Fred Reinfeld tactics book harder than his checkmate book.

I have both Fred Reinfeld's 1,001 Winning Sacrifices and Combinations and 1,001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate books.

I just wanted to ask for anyone who has both of these books also, does it seem like the tactics book is signifigantly harder than the checkmate book? It seems that way to me. In the checkmate book I'd say there's a hard problem every one or two pages. In the tactics book there's usually more than one hard problem per page.

absolutely!  I have both.

i think the brilliant ways to checkmate is really very instructive.  some (well ok many) of 1001 'tactics' come out of thin air and don't make much sense -maybe they will when i'm stronger??.  I wonder how many of them would handle being solidly scrutinized by an engine.

on the other hand- the brilliant ways to checkmate, very much seem to be, forced checkmates...

if anyone has ever run 1001 through an engine; or can address whether you they make more sense when you are a tactics superhero- I'm interested.

wow, you've got a pretty high elo. then thats why you say a problem per page (is hard).... for me; many of Brilliant checkmates are difficult.  visualization many plies ahead; even if they are forced is difficult...

Thanks for the replies Jollepa, and hey man just keep practicing and your visualization will improve before you know it.

I have so far found a few major errors in 1,001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations. One is problem 37

I spent nearly an hour a few nights ago lying in bed looking at this thing. I pretty soon discounted Bxf7 because I didn't see why Black couldn't give up the queen for a rook and bishop with Nxf7, already being three pawns ahead with a three to one majority on the queenside I might add. So I look at all these other moves "what could it be, what could it be?" I see nothing conclusive so I finally turn to the back and lo and behold he gives Bxf7 as the winning move with the line Rxf7, not even bothering with Nxf7. The next day I put it in an engine and it said after Bxf7 Black would even be a tiny bit better with Nxf7 and not Rxf7 which would be a blunder.

I've found some other errors too but so far they're solution errors, where you're still winning with the move he gives but he doesn't cover the best move from the opponent. For example problem 52 where he gives a line in which Black loses their queen resulting in a nearly 6 point advantage for White, while the best move would keep the queen and give less than a 2 point advantage for White and in that line it's much more difficult for White to find the moves that keep the advantage too.

I think one of the reasons the checkmate book is easier are the chapter headings help more. For example "queen sacrifices" ok we know what to instantly look for there. While in the tactics book the chapters can actually be misleading  because often the combinations make use of several tactics so if you just look for the specific tactic in the chapter heading you could overlook things.

yeah, I've in other books and places where the author shows a puzzle that practically doesn't earn any major material...   I think the idea is just to be 'aware' of the tactic.

as for 1001; you've inspired me to give it another look over.  its in the bathroom!  there's some gems in their for sure, very strong and unexpected combinations- and a few that are like ??.  Reinfeld didn't have an engine.

I think its good bathroom material.  I don't endlessly debate on the move- cuase its reinfeld! and it might be beyond me...  but I work on it; cause he was clever and some of them are deep and at the edge of my abilities...

Anyways- I think this MIGHT be a good philosophy to work with.  IN a real game; if you don't see it , or you don't see it accurately- you DON'T PLAY it.  and I get in more trouble for playing 'it almost works'; that kind of guessing is good for puzzles and a awful habit for games.

with reinfeld. if you don't see it- it might NOT make sense.  so its not that bad of a book to puzzle to as they are dud problems.