Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #520824 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-28
• Original language: Russian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 212 pages

Synopsis
A short history of the ballet and a review of Balanchine's own career as ballet master and choreographer accompany the stories of more than four hundred ballets.

Customer Reviews

It will not be exaggeration to say it is the best chess book
The book is the great boon for the chess
lovers for it immediately teaches us the way
of winning the chess games with the
help of chess combination.

Fun little book
This is a very fun book, small and green! with about 210 pages of material. Znosko-Borovsky tries to engage the reader in trying to understand what a chess combination is, how they appear, and how we can study them. The author explains very well, and the main body of this book is an examination of high level games at various points where a combination was unearthed. The real value is how the author talks you through each move in the position and explains why the combination worked. The book can be read for fun, or for instruction for 1500+ rated players. The reason why I give only 3 stars is because the chess notation used is the old english system, which is not always easy on the eyes, at least for me. Just remember this is not a book on tactics (common methods to win) but combinations, where a sacrifice is usually involved. So not all tactical methods of winning are covered here.

A Genius Book
I'm sure not many players of my generation realise it, but this study book is a classic of the earlier half of the 20th century.

It is probably one of the earliest and most original books on chess combination study and from the outset aims to define what a combination actually is and what it definitely is not ... !

The author demonstrates that in it's true sense, a combination must involve the sacrifice of material in the short term before material can either be regained at a profit or the opponent is check-mated through a series of forcing moves - This as opposed to positional and tactical manouevers that cannot rightfully fall under the "combinations umbrella".

At the beginning of the book Legal's Mate is shown as an example of how White can give up his queen for a mate in 3.

Numerous examples from all phases of the chess game are cited to demonstrate the important concept of chess combinations and the study of these.

I think that this book highlights to the intermediate chess player how they can use combinations to their advantage by using a new chess mentality - to recognise when a position is ripe for a combination!

Fisher later coined the term "sac, sac mate" which is along the same lines as Borovsky's teachings ...