Book Review: Chess Traps, Pitfalls, and Swindles by Horowitz and Reinfeld

I've been doing a lot of video blogging lately, and decided for a change of pace to post a review of a book that I recently finished going through.

I recently happened upon this book at a local used book store and after looking briefly at a page or two decided to buy it for the nominal price of $4. Let me tell you, after going completely through this book from 1954 (my copy is a reprint from 1971), I was simply amazed at some of the creativity that has happened when the chips were down. I noticed in particular that there has been such a huge change in the way that chess is played since the writing of this book. Since this was before the era of Rybka and Fritz, all of the analysis is purely human-checked. This is both good and bad. The quality of the games in Chess Traps, Pitfalls, and Swindles are markedly lower, but they are much easier to appreciate precisely because these kinds of magnificent combinations simply don't show up as much due to computer-style play becoming prevalent, even at the lower levels. It was also nice to see famous players, such as Alekhine, falling into carefully laid traps from time to time.

This book is as much about psychology as it is about playing chess. It always seems that the most creative ideas come out of defensive play when there is nothing left to lose. Chess Traps, Pitfalls, and Swindles really delivers on some of the more astounding ones played prior to the printing of the book. I really enjoyed reading through it, and the resulting enjoyment is already beginning to manifest itself in my play (I began reading it just prior to the last two games against George Eichhorn). I would strongly recommend reading through it if you ever get the chance.

Amazon link to this book

Pros: Entertaining anecdotes, highly creative solutions to practical problems, just enough variations given to prove the point without feeling bogged down in variations, easy to read.

Cons: Written in older descriptive notation, a rather quick read.

Verdict: 4.5/5.0