other books for the time being.

Any advice for my course of action is very appreciated. Thanks a lot everyone."

 

I say you can never study too much, but what aspects of chess does the book cover (endgame, tactics, middle game, calculation, etc.)?

No, I would not purchase "5334" at your stage.  A more basic understanding of tactics and pattern recognition of tactics is what is called for.  I strongly strongly recommend either Bain, Chess Tactics for Students (which has been a classic for 20 years) or the very recently published Giannatos, Everyone's First Chess Workbook.

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

I recommend Jeff Coakley chess books for kids.  

Hi thanks for your comment. Do you recommend those books for adults too? 

Here's what Dan Heisman says about Coackley's books:

[Coackley is a] wonderful author with four books I recommend, starting out with two that feature fun (and not necessarily easy) board vision - and other - puzzles: Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids Vol 1 and Vol 2. His Winning Chess Strategy for Kids is on the best primers on strategy and positional chess (for all ages), including a great writeup explaining Steinitz' Rules. Finally, his Winning Chess Exercises for Kids is, in my humble opinion, the best intermediate (rating 1600+) puzzle book ever written. It runs rings around a similar book, Reinfeld's classic 1,001 Chess Combinations and Sacrifices - compare and see! Be warned about Coakley's books - they aren't just for kids! Jeff's titles can mislead you into thinking they are much easier than they are....

Coackley's books are great, and they present adult material in a way that's very kid friendly.  But  despite the cartoons, etc., it's not simple beginner stuff.   For folks U1000, practice with tactics and board vision is needed much more than knowledge about strategy.  (Proof: look at your last 10 losses, and see how many of those losses were caused by missing easy or semi-easy tactics, or hanging pieces -- I'm betting that the number is at least 9).  Thus, my recommendation above: Bain, Chess Tactics for Students (which has been a classic for over 20 years) or the newly published Giannatos, Everyone's First Chess Workbook.

The 5334 book’s best attribute is as a large source of compositional mates-in-2’s —more than 2000 in total, more than any other source of which I am aware— which help teach strategic and thematic thinking in the simplest manner possible … a 2-move decisive sequence, but the first move is a “quiet” set-up move (neither a check nor capture).

It is also good for the 600 attacking games, 100 each that focus on the various squares in the two ranks in front of the castles king.

The 144 endgames are a decent number.

The rest of what it offers (306 mates-in-1’s, 1500 or so of the more “standard” middlegame mates-in-2’s and 744 mates-in-3’s that begin with an obvious forcing move, and 128 combinations) alone is not enough to justify getting it in this digital age, where you can get exponentially more of the same online or in apps.

Chess.com platinum membership has given me the best bang for bucks. Also Chessbrah series Building Habits on YouTube. If I could go back to a year ago when I started that's all I would do

Definately worth it, GM Kraai said this is the book that helped him get GM title, you can check that video on Youtube, currently going through it, its amazing.