Sacs and Combos

Every chess player will sooner or later get into a grappling match with a tactics book. But which book is the best? While there is no clear and objective answer to this question, there are a few books that have a very good reputation. One of those books is 1001 Winning chess sacrifices and combinations by Fred Reinfeld. So the question is whether this book deserves a place among the "best" tactics books ever. In this review, I give my personal opinion on the matter.

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What can you expect from this book?

1001 Winning chess sacrifices and combinations - or simply "Sacs n Combos" - is one of the many chess books written by Fred Reinfeld. As mentioned in a previous review of Reinfeld's Attack and Counterattack in Chess (in case you didn't already know), Fred Reinfeld was an incredibly prolific writer during the 50s and 60s. Sacs n Combos is one of these, first published in 1959 and republished several times. In recent years, many of Reinfeld's books have been given a facelift, and republished as a "21st Century edition". My copy is in this category and was published in 2014. 

Sacs n Combos is a very typical tactics book. The book is organized by tactical themes (pins, forks, discoveries, interference etc.). For a complete list, see the table of contents in the excerpt provided by the publisher. The book was intended as a companion to Reinfeld's 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate. In the editor's introduction to the 21st century edition (p. 4), we can read a comment on the difference between the two books:

Of course each book can be taken on its own, but together they make a wonderful collection, and cover the full range of tactical chess. You can expect some overlap between the two books, as many of the positions call for a checkmating attack on the hostile king. Here, however, checkmate is not at all a foregone conclusion (as it was in the first volume).

Each chapter is prefaced by a short introduction of about a half page (use the link above to read the introduction for the first chapter). Here, Reinfeld explains the topic briefly and comments on some different variations of the tactic - often with reference to a few puzzle positions. After that, the rest of the chapter simply consists of a number of positions for you to solve. 

The positions are presented six at a time - back to back. Since Reinfeld doesn't break this pattern, the total adds up to 1002 positions. So you actually get one free! I guess 1001 is simply a better number (likely referring the Arabian nights). The positions are numbered, and clustered according to which side has the move - first a few positions where White moves first, and then it goes over to Black. So when you work with the book, you have to make sure you check the top of the page to ensure that you don't try to solve the positon for the wrong side. I've made this mistake myself a few times.

The structure is repeated for each tactical theme, and all the solutions are given at the end of the book. This is also mentioned in the editor's introduction (p. 4):

This is mainly a book of combinative ideas, all designed to enhance your arsenal of weapons. (...) Reinfeld is determined to keep matters as simple and clean as possible. One main line is the ideal, an occasional sideline here and there, perhaps a verbal explanation or two, but that's about it. Reinfeld is determined not to get embroiled in complicated analytical variations. That's not the purpose of his book.

I like this book for the simplicity and no-nonsense structure. You solve a bunch of puzzles, check the solutions, and repeat. The six positions per page gives you a good bite-sized batch of puzzles. I have had this book on my bedside table, and usually I've solved one page (sometimes two) before turning in at night.

I have one main complaint about this book: The puzzles vary wildly (!) in difficulty. When working with the book, I usually find that five of the puzzles on the page are quite trivial, and the last one is hellishly difficult. This is not always the case, but quite often. This makes the book quite difficult to pin down in terms of target audience. For reference, my tactics rating on Lichess is about 2300.

Another issue that some may find problematic is that Reinfeld does not always give the objectively best solution. Sometimes I've come up with lines that differ from the given solution, and when checking it, I've found that Stockfish agrees. (Of course, there are also cases where I am simply wrong, but that's a me-problem.) This issue is quite common in older chess books. But since this is a "21st century edition", having computer checked lines doesn't feel like an unreasonable expectation.

The balance of the book is very clearly biased towards training positions, which places it clearly into the category of an exercise book. Of the 240 pages, 167 of them contain puzzles, and the solutions span 47 pages. In other words, 90 % of the book is dedicated to puzzles, which is a rather high proportion. This is good if you're mainly looking for puzzles, but not very good if you want deeper explanations of the tactical themes or how/when to look for them in a game.

Overall, I think Sacs n Combos is a good tactics book. It contains a large number of positions (1002 of them) , which gives you a lot of bang for your buck. It also covers all the most important tactical themes, which makes it a good place to start if you're looking to sharpen your tactical skills. If digital is your thing, then you can also find this book on chessable, where it has received very good reviews.

Who should read this book?

This is a good book (but probably not the best) for honing your tactical skills. The high proportion of puzzles (vs prose) gives you a lot of value in terms of puzzles. But the book won't give you much in the explanation department. So it's a good book for pure tactics training. As mentioned above, this books varies a bit in terms of difficulty. But the majority of the puzzles are at a level that corresponds to a playing strength of approximately 1200-1800. However, some puzzles will be challenging for even stronger players. 

About this book

Author:	Fred Reinfeld
Title:	1001 Winning chess sacrifices and combinations
Type of book:	Tactics
Level:	Beginner, Intermediate