Customer Reviews

Chess Tactics (Crowood Chess Library)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

CHESS TACTICS has it all when it comes to pins, forks, skewers, dicovered checks and all the various types of typical tactics you are likely to encounter when you play. I personally own a fair number of books on tactics and traps and have found them to be the most useful types of books in getting me actual results when I play. This book has excellent examples and tells you the principles behind each type of tactic it covers. Very good book!

Excellent! Fourteen tactical themes explained as clearly as I have ever seen! Just the right balance between clear explanatory prose and diagrams/problems.

Each of the 14 chapters is divided into 4 clearly-labeled sections: Definition and examples; How to Exploit the tactic; How to Defend against that tactic; Problems to solve. The author is British, so no problems due to translated-from-German or translated-from Russian.

307 diagrams spread over 143 pages: just the right size.

If you're already a master, you don't need this. If you've read any beginning book like Chess for Dummies you should be ready for this.

Pop quiz: What's the difference between Deflection and Decoying? If you don't know, buy the book see chapters 7 and 8. This book is quite clear on this, as it is clear throughout.

This book first came out in 1984, so the (5-star) review dated 1997 must have been about the 1984 edition. The new (current) edition just came out in March 2005, and is beautifully done. Clear diagrams, nice typeface and paper. And it has been updated to figurine algebraic notation (the most modern and readable chess notation).

This fine chess book approaches tactics in the best way I have ever seen. Each tactical idea is introduced and built on using progressive examples both from the attacker's and defender's point of view. I highly recommend it for any player over USCF 1000 rating

The best book I have read on explaining tactical motifs (with excellent examples). What really makes this boook stand out is that the author not only shows how to USE the tactical motif (that is under discussion), but at the end of each motif, he shows examples of ways those motifs can be broken or countered.
I first read this book in 1995/96 in the library and finished reading it in one sitting! When I read it, I thought "I know everything in this book" because all the tactics were easy for me to solve. However, when I went to the chess club the next day, I was crushing people in blitz who used to give me a much more difficult game. Something in all that easy explanations and easy tactics, just made it so that when I looked at a chess board, the tactics stood out clearer. My rating is around 2000 USCF these days, but this book was my first book of tactics I read (and got me into studying tactics). I recently purchased this book 4/22/11 because I wanted to own the book that did so much for my chess when I was younger. I have just finished reading it again, and I found it to be as much a pleasure the second time as it was the first.

I'm barely class C, 1410-1450, because I'm very good at checkmates and king attacks. I know about forks, pins, pile ups, etc, but am not super good at them, like most amateurs. I bought The Complete Chess Workout by Palliser, but the problems were too challenging. I was spending most of my time calculating rather than learning new patterns. I then bought Lev Alburt's Tactics For The Tournament Player. That books should have been good enough for me, but Lev is a show off and likes to give very tough examples. Had I just gone to the problems, which are easier, I would have known that book was right. Instead I thought I needed an easier book still, so I bought this one.

Chess Tactics very concisely and completely introduces each type of tactic (14 total) and typically gives 5 conceptually different ways to implement each one and 5 conceptually different ways to escape each one. Each example is labeled whose turn it is, and it is easy to cover up the explanations and try to solve the examples before reading the explanations. The 8 or so exercises that follow each tactic range from easy to hard, and some contain hints, and some lead you though the variations of a tough one bullet question at a time. It is easy to cover up all the hints and vary the difficulty level. All explanations have just the right amount of detail. The 15th chapter is Misc Problems, which I'm sure are mixed. It is the biggest chapter, though still a small portion of the book.

There are 307 diagrams total, about half of which are examples and half are exercises. Typically one or two exercises per tactic will stump me so I have to look at the answer. All the exercises are educational for me, even the easier ones. The examples chosen are truly beautiful. One of the examples is right out of The Art of the Checkmate, but repetition is good for reinforcement.

This book is very tempting to do in one sitting, though I have other responsibilities. I'm sure I'll read it twice, and hopefully score perfectly the second time.

While chess is about tactics, tactics are about memorized patterns. Do not fool yourself. You are not a computer and you do not actually calculate all 20 possible moves and 400 possible replies and then 8000 and 160000 by the end of the second whole move. Grandmasters are able to defeat masters in simultaneous games because they have patterns memorized, not because they can calculate faster. That is why I'm learning the patterns the easy way. Do calculation exercises too, but don't calculate as your only way to learn no patterns. Look the answers up.

This book is simple and straight forward in is presentation of Chess Tactics. If you read and set up each exercise on your chess board you will have a "leg up" on any opponent. If you go completely through the book and do each exercise your rating has to improve..... Great Book!

This book gets 3 stars from me only because I am a USCF rated class B tournament player. I think this book is good for the class C player and definitely good for the class D and below player. It is simple, to the point, and user friendly. Class B players and above, stay away. Oh, do not pay over $20 dollars for this book even if it is brand new. It can be obtained through USCF.