Customer Reviews

Solving in Style

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This book seems primarily aimed at practical players, with the purpose of introducing such players to the problem-solving world. As my title indicates, I think Nunn succeeds admirably. Here are just some of the book's outstanding features: 1) Great balance between many different areas of problem-solving. Almost everything covered -- retrograde analysis, endgame studies, series-movers, helpmates, selfmates, direct mates etc. etc. (No fairy pieces, however, but I agree with this omission since if you change the pieces you don't really have a "chess problem".)
2) Perfect balance between problems to solve and problems analyzed. Solving problems are what the book's all about. On the other hand, reading through a solution is also enjoyable and often instructive. I very much like Nunn's balance between the two.
3) Unchanged since the original in 1985. Hats off again, since the common practice of making very minor changes, and then asking previous readers to waste their money on a new edition is an unfortunate one. This book admits up front that almost no changes were made.
4) An emphasis on original problems that are not likely to have been seen by many readers. I think Nunn was very wise not to bore us by further discussion of Reti's K and P v K and P study, Saavedra's ending etc. We've seen them too many times already!

You won't regret buying this book!