303 Tricky Chess Tactics

well i will not write so much here, the book is realy nice, packed with many nice tactics. every page you get a setup and you have to figure it out how to win. i use this book in the morning before go work to wake up my thinking muscles. great book period.

This book is not for anyone rated at or above the FIDE or USCF Expert level or above (1900-2000), because anyone at that level knows the material presented in the text.However, for the FIDE or USCF Class E to Class A player, these tactical problem sets should help boost basic chess tactical ability.

Wonderfully ingenious!These 303 tactical positions emerge from actual play and will prove both educational and challenging for both the beginning and intermediate chess player. Even expert players can sharpen their skills by solving these clever puzzles.This is a great practice book for beginners and intermediate players to learn the essential elements of forks, pins, discoveries, skewers, mating attacks and even swindles! The final section on how to save a lost position is worth its weight in gold. Presented here are some miraculous escapes in forcing a draw out of a lost position. Chess players especially appreciate a good swindle!The tactical concepts of pins, forks, skewers and mates are well presented in a preface to every chapter elucidating the fundamental concepts of tactical chess and then challenging the reader to find the winning move using those concepts. I look forward to additional tactical works from these great chess teachers. I would especially like a follow up work from them on tactics for intermediate to expert players. This volume whets the appetite. Feast on these pins, forks and swindles for now!

Although there are "only" 303 problems, they are well chosen and representative of their respective themes. Skewers, pins, forks, and the usual suspects are all there in progressively more difficult examples. The diagrams are not tiny, cramped drawings like you might find in those 1000+ monster collections and the solutions are easy to look up without seeing accidentally seeing the solutions to other problems. Combined with the slender size of the book, the diagrams and easy-to-find solutions make this a very convenient book to carry around. I am a rated USCF player with an OTB rating that ranges from 1750-1850 and found most of the problems rather simple but NOT trivial - these are problems and combinations that are far more likely to be encountered in my games (and yours?) than some of those amazing 5-8 move stunners. I like the quick, practical review this book gives me and would recommend it. There are tons of great tactic books out there but keep in mind this one.

For beginning and intermediate players, this book is a great help. The diagrams are large, and within each section they progress from relatively easy to somewhat difficult.The weakness of this book is that the tactics are all divided into categories. I would prefer to not have the artificial advantage of knowing that I'm looking for a pin, or a fork, etc.