Classic Exercises in Chess: The Cumulative Principle in Problem Composition

by Alain Campbell White

This book is a collection of 100 chess compositions, along with two additional positions for each of the main positions. It explores how chess composition evolved in the early years of the 20th century to include an "accumulation" of different motifs and problem ideas in one position, rather than just lengthen the calculation.

It is an important book in that many of the positions are not in the incredible hhdbv database which has been updated to VI from V and wll be updated again in 2025, so it might now main contain these 'exercises`.

If you enjoy using studies to hone your calculation ability, you will find some unique material here.

Genres: Chess

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1915

Reviews

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have learned to love mate-in-2, 3, and 4 compositions as a way to train the skill of looking for my opponent's defenses and options. However, this book is something completely different. These are tasks, in which Black doesn't always make the best move and the idea is to perform some stunt as White. Merry-go-round (making the queen go to all four corners in the solution), and positions where there are all the possible checkmates that a queen can perform. Looking for defenses is one think, but you have to really love the "problem" side of chess for this to be a book for you. I guess it's back to the Polgar Brick Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games for Mate-in-2 and -3 training (think chin-ups, yeah that good for you and about the same amount of sweat).

I will say that my success rate with the positions in this book was terrible, but the answers are very entertaining - I just could not make myself work hard enough on them and jumped to the answers too soon for it to be good training.