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Book Review: Manual of Chess Combinations

Manual of Chess Combinations. Ivashchenko. Russian Chess House. 2006;2002. Figurine algebraic notation.

Ivashchenko's Manual of Chess Combinations is published in 2 volumes, of which the first is split into two books, "1a" and "1b". Together, the three contain a total of 2,489 positions — 1,300 in the first volume, 1,189 in the second — organised in eleven stages.

The two volumes form part of a series falling under the rubric of "Chess School", in which Ivashchenko's work is followed by two further volumes by different authors, Chess School 3 (a supplement to "The Manual of Chess Combinations") by IM Alexander Mazja, and Chess School 4 ("The Manual of Chess Endings").

Before you is the new edition of a famous manual, based on a textbook published in the USSR inthe 1990s, for which there was an unprecedented demand from young players and their instructors.

says none other than Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in a brief preface to "1a". The author himself tells us,

This book is intended for young chess players who are taking their very first steps in this intelectual and fascinating game.

And in the preface to volume two, he writes:

our book should lead you up the rungs of chess mastery from a rating of 1600-1700, which signifies a knowlege of the rudiments of the game, to a solid level of 2200 points or more, which in practice corresponds roughly to that of candidate master.

Like many, I dare say all, works of this type, it has errors. Errors I class in three categories: C for "cooks" (a term borrowed from the endgame study) where there are two or more solutions, and where one is not obviously better than the others; B for "busts", where the solution as given is wrong because it does not include the best defence; and P for "printing errors", usually just White to move when it should be Black, or vice versa. See below for a detailed list of those I have found to date. For now, you'll need to look the positions up in your copy of the book; I will see if I can't put up diagrams at some time.

1a

Stage 1

Stage 2

174

C: Both ...Qa2+ and ...Qe2+ gain a Rook; only ...Qe2+ is given.

284, 285, 286
P: Black is given to move, it should be White.

379

P: White to move, not Black.
C: 2.Qxh5# and 2.Qg7# both mate; only 2.Qxh5# is given.

380
P: White to move, not Black.

389

B: Solution given is not mate in two: 1...Rh2+ 2.Nxh2 (Kxh2 Qh1#) Qh1+ 3.Kh3 — and now what does Black do?

Stage 3

461
P: Black to move, not White.

1b

Stage 4

Stage 5

1108

C: trivial, but 1.Nc8+ Ka8 2.Nc6 c1=Q 3.Nb6# is also a solution.

1163

C: 1...Qe3 also works.

1195

B: 2.Rgb1 avoids the mate.

1236

C: 1.Re5 works as well as 1.Rd5

1240

B: the solution given is 1.Bf4 Qh5 (1...Qc5 2.Bh6#) 2.Qc4 +-; but then 2...g5 avoids the mate, and although White is clearly a lot better, and his attack continues, there is no forced sequence leading to a clear win. The solution I found (and checked with crafty) is better:
1.Bxe7+ Rxe7 (1...Kg7 2.Bf8++ Kh8 3.Qg7#) 2.Rd8 Kg7 (2...Re8 3.Qf7#; 2...Ne8 3.Rxe8+ Kxe8 (3...Kg7 4.Rxe7+ +-) 4.Qf7#) 3.Qxe7+ +-

2

Stage 6

37

C

43

C: cooked, but trivially so: Black's first and second moves can be interchanged.

49

C

Stage 7

Stage 8

Stage 9

Stage 10

Stage 11


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