For everyone who asks, It's "Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games" by Laszlo Polgar (father of the famous Polgar sisters). It's odd that nobody's actually naming it outright, but rather just saying 'It's in the link!'

If you are struggling to see the relevancy of these mate-in-2 puzzles, just understand that difficult calculation is extremely helpful no matter how likely it is that you will actually see anything like the wacky compositions you will find in this book. Especially for beginners like me, I think what's great about solving mate-in-2 compositions is that you can practice difficult calculation and visualization without being overwhelmed with figuring out an objective or evaluating a position. Before centering my training around the 5334 Polgar and Practical Chess Endings by Keres, I used to be completely overwhelmed by chess books. The difficult part for me was that many combinations found in books have lines that are not "forced", and I would end up spending so much time tediously refuting the irrelevant variations with a board or with an engine because I didn't have the capacity to do so in my head. Mate-in-2 puzzles on top of pawn endgames really opened up my training because I was able to practice difficult calculation while I only had to evaluate whether I had mate or whether I had a queen. After months of exclusively using these books as my training, I'm finding it much easier to read my other books now that two-move calculation with multiple pieces on the board is not so much of a hurdle. Calculation helps you gain a much deeper understanding and appreciation for positions found in chess training, and in my opinion any type of calculation practice will benefit your training regardless of how relevant it will be to your actual games.

I've gone through 1925 of the mates so far as part of the program, and I completely agree that it's exhausting. That level 2 thinking though really does beef up a muscle that you don't actually get to work when doing the puzzle rushes of the world instead. I'm a big fan of this book.

Super informative,Jesse. Level 1 and Level 2 thinking, stuff I subconsciously know, but do not really appreciate. Thank you for putting it into a very practical perspective.

I just bought a bunch of books and tagged you guys on Twitter the other day! Thank you so much for the inspiration to buckle down and start studying the right way :)

I had this book as a kid and hated it because in my mind if I'm up 30 points of material, who cares if I find the mate in 2. I figured I'll mate my opponent anyway. 25 years later, I finally see just how valuable it is. I'm picking up a copy today. Thanks for the video!

I have the Hard Cover version. I was gifted this back in the 90s and it’s amazing. It’s so good. I can say it’s one of the single most instructive books I own.

Awesome info and well explained. Thanks

I just ordered my first two chess books and this book was one of them thanks to your recommendation, so thanks again!

Just what I needed Jesse. I was tempted to message you guys but this video answers the question. I have done 6 sessions with this book so far and once I got to the mate in 2s I keep having thoughts in the back of my head like, this is pointless I can easily win here, oh look I can do it in 3 instead of 2 what's the point or I would never play this way in a real game. I was just starting to notice I was starting to see the squares my pieces had control of better and therefore where the king is cut off. Funnily enough I found I had the most progress in that aspect when I set up a problem wrong on my board. I spent like 90min determined to work this thing out. Then checked the diagram again and realized 2 pieces were on the wrong rank lol. It is good to know that you mention this and other things as a benefit despite the often-weird positions. So I will stick with this book until completion (of the mates at least) and see how it goes. Hopefuly it helps me get better. Cheers.

I love the way he calmly explains !

I avoided buying this book for years for some of the reasons that Jesse mentioned on this video. It's great for training calculation!

I worked through the bulk of this book as a kid and attribute a large amount of my chess ability to it. I watched this video thinking oh surely i will remember these at least subconsciously...and was shocked at how hard i find them (still) now! Clearly a sign i should take it off my shelf and review, maybe in subsets with some woodpecker method. Thanks for dispelling the illusion i had that i had "graduated" from this book.

OK, you convinced me to work through the book ;) But I think, apart from the book, this video has amazing advice for chess improvement and thinking in general. When I first saw the book I rejected it, thinking "meh, this are just basic mate in 1, 2 or 3 puzzles, I can get that with any puzzle website". But I think I underestimated how important it is to drill this concepts and how hard even simple patterns can be, if you have many options to choose from. This is better training for beginner-intermediate players than buying fancy opening or strategy books. Calculation and visualization are the fundamentals that you need to work on first

Amazing, ty for the video

I bought this book for my son when it came out. His favorite book. It made him a scholastic beast.

Years ago I bought Polgar's massive hardcover book shortly after it was released. I wanted to have it at work so I could do some positions at lunch, but it was just too heavy to carry to work every day. I was very happy when the smaller paperback version was released, as it made it much easier. I have since given that paperback version to a young player at my club, as I now have it on Kindle. I am so glad they finally released the Kindle version of this book. My aching back is also happy. I also have the Middlegame and Endgame big hardcover books as well, but sadly there is no Kindle versions of those.

Thats a great video!

Great video!

Great video. Beautiful mates in 2.

I am currently at almost 1700. At first I thought the tasks are quite easy, but when the mate in two composition started I slowed down in solving these a lot. I really underestimate how hard a mate in two problem can be. I have no idea when I will ever finish this book

Great video as always, I have a question, how many of them should we do per day? I know that more is better but how much time of our total training time should be trained on this topic?

