Customer Reviews

The ChessCafe Puzzle Book

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I have a large collection of books of tactics and tactical problems, but I had avoided this one because the title misled me (and at least one other person I talked to) into believing it consisted of artificial studies, whereas I prefer my problems to be from real games. When I finally saw this book at the local chess club, I was pleasantly surprised to find the positions are from real games, labeled with the player's, dates, etc.

There are 565 problems in all, organized by motif (pin, fork, etc.), with some problems further labeled with hints like "White's position looks shaky. How to make it crumble?". Most of the problems are recent, from games in the 21st century, though there are a scattering of classics all the way back to Morphy. Almost all are from GM games, which of course means the difficulty is fairly uniformly high.

Because of the high quality of the diagrams and solutions, this book has replaced Reinfeld at my bedside for motif-based practice. I also recommend "Sharpen Your Tactics" which presents 1125 problems organized by difficulty, rather than motif. I believe the approaches of these two books, both high quality, complement each other in fully rounded regime of tactical study.

This is a tactics workbook organized by tactical theme with some hint or lead by the author. Many puzzles are from top level chess. I liked the fact there is a section on drawn games and another on defensive tactics. I own several tactics books and can say that some puzzles in this book are fairly advanced but even then are useful for the improving lower rated player. Working through these problems will sharpen your skills at the board. Highly recommended for motivated players and instructors.