I had a co-worker once who downloaded a chess application on her phone -- it was a series of mate puzzles as far as I could tell. Anyway there was one mate in 3 that had her stumped, and she asked me if I could solve it. I must have spent 30 minutes on it and finally after looking at about every logical line and move order I realized it had to be a mate 4. When I got home I ran it through my cpu, and sure enough it was a mate in 4. Sometimes these things happen, in books they're rare, I'd expect to find about 1 mistake every 1-2 thousand puzzles in a book, so I'm guessing your daughter had that one picked out in particular.
Blind to checkmate
Sort:
Jun 17, 2010
0
#3
orangehonda wrote:
Sometimes these things happen, in books they're rare, I'd expect to find about 1 mistake every 1-2 thousand puzzles in a book, so I'm guessing your daughter had that one picked out in particular.
She wouldn't know if it were mate in two or three. She just got lucky enough to pick a puzzle that was published incorrectly. 
As far as I'm concerned, the best book available on checkmating is the ridiculously named "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess," which has nothing whatsoever to do with teaching juniors how to move the horsey, like you'd figure it does. Instead, it's 50 common but not necessarily intuitive checkmating patterns that come up over and over again in practice. Good explanations and plenty of helpful diagrams.
If I could go back in time and make it my first real chess book, I would.
As a bonus, it's cheap.
The downside is, if you want to read it in public, you almost have to cover it up with duct tape or something, because as ridiculous as it sounds, it looks even worse. But it's a real gem inside.
Read that, then return to Polgar. Your investment in the 5334 problems won't be wasted.
Jun 17, 2010
0
#5
MrTeacup wrote:
As far as I'm concerned, the best book available on checkmating is the ridiculously named "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess," which has nothing whatsoever to do with teaching juniors how to move the horsey, like you'd figure it does. Instead, it's 50 common but not necessarily intuitive checkmating patterns that come up over and over again in practice. Good explanations and plenty of helpful diagrams.
If I could go back in time and make it my first real chess book, I would.
As a bonus, it's cheap.
The downside is, if you want to read it in public, you almost have to cover it up with duct tape or something, because as ridiculous as it sounds, it looks even worse. But it's a real gem inside.
Read that, then return to Polgar. Your investment in the 5334 problems won't be wasted. 
I bought "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" for my daughter. Time to borrow a book from her private collection! I forgot all about that little book. Thanks!!
Jun 18, 2010
0
#6
I bought "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" for my daughter.
Sounds like that won't be too hard for her to achieve if you miss so many #1s! 
lol Just a joke.
There are actually some problems that are checkmate quicker than a computer usually suggests unless it has hours to study it. I have found a few very strange positions that a computer can't work out. I wouldn't say that it wouldn't work it out but it doesn't, in realistic terms it's pointless spending 30 minutes to find a checkmate in 2 when there is an obvious checkmate in 4 that you can find within 1-minute.
Most of these puzzles are not so much about teaching you how to actually find the quickest checkmate but instead teaching you how to recognise when a position can produce a winning variation and is therefore worth thinking 'out the box' to find it. It's all about training your mind to recognise positions and calculate accurately. Most chess games actually end by resignation due to a tactical line which wins material or is due to force mate so learning how to consider such positions accurately is the idea of problem books.
A
Actually, if you're missing mate in one type problems, you can probably start even simpler than "How to beat your dad" and then jump into it profitably. The really elementary stuff like back rank mates, two rooks vs a lone king, queen and bishop vs lone king, etc., can probably be found for a quick tutorial on google.
Look up "basic checkmates" or something, and click links till you find a nice one. After that, the book, and Polgar, will come to you quickly.
I think it is good to study basic mating patterns before mate in one problem.
I like recently published "Basic Checkmate Patterns" by Torsten B. Mattsson.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GOLLZJO/
I just want to scream! I'm blind to checkmates!!
After move 29 the computer tells me I had a forced mate continuation in a 10 minute blitz game. I missed about TEN forced mates. I even had a mate in one with 7 seconds on the clock, but couldn't find it with 43. Qe2#!
I don't like my new chess book, Chess - 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games by Laszlo Polgar. A big, fat 1104 page book.
My daughter turned the page to problem 2600 and asked me to solve it. After about one hour I gave up and ran it through Fritz. Polgar said it was a mate in two problem, but Fritz told me it was mate in three!
Also, the answer key in the back only shows the first move for both mate in two and mate in three problems. There may as well not be no answer key, as I could run any problem through Fritz.
No matter, this answer key does not work when you are not near a computer, sitting in a doctor's office or in some long line killing time! Arg!!
So, what is your favorite book on checkmates?