Thank you Jesse, for another great video

This book will be my next purchase, once I digest the Woodpecker Method.

I don't understand that item about "box around the king". What do I do with that?

Thank you sir for the amazing instructive content, I have a question.. how much time should I put to each puzzle as I believe making a time limit for each puzzle improves calculations speed but it only consumes more energy.

wow I spent so long on that last one... took 2 hrs.. finally got it

So I just got this book and can confirm, it's hard exhausting work. So far done the first 370.

I just received a signed copy of Polgar's book! I don't think the seller realized it was signed based on the low price I got it for! I had a copy before but lost it in a work reassignment move. This is a most valuable book!

What chess book is it?

"When we came down from trees and evolved from monkey's"...WOW, Speechless! 🤣

What would be the best way to work with that book ?

Is that a Patapsco State Park hat?!

Jesse! I need to know! I quoted that study so many times. How was it debunked? Do you have a link?

Which rating range would you recommend this book to?

For Kahneman, "system 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control". In his "Thinking Fast and Slow" book, he proceeds to give "find a strong move in chess (if you are a chess master)" as an example of such thinking. Wouldn't it be limited to coming up with good _candidate_ moves? To me chess is typically system 2 thinking, except maybe when blitzing an opening or playing a simple technical endgame. Are there really moments when we/you just play intuitively?

Is there a difference to this book compared to things like The Checkmate patterns manual (Chessable), CT-ART ( mobileapplication), or other puzzle books, like the woodpecker (I guess that would be way harder)?

Flea Bass.

Kraai is it the Old Testament or New Testament?

I don’t call it slice and dice, I call it the „blind spots of the queen“

Very important tips! Is there any book that you would suggest for a complete beginner to read before starting the training program from the 1st level (0-400)?

Where can I join this program?

Alex Colovic said Kasparyan's Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies was an important part of his becoming a GM. I'd wager slogging through tons of hard puzzles is a common theme in the backgrounds of GMs.

I've been watching the Wesley game and I'm glad I saw the combination! Qxf7 Kxf7 Bc4 Kf6 Nxe4 Kf5 g4 Kxe4 Re1 Kf3 Re3#

i've never heard of anyone who has finished this book

Please, what is the title of the book?

Decided to do 300 a day , maybe was a mistake 😅

Anyone think Jessie looks and sounds like Bradley Whitford from Get Out?

What's the name of the book?

I just checked out the Dojo with a view to maybe signing up. Does anyone know where on the site there is an overview of what they are offering for the various levels? It looks like you just have to pay up in advance and hope that what you have paid for will be good..

first! And yes that's a great book!

8:00

Zugzwang: You gotta move, bro.

I once did about 60,000 mates in 2 over 18 months. Chess Tempo.

we don't seem to get the solution to the last puzzle..

what's this person's name?

I have Lazlo's Tome, and while it's great to have over 5000 problems in one place, outside of it's quantity, the quality is just average. I'm an old-timer, who learned tactics from the books by Chernev, Reinfeld and Horowitz -- not the best, but quite adequate. And I became a pretty good tactical monster, getting to over 2000 USCF OTB. BUT, I never really developed a good strategical approach to the game and, while I could confuse and dazzle class players, I was easy prey to most players >2100. In every game, at every position, I looked for a tactical continuation... yeah, captures, checks, threats, yada yada yada. I became the living embodiment of that old saying, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem will begin to look like a nail."

Qd5 for the last one?

Bible

On the fourth puzzle, why not Qb8 Ka5 (forced), Nb3 mate in two? Oops never mind. Blk K x rook.

The thing I don't understand is even if I don't find the mate in 2 I'm still going to win these positions being up so much material. So whether I win in 2 moves or win in 10 does it really matter?

My like button is broken or something so I kept pressing it...hopefully it takes it as 20 likes! 🤔 👍

What the fuck!???, where is the the name of that book!??

Main thing I took away from the video. In German "zugzwang" means "you gotta move, bro!"

Hello,I like your videos very much but, when you said as if we come from monkeys,I got sad, because we come from God not from any kind of animal!SOme of us ask worse than any animal on earth.God Bless,very good chess videos!,,

First of all, much respect Jesse and your sensei brethren, for making great content and posting for all on KZfaq, even those of us not yet in the Dojo! You're doing a great service for the chess community. On your recommendation, I bought 5334 and am at about 1500 complete of the 5334. Question: I feel that doing the puzzles which are "studies" isn't such a good use of my time, while the ones that resemble more or less balanced middlegame positions do feel worthwhile. My point is, solving a mate in 2 of a lone king vs. overwhelming material seems not so valuable, since the position is completely winning already. I feel that doing tactics from other sources (like Neishtadt's book or the Blokh book you recommended in another video) is more worthwhile, since these positions come from actual games. The way I understand your position is, the 5334 mates force you to calculate precisely. I get that, but do you think it should definitely be done in conjunction with these other tactics sources, or that those real game based positions will be sufficient to improve calculation?

The name of the book ?