101 Checker Puzzles [With Fold-Out Checkerboard]

At 144 pages of thick high quality paper for only $7.95 retail in 2000, this book is a great value. The SPIRAL binding is great, because the book lies open flat to any page, and the binding never cracks with use and age. Any concerns that a traditional glue binding is better than spiral are unfounded, even backwards: spiral is better. It is hard for a chess player to adapt to the checkers notational scheme. I presume that experienced checkers players have learned it and therefore like it. But the cause of checkers is harmed by this needless initial learning curve, as it acts like a barrier to entry. The answers/solutions in the back of the book are written in paragraph format, with the moves buried in the text. This loosely reminds me of the silly verbal notation used by Philidor and Staunton in their now ancient chess books. But the answer explanations are good. Further each puzzle is introduced with a sentence or two that quickly orients the reader, and I found I like those sentences. At the bottom under each puzzle there is a upside-down italicized hint, that I also like. The eye does not accidently read these hints, and they are surprisingly well guaged to be helpful hints without being give-aways to the answer. The layout of the book is a little suboptimal. There is only one puzzle per page, each being 71 mm square. This left enuf room on the page for the correct first moves to the puzzle two pages earlier: but the extra space is instead left blank in the actual layout. This forces the reader to flip to the back to find the solution (disruptive and tedious). Each puzzle has a title above its two sentence introduction. Most titles tell which color in next to move: "White Paves a Winning Way", or "Black Makes White Turn Pale". But in some cases the reader must read the intro sentences to know which color is on-move, the diagrams are not decorated with that crucial info. My eyes find the kings and regular checker pieces look too similar to each other in the diagrams. Yes I can tell them apart, but it takes a bit of concentration to distinguish them that would be unnecessary with more distinctive icons. I wondered whether studying checkers puzzles would have any beneficial effects in how I might perform when studying chess puzzles. I now doubt there are any cross-over benefits. TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 Introduction 7 Description of Puzzle Format 9 Early-Game Puzzles 15 Middle-Game Puzzles 41 Endgame Puzzles 114 Answers 134 Rules of Play 138 Checkers Terminology 140 Puzzle Index (I cannot tell whether the early-game puzzles are from games using the 3-Move balloting rules or the older somewhat out-of-favor GAYP rules.) (The puzzle index, page 140, is by puzzle title.) Robert Pike is a former Massachusetts state champ under the ACF.

Solving problems of the type presented in this book is a great way to improve your game. This book helps enormously with (a) categorized problems according to game stage (opening, middle, end game) and (b) problems shown in order of difficulty. The problems are excellent, challenging, and fun to solve. Highly recommended as an adjunct to study with other books such as Pask and Reinfeld. My only criticism is small: The fold-out checker board at the end, an obvious but silly marketing gimmick, isn't even square!(Pike's other problem book, Little Giant Encyclopedia of Checker Puzzles, is also excellent.)