Oh one more question. I live in New York and have played (and spoken with) a lot of strong players and one thing they seem to have in common is a reverence for the Anthology of Chess Combinations, which I understand in its earlier incarnations was called The Encyclopedia of the Middle Game. I know there's a third edition out now. Has anyone seen it, used it? Is $50 better spent on chess software?

B.

Never even heard of it. If it's just a puzzle book, it's not worth $50 unless it has a HUGE number of puzzles in it. Off the top of my head, I know books you can buy that would give you around 8500 puzzles for that much money, or there are web sites where you can find tons of puzzles for free.

--Fromper

They are selling the Polgar book with like 5500 puzzles for $15 at the local bookstore. I thought that was a deal but I had purchased it a few years ago at $18 and used to solve puzzles whenever I got a chance. They seemed pretty easy though. That was probably the first puzzle book I ever bought.

Crash

Where do you play in NY?

The Village Chess Shop .... Can't afford the Marshall Club just yet!

I'll be going back to St. Johns in a few days in Queens so I'm looking for some places to play. I plan to play in the parks which should be interesting. Can anyone come play at The Village Chess Shop?

Yeah ... It's on Thompson, close to Washington Square Park. You do have to pay $1.50 an hour to play ... $2.00 an hour if you use a house clock. And you have to buy their tiny cups of coffee (can't bring your own) for $1.00. It's cheaper than a movie, or a night out ....

B.

See

http://www.sahovski.com/products/acc/index.php

Sahovski is the publisher of the ECO series, Endgame books, and middlegame books.
The books may not be what you think. Normally, the books contain positions of games played during the last 6 months, or the past year (Grandmaster play).

A better source:
Chess Puzzles by GMs
Grandmaster middle and endgame play, listed by player.
You can have puzzles sent to your mailbox.

Another source: For beginners and Intermediates:
Chess Puzzles

Daily puzzles:
Daily Chess Puzzles

Also
Chess Puzzles

CHESS by L. Polgar is a training manual for beginners to Intermediates. The book has just been revised.

Middle Game books:
How to Play the Middle Game by Znosko Borovsky is still available. (Dover).
The Middle Game of Chess - A classic by Reuben Fine.
How Not to Play Chess - Znosko Borovsky also.

Recent books:
Attack With Tal has recently been released.

The shop is now 24/7.