John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book [Paperback]

John Nunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

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. In a real game situation, a player may sometimes need to find a combination. On the other hand he may need to reject a tactical idea and simply find a good positional move. His task is to find the right move, whatever it may be. The puzzles in this book put you precisely in that situation. John Nunn, a top-class grandmaster and one of the world's best chess solvers, has selected 250 positions to test your skills to the full. In each case you are challenged to find the best move. Spectacular ideas abound in these positions, but it is for you to decide whether to go for them, or whether you would be falling into a trap. If you need them, there are hints to help you out. The book ends with a series of tests to measure your skills against those of other players.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. John Nunn has been one of the world's leading grandmasters for nearly twenty years and regularly competes in both grandmaster tournaments and domestic events. He has won four gold medals in chess Olympiads and finished sixth overall in the World Cup in 1989. He has twice won the British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Gambit Publications (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1901983080
• ISBN-13: 978-1901983081
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,560,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emms book and this are both good, August 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book (Paperback)

Unlike John Emms' "The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book," which I strongly recommend for most anybody, this is not meant to be a tactics book. A previous reviewer apparently missed the point of this book, simply comparing the number of puzzles to judge the content in those 2 books. Nunn's book deliberately keeps the reader from expecting what is coming, thereby simulating the true game environment. This approach wouldn't necessarily get your pure tactical skills up, but if you look at the benefit you will gain in your overall play, this book is definitely worth its price.

One more note...there was a comment that "Not to mention Emms is a bettr player than Nunn ever was or will be" in a previous review, but that is simply not true. John Nunn hovered around #10-15 in the world during mid-80's, while John Emms has yet to break into top 100.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining And Enlightening Treatment Of A Common Subject, March 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book (Paperback)

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.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Puzzle Book: Not Your Usual "White To Play And Mate", June 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book (Paperback)

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.