Tactics Books

TACTICS TRAINER AVAILABLE! This book is the continuation of the successful puzzle-book series, which started with the “Greatest 365 Puzzles” and “Greatest 501 Puzzles” from 2012. It was followed by “Tactics, Tactics, Tactics!” Volumes 3 and 4 which covered the best practical puzzles of 2013-2015 and the next ones of the series were the “Greatest 551 Puzzles” and the “Greatest 550 puzzles” with the combinations of 2016 and 2017. The new book contains 525 puzzles divided into 3 chapters. You will find a huge range of tactical ideas that you can use in your own games! All the puzzles have been collected from practical games throughout 2018.

Tired of being recommended to study chess tactics but the tactics in the books do not look anything like what could arise in the openings you play? So am I! Well, here is the answer: opening specific tactical exercises split up by variation from actual games. In this book, you will face hundreds of tactical positions, not only combinations but positions with tactical elements for you to solve and familiarize yourself with. This will help you be extra tactically alert when you are playing your games in this opening. This book covers all the variations of the exciting Budapest (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4) and Fajarowicz Gambits (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4). With well more than 200 positions and annotated solutions you are bound to improve your tactical eye in typical positions of these openings and learn a ton about the openings when you study the solutions.

I am not seeking glory with this book, but I certainly had to have a book in tactics! That’s the main idea of the book; to be a companion for trainers and players who seek improvement — simple but effective! The names of the mates are not important. What’s crucial is understanding and subconsciously memorising these patterns in order to recognise when they’re about to occur in a player’s own games. These mating patterns are not confined to chess problems and puzzles. As will be shown, they occur in the games of Grandmasters and even World Champions, past and present! They belong to everybody’s games, even beginners’! Each mate’s theoretical pattern is presented as a diagram, with constructed examples and actual games. It is suggested that students set-up and play through these mates from the losers’ viewpoint as well. Most difficult of all is recognising patterns when they occur horizontally (i.e., rotated 90 degrees) from the normal orientation. The key to each pattern is the status of the squares surrounding the king: which ones are obstructed, which are potential flight squares that can be controlled with the available pieces. Players are advised to know these patterns forwards, backwards and upside down!

The test positions in this instructive book cover the entire spectrum of what a modern club player should know. The reader is invited to find tactical blows, deep strategic manoeuvres, opening traps, standard endgame plans and other principles in action. The solutions rarely involve spectacular fireworks, as is the case in most chess puzzle books. Instead, you may be asked to find a quiet move or a reasoned evaluation. Solving the puzzles in this unusual and entertaining book is a most effective way to improve your chess. It will help you to develop a vital skill: the ability to take practical decision in critical moments.

The book Together with the Candidates that you are holding is firstly a book of tests with their solutions, given in the format of game fragments with detailed comments. All the tasks in this book have been taken from games of the Candidates competitions. They differ very much in their degree of complexity. I hope this will allow a wide circle of readers to find the tests corresponding to their own chess level here.

The diverse set of tactical ideas involving a single king in the finale will enable you to gain a deeper understanding of the king’s resourcefulness.

The diverse set of tactical ideas involving a single queen in the finale will enable you to gain a deeper understanding of the queen’s resourcefulness

In the fifteen chapters and 480 exercises in this book, we will encounter many subjects, for example attack, defense, surprises and hidden moves, while some chapters will be especially dedicated to four great players – Kasparov, Karpov, Fischer and Kramnik – in order to learn about their styles. The last two chapters are also of a very special kind, ‘Extraordinary Wins’, where you will see moves of the kind you won’t meet very often in life, and ‘Special Section’, with exercises requiring special instructions.

This ebook is a part of Bundle: Chess Calculation Training

TACTICS TRAINER AVAILABLE!

Improving chess tactics is crucial for many reasons including calculation skills, pattern recognition, decision-making speed, broader board vision and awareness, and confidence. The Woodpecker Method, authored by GM Axel Smith and GM Hans Tikkanen, is an innovative tactics training approach that focuses on developing these skills through repetitive and structured practice. 

The book is organized around solving over 1,100 tactical puzzles, advancing from beginner to intermediate and advanced levels. This systematic approach ensures that players can progressively build and reinforce their tactical knowledge and “re-program” their unconscious mind. They will notice a significant improvement in their games as a result.

Complicated tactics – the kind that separate tournament winners from the pack – require intuition, imagination and precision. The focus in this book is on attacking techniques and transformations. The contents include: Attacking with the Queen and Knight; The Knight on the Attack; Attacking with Bishops of Opposite Colors; Pins; Learn from the World Champions; and Exchanges & Transformations.