An incomplete bible

A few months ago, I was planning an endgame course at my local club. I based my course almost entirely on Silman's endgame course, but I wanted to include a bishop+knight mate, which Silman doesn't cover. And accidentally, I stumbled across a book which does cover this endgame. So I decided to take a closer look at the rest of it as well. What I found out is that the book has many other interesting topics, but I have some quibbles about the title. Read on to see why.

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What can you expect from this book?

The tactics bible is not your typical tactics book. Most tactics books are very heavy on puzzles, and only contain short descriptions of tactical themes. This book is the diametrical opposite. There are no traditional puzzles in the book. Instead, the book puts emphasis on examples and explanations.

In the first two chapters, Grivas presents 133 examples of games where tactics play an important role. The book starts off with the most famous games, such as the 'immortal game' (Anderssen - Kieseritzky 1851) and the 'evergreen game' (Anderssen - Dufresne 1852). The second chapter contains the majority of the games. These are sorted by – in my opinion – quite arbitrary themes, such as "the king hunt" and "defence & counter attack". The games are instructive an well annotated. But the author could just as well have used the same number of pages to present "traditional" tactics and puzzles. I am not sure if this decision is brilliant or questionable. Either way, it is decision that puts this book apart from other books.

The remaining chapters focus entirely on checkmate patterns. Chapter 3 describes the proper execution of "theoretical" checkmates (e.g. two rooks, king+queen, king+rook, two bishops, bishop+knight). Chapter 4 and 5 don't describe methods as such, but rather presents various checkmate patterns. The chapters contain about 30 named checkmate themes (e.g. Arabian mate, Greco's mate, hook mate etc). For some reason, the presentation is divided into two chapters (Ch 4: mates with heavy pieces, Ch 5: mates with minor pieces and pawns). The mating patterns are presented one by one in subsequent sections. They are first given a brief presentation followed by a few examples from games and studies. For me, these two chapters make up the best part of the book. I find it quite useful to be able to look up the name of a mating pattern and find a number of examples. However — as the author states — the names do not really matter. But I find that it can knowing the names can sometimes help the conversation about mating patterns and assist memory.

With a book title like this, expectations will be high. For me personally, I expect 'the bible' to be the definitive resource on the topic at hand. So when picking up this book, I expect it to be a one-stop guide to tactics. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The book does discuss a lot of tactics, but not the most common tactical patterns that most of us are used to (e.g. pins, forks and skewers). For me, this seems like a major omission for a book with such a bold title. Some may argue that showing tactical games (which the book does) is a better idea. I am a bit undecided on this question.

Also, for a book with such emphasis on sample games, I find it peculiar that there is no reference section or a list of players/games. So if you're looking for a particular game, you'll have to flip through the entire chapter. This is not a major issue, but another unusual decision.

What I like about this book is that it describes the proper methods for basic checkmates such as the infamous bishop+knight checkmate. Also, I like having access to more or less all known checkmate patterns collected in one volume.

Who should read this book?

If you are looking for the ultimate book on tactics, this is not what you are looking for. Instead, this book is great for getting acquainted with common mating patterns. The book is probably best for beginners, but it can also be used by intermediate players who feel the need to brush up on these issues.

About this book

Author:	Efstratios Grivas
Title:	The Tactics Bible
Type of book:	Tactics
Level:	Beginner, Intermediate

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