Looking for Trouble

I almost passed this one up but I'm sure glad I didn't. As a player rated in the 1600 - 1800 range, I'm often frustrated to see a "crushing" win swept away in one careless move. I get so wrapped up in my own plans that I often ignore those of my opponent. Ugh! Although it is easy to say "always try to understand what your opponent's move was threatening before making your move", I tend to play fast and impatiently (even when not in any time trouble). Heisman's book is great because it forces you to solve the problems in 2 stages - identify the threat, then figure out the remedy. By working on these, I found that I started to automatically look more carefully at my opponent's moves. Heisman's examples also include some very common themes so I suspect "imprinting" these "tactical images" into my brain will also do me good. Great stuff! By the way, as an earlier reviewer pointed out, I found that even some of the so-called easy challenges were sometimes difficult.

I did not think I could ever find a book to learn what chess is about, well at least one of the most important things in the game. Yes, chess is about making threats and stop them, and this book teaches how to do that in a very instructive way. If we ever want to become strong chess players, it is of essential nature learning to see our opponent's threats and meet them appropriately. What you will find in this book is a very clear explanation about threats and how we can deal with them, and then a lot of excercises to train your mind and eye to find the threats on the chess board. This is the firs book I know that deviates from the traditional way of "White to play and win". Stop loosing games because you did not see your opponent's threat, get this book and become stronger. I really liked it.

"Looking for Trouble" is a collection of 200+ chess positions that are mostly tactical in nature. What separates this book from other similar works are the extensive and helpful verbal annotations, and the fact that it's not "White to move and win", but instead: "Avoid the threat and find the best move". Working through this book feels more like playing a real game than playing through a normal collection of tactical problems, and is surprisingly fun.One of the main benefits of this book is that it helps you to establish a better thinking process. After you worked through all the puzzles, your first thought while playing a game will be "What is his threat?", which is exactly how it should be.The positions themselves are also very instructive: Taken from real games, sorted into openings, middle game and endgame sections and assigned an estimated difficulty (* to *****).My only criticism is that the author recommends this book to players rated as low as 1200. I'm rated 1700 and found most of these puzzles to be quite challenging. I think a 1200 player would be overwhelmed by the difficulty of most positions, though he will likely still benefit from learning how to think better.

I'll start off by stating that I am a novice-intermediate level player who has several chess books and a training CD to boot!. (Fred Reinfeld, Complete Chess player, Chess for Dummies, Burgess Mammoth book of chess). With the exception of Chess for Dummies, they all look nice on my shelf. Everytime I pick up Burgess or Reinfeld I lose interest quickly. This book by Heisman has me hooked ! To me, it's much more useful than "Find mate in 2 " problems. It teaches you to think about what your oppenent is up to (threat) and how to (and not to ) respond. In essence, play CHESS. My copy is already worn and battered up a bit..like all my other favorite paperbacks.

Few chess books address defensive play. Those that do are difficult to read. Books on offensive tactical play are available at all levels, but that has not been true for defensive play. Dan Heisman's book offers novices help in this important aspect of chess play. The book is divided into three main sections, each dealing with the three divisions of chess games: openings, middlegames, and endings. Problems - readable and solvable - are presented to train your thinking and help you recognize impending danger.I have Dan Heisman's other books and like his writings. They are clear and understandable for someone at my level (USCF 1100). In response to the prior review I must say that this book is not recycled material. I do not know Heisman and have no idea what he is like as a person. However, ad hominem attacks are out of place. This is a book review. Are you going to avoid Alekhine's works because of his Nazi sympathies? Will you fail to read Fisher because of his personality?