Can You Be a Tactical Chess Genius? [Paperback]

James Plaskett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002

Grandmaster James Plaskett, a player with renowned tactical ability, has carefully assembled an abundance of tactical chess puzzles to test players of all levels.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Test your tactical chess skills with a quiz book with a difference! Grandmaster James Plaskett, a player of distinguished tactical ability, has carefully assembled an abundance of chess puzzles to test players of all levels. At the beginning of each chapter the puzzles are relatively easy, worth five points for a correct solution. However as you move on they become more and more difficult, soon becoming worth ten points and eventually 15. If you get stuck, do not despair as help is at hand! You can "ask a grandmaster" to obtain the guidance you need.However, use this option carefully, as it will cost you some of your hard-earned points. You can also obtain points for finding the basic idea of the solution without necessarily working out all the refinements. Either on your own or with friends, this book will provide hours of brain-teasing enjoyment. (6 1/4 x 9 1/4, 144 pages, diagrams)

About the Author

James Plaskett is one of Britain¿s most talented and imaginative grandmasters. A former British Champion, his sharp and uncompromising play has won him many admirers over the years. Plaskett is also an experienced writer; his earlier works include Sicilian Taimanov and Sicilian Grand Prix Attack (both published by Everyman).

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Everyman Chess; 1st edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857442598
• ISBN-13: 978-1857442595
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,016,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Challenging positions, good annotations, poor scoring system, August 9, 2002

By 

Igor Khmelnitsky (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Can You Be a Tactical Chess Genius? (Paperback)

I have a mixed feelings about this book. Unfortunately, the negatives slightly outweigh positive. GM Plaskett put together a series of 12 tests, each with 15 diagrams. You get points based on accuracy and depth of your analysis. There is a "hint" feature which will cost you points.

Suggested readers level -
In my opinion players rated under 2000 should look for other books as majority of testing positions will be a frustrating experience. Don't get me wrong, even 1600 rated would benefit from working through author's answers to many "15 point" problems, however, the value of such a lesson is not that great.

Quality of Positions and Annotations -
VERY GOOD. Mainly, the positions were unfamiliar to me. Many from GM Plaskett's own games. Been a player or a witness, he has some additional angle to the annotations. This increases value of notes and also brings some fun.

Scoring system -
POOR - my biggest complain with this book - scoring is way too simplistic. In many cases I believe scores don't correspond to relative difficulties of positions. "Price" for hint is outrages, comparing to the actual help you get. For example for 15 point problem (T#3, P#15) - rook endgame - question ask how Black can use his pass pawn. Hint will cost you 6 points and you will find out that you should consider
"advancing the pawn at all costs". I would expect this to be initial thought of anyone who read the question and studied the problem. So hint doesn't bring anything new to the table, yet takes away 40% of maximum points. Finally, when you do finish the test, study the solutions and get your overall score, what are you suppose to do with it? There is no relative strength table or anything else that would help you to measure your result.

Accuracy of presentation -
AVERAGE - I have only been through one test so far, but already I saw a diagram (T#1, P#9) with a "ghost" knight. I also run into the position (T#1, P#11) that specifically claimed to have only one solution - mate in 5 and asked you to find it. However, even without PC help, I found another solution (in his solution -play 3.Rf7+ and 4.Be5# or 4.Bc7#)

Overall, good testing book for higher rated player 2000+. Especially, if he has several friends with similar ratings to compare results with. Lower rated players and beginners, consider something else, for example Emms' Ultimate Puzzle book or Hall's Combination Challenge.

Good luck,
Copyrighted by me!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Want to be stronger at Chess tactics & Combinations, December 14, 2005

By 

Only_In_Manhattan__ (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Can You Be a Tactical Chess Genius? (Paperback)

I bought this book specifically to improve my middle-game play.
I wanted to improve my tactical vision and better calculate tactics. My rating is USCF 2180.

This book is excellent because
1) there aren't any long unncessary write-ups like , "Here I played White ,etc,etc". Pure mental training
2) Exercizes are gradual : simple at first, then not so simple and then really hard to see it all
3) you can progress throught the book, divided in 12 chapters. see how you rate on chapter 1 ( scoring system provided ), and on chapter 7, and compare.

Also, I like the fact that if there is a wrong move, or alternate variation, the author will explain why such move fails. Each exercize is reviewed by a strong GM with several variations detailed if needed.

I did find some isolated cases where I went to the computer to check additional defensive moves not covered , or typo in diagram/solution. This covers less than 10% of the examples though.
Finally, there are a lot of Plaskett own games which I didn't know about, or positions taken from interesting games played in opens. The selection is original but covers most tactical themes.
This is a book for someone who knows about themes ( forks,double attack, Pawn destruction, quiet moves ) but wants to get closer to International master level.

All in all, a book I recommend highly for anyone -with Elo/Rating > 1900- eager to improve in chess tactics.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice text, for training... hard puzzle, January 16, 2009

By 

Norberto Martel Gutierrez "Franco Martel" (Honduras) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Can You Be a Tactical Chess Genius? (Paperback)

how does th book works?
This kind of book is just to keep in shape trying to resolve the problem. this helps for lines calculation.. If you want to improve skill, resolved chess puzzles

About the puzzle there are all level, Every Text has 15 puzzle, increasing the dificult. Accourding your analysis its gave points.

There are nice diagram and nice quality paper.

About th author?
Not famous, but is a strong player, in the book are few games against Miles and Short that he won with tactical hit.

Beginer player try to find the moves, even if your scored not too many points, try to remenber the moves accourding the approach, not memorized. And you could enjoy this item.

Intermediate player or higther... Just Go for it. Try to resolve puzzles how many you can and enjoy it.