Customer Reviews

John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Most of the puzzles in this book are for advanced players. For instance if you get 50 % score from Nunn's test, your calculated rating is 2144. So this is a very tough chess puzzle book, players over rating 2000 will benefit most from this book. If you are below this level (1700-2000 in rating), try Emms "The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book" instead. The layout and size of this book could be better, with larger diagrams etc. as in Emms book. Therefore I give it only 4 stars.

My advice about chess books on tactical improvement depending on the rating:

900-1100 : Chess Tactics for Student
1300-1600: Winning Chess Exercises for Kids
1700-2000: The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book
2000-> : John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book.

I am a typical class C player trying to get better and I have purchased Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book and think that it is better than most chess puzzle books. Most books have sections such as "Mate - in - three" or "Queen Sacrifices" or "Pins and Skewrers". These groupings however obviously tell you what to look for and in a real chess game no one is sitting at your side and saying "there is a real nice knight fork somewhere on the board so find it"! Nunn's book also has a majority of all new problems so you won't be seeing that Reti - Tartakower queen sac and mate in three here. The only drawback is the cost. Consider also the "Chess Training Pocket Book" by Lev Alburt which does have well known problems (including the Reti - Tartakower one!) but has the advantage of throwing in postitions where there is no tactical solution but rather the position represents an important positional or endgame theme.

This is one of my favorite chess books. The heart of this book is a series of exercises. I find that puzzle books are the most effective, practical, way to improve playing strength. One of the great advantages of this book is that the author does not tell you if the problems are tactical, positional, or strategic. This is of course the most practical approach, as at the board no one is there to tell you which it is.

I really enjoyed this book, and I can recommend it fully. It will help you improve your play.

This is a very greate training book,even better then Yansa&Hort"Learn With GM's".I am NM,and my FIDE raiting 2300.I enjoined to solve the puzzles,and this helped me to improve my tacktical skills.The chapter"Test Of Time"also very interesting.If u want to improve your tacktical skills and to solve the really hard puzzles,buy this book immediatly

Hello,

I am a strong chess player with rating 2000+ and i play for my province chess team. I enjoy buying chess puzzle books, and bought almost all the chess tactics and chess puzzle books on amazon, I also a member of many chess tactic websites and got a large number of chess tactics problems that i can solve in my memory,

but to be honest it was impossible to solve any chess puzzle's in this book.

Most tactics start with: "What did the grandmaster overlooked in this position" or "what did anand miss in this position". So to give u an idea of the tactics in the book, it is tactics that grandmasters miss, So to solve any of the positions in this book u have to be a super grandmaster or a chess computer.

I would recommend this book to all 2800+ rated players wanting to impove their ratings, any other normal chess student this positions will just not make any sense. In one of his tests he gave a bonus point for seeing some queen sacriface that happen after 16 moves in a specific tactic line. If any living person can see this then what is the reason for him to buy a book to improve his chess.

These puzzles are wonderful, and they are hard. For me (USCF 20xx), even the easier ones are to be attempted only over the physical board with some serious concentration, not from the book while riding the bus. This book should not be confused with Fred Reinfeld's 1001 Combinations.

I was just proud of myself for finding five (I thought) tricky tactical moves, leading to a position in which "White's attack must be decisive." Well, it turns out that my five moves were just the lead in to the real meat of the exercise, and when you work it through another half dozen moves to the bitter end, White loses. That's the level of rigor this book requires - or, on the positive side, can help you develop.

If you are a strong club player looking for a great selection of analytical exercises, this may be the last book you'll ever need. Seriously, there is enough quality material here to last a long, long time. A little humbling, yes, but in a good way.

This is a good book. I think that Upper lever Intermediate andespecially Advanced players would benefit the most. There are bettersuited books for lower rated players. Don't be afraid to challenge Nunn's solutions. He did a good job testing the problems, but he (and Fritz) are not perfect...