John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book

This is one of my favorite chess books. The heart of this book is a series of exercises. I find that puzzle books are the most effective, practical, way to improve playing strength. One of the great advantages of this book is that the author does not tell you if the problems are tactical, positional, or strategic. This is of course the most practical approach, as at the board no one is there to tell you which it is. I really enjoyed this book, and I can recommend it fully. It will help you improve your play.

I have to differ with a previous reviewer's misguided opinions. John Nunn's Puzzle Book is different from most puzzle books. Nunn's problems are generally much harder and less predictable; they all have lengthy solutions in which non-forced quiet moves and non-captures are frequently embedded. This isn't a collection of brilliant sacrifices where the player makes the most spectacular capture with check leading to a forced move variation; tactical drills are best sought elsewhere.I admit the publisher's advertising blurb could have been more clear ("Most chess puzzle books put you in an artificial situation: you are told a combination exists, what the theme is, and what you are required to achieve. This one is different") because, as the previous reviewer notes, "all puzzles books put you in artificial positions!" However, presumably the reader of a puzzle book - unless he's been dropped on his head as a child -knows there are combinations in the book.Nunn clearly writes "one cannot disguise the fact that there is "something" in the position, but I do not see why the challenge should be made even more artificial by giving away further information." The previous reviewer seems to think that Nunn contradicts this statement, breaking "the book's promises," by providing background comments (as well as specific hints in a separate section for the baffled) for the puzzles. However, if you can solve a problem from comments as cryptic as "White has a number of promising attacking continuations, but how can he force immediate resignation?" or "It takes some time to grasp what might be going on in this totally weird position. What should Black play, and what should the result be?" then you should be writing puzzle books, not buying them. Simply ignore the comments and look only at the diagrams if you want no "help."The previous reviewer writes "Nunn gathered the material for this book from old Informator issues and some of his own games... Do we really need a puzzle book then?" implying that the puzzles were already published and Nunn is simply repackaging them as new and his own. In fact, Nunn writes the puzzles were based on his own unpublished analysis of Informator annotations, along with personal game notes and an analysis of two tournaments (Karlsbad 1911 and 1993 Biel). The previous reviewer basically concludes that finding and solving on one's own the puzzle in any game is best and that "Puzzle books, even good ones like Nunn's, rob the reader of this discovery." Nonsense! Nothing prevents one from analyzing games on one's own - if one so chooses - in the meantime, there are a number of interesting puzzles in John Nunn's Puzzle book.

I have never seen a book of this ilk with a category called find the wrong move.In addition most puzzle books spoon feed us by describing the problem. For example find the mate or someone to play and win etc.Nunn's book tends to put the onus on the individual to think for himself.Most puzzle books tend repeat problems from other books.Quite a number of these problems I have seen for the first time.That is what makes this book truely original and unique. A great book for a player in the 1800 plus elo range. An excellent training tool for chess players.

I love solving exercises for training purposes and pure enjoyment, and I own nearly a dozen books devoted to tactical chess. So, I really needed a compelling reason to buy another tactics book. I found Nunn's treatment of tactics to be different in that Nunn's focus is on evaluation of a position, calculating and analyzing, rather than simply finding the "brilliant" or trick move that forces a mate. In other words, unlike beginner tactics books (say, Reinfeld's 1001) where there are hundreds of queen sacrifices forcing mate, Nunn's examples are more pragmatic and needing of careful calculation. Of interest is Nunn's background info on tournaments of the past - so we aren't simply solving problems out-of-context - which is fascinating. If you're a player, rated 1400-2100, you'll probably find this book extremely useful for long-term problem solving abilities. Other good books on this subject include "The Best Move" by V. Hort and Jansa, and "Test Your Tactical Ability" by Y. Neishtadt.

This is a very greate training book,even better then Yansa & Hort"Learn With GM's".I am NM,and my FIDE raiting 2300.I enjoined to solve the puzzles,and this helped me to improve my tacktical skills.The chapter"Test Of Time"also very interesting.If u want to improve your tacktical skills and to solve the really hard puzzles,buy this book immediatly