Patzer's review

Which is the best chess book ever? As a chess community, we repeatedly ask this kind of question, for various categories. And one of those categories is, of course, tactics. So which is the best tactics book ever? The answer to this question depends on the playing strength of the reader. But if we consider the fact that the majority of chess players are in the middle of the bell curve, the best books should logically be among the ones written for an intermediate audience. With that said, this might be the best tactics book ever written. A bold statement, perhaps. Read on to find out why I recommend this book. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Chess tactics from scratch was originally published as Understanding Chess Tactics  – as indicated by the book's subtitle. This book is actually what inspired the now famous "woodpecker method". In his book Pu...

Modern Chess is too much concerned with things like Pawn structure. Forget it, Checkmate ends the game. This statement by Nigel Short may trigger different reactions in the chess experts of the world. Some may argue that it oversimplifies the game, since it is not possible to play for checkmate in all positions. On the other hand, it quite correctly pinpoints a major problem for beginning players in that they simply don't know how to end the game. I've seen this in our kids classes at my local club. The kids can be up a ton of material, but they don't know how to checkmate their opponent. A common piece of advice served to beginners is "do a lot of tactics". And I agree that this is a good idea. But I think we should expand on that advice and suggest that beginners (and stronger players) "do a lot of checkmates". And what better way to do this than go through a checkmate puzzle book? If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visi...

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.   If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! 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 ex...

Chess is a game filled with mistakes. And if none of the players make a mistake, the game is drawn. So eliminating your mistakes is essential for improvement. Thus far, I think most people will agree. But the main question is how you can work on eliminating or minimizing your mistakes in the most effective way. To this question, there are numerous opinions and theories. This post will be the first in a series of reviews on the topic of chess mistakes and improvement.  If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Larry Evans is a name that will be familiar to many chess enthusiasts. He was a grandmaster, won the US championship multiple times, and has written several books. But although he shares his name with the famous Evans gambit, it is not named after him. In The 10 most common chess mistakes , Evans aims to provide lessons for improving chess players by presenting...

Every chess player will sooner or later get into a grappling match with a tactics book. But which book is the best? While there is no clear and objective answer to this question, there are a few books that have a very good reputation. One of those books is 1001 Winning chess sacrifices and combinations by Fred Reinfeld. So the question is whether this book deserves a place among the "best" tactics books ever. In this review, I give my personal opinion on the matter. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? 1001 Winning chess sacrifices and combinations  - or simply "Sacs n Combos" - is one of the many chess books written by Fred Reinfeld. As mentioned in a previous review of Reinfeld's  Attack and Counterattack in Chess  (in case you didn't already know), Fred Reinfeld was an incredibly prolific writer during the 50s and 60s. Sacs n Combos...

In my previous review I mentioned how I would like to see an improved version of The Improving Chess Thinker , and that a book had recently come out that seemed to be perfectly in line with my ideas. A few months later, I have bought the book, worked through the exercises and read the prose. And finally, I am ready to give my complete review of the new book Think like a Super-GM . And I can tell you, I was not disappointed by this book. Read on to find out why you should probably get the book too. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? As the title indicates, Think like a Super-GM is a book about thinking in chess. At its core, it is a puzzle book. But it is more than that. In the chapters surrounding the puzzles, the book digs into the challenges of thinking in chess and how the thinking process differs between players of different levels. The first chapter ...

Where should you turn for tactics training? This is a frequently occuring question, not only from beginners, but also from intermediate players. Which books are suitable for your specific level, and which ones should you get? In this review, I take on a book that I suggest you do get - at least if you're at or near the beginning of your chess development. This was actually my first tactics book back in the day, and I recently reread it in order to give a proper review. I remember that I liked it the first time around and that my tactical skills improved. Although rereading it didn't contribute all that much to my learning, I still have a good impression of it. Please read on for more details. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Learn Chess Tactics is written by the one and only John Nunn, and (as the name implies) it is a tactics book. I would go as f...

“I had a fantastic position, but I couldn’t figure out what to do next!” Sound familiar? If so, then Fred Wilson’s Simple Attacking Plans was written for you. That is what is written on the back cover of this book, and that is basically what got me sold on it in the first place.  After having the book on my reading list for several years, I finally decided to read it. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? When I first heard about this book (probably on The Perpetual Chess Podcast ), I was excited. I thought it would be exactly what I needed - a book that gives me a few simple recipes that I can follow in attacking. That was not the case. The book does  provide a few general tips, but they are not very detailed. Here is a (very brief) summary: Attack f2 or f7 Attack h2 or h7 With a king in the center, open and dominate the central files Point all of your piec...

Visualization is perhaps the most important skill of a chess player. It is often said that it the ability to play through moves in your head is the strongest indicator of playing strength. I am not in a position to validate or challenge this statement, but I think we all can agree that visualization is important when it comes to chess. The question is how we can learn this crucial skill. There are, of course, many possible roads to take. One is to get a book on visualization training. And that is what I did. And of course, this review is about that book. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron!   What can you expect from this book? Chess visualization course  is not just a book. It's actually a series of books. Or, at least, it was . The book/series is self-published, so it can be difficult to track down. I have only seen the first book myself, but I read on some random site that there are actuall...

Chess is 99% tactics. At least, that’s what some people say. Whether that is correct or not does not really matter, because either way you slice it, tactics is a central aspect of chess. Especially at the patzer level, games are often decided by a missed tactic. Working through a tactics book can extend your chess vocabulary and can be great for establishing and reinforcing patterns until they become a part of your chess intuition. So for a chess player, tactics training is like going to the gym. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? As many readers probably know, Susan Polgar was born in Hungary and is currently living in the USA. Susan and her younger sisters Judit and Zsofia were all famously trained by their father László Polgár as an educational experiment as kids to become chess prodigies. And, the experiment was a success. Susan is the former women’s world ch...

Are you impressed by people who can play chess without seeing the board? For the uninitiated, this is a very impressive display of skill. But it is a skill that can be learned, and you don’t need to be a grandmaster to achieve it. The trick is to start small, with few pieces on the board - or in a diagram. In this review, I will discuss a book that can help you on the way to becoming a blindfold chess wiz.   If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? A few years ago, my chess club arranged a small chess display in a local shopping centre. One of the things we did was having someone playing blindfolded against one of the spectators. People around the table were completely blown away by this, and many even asked if it was a trick. (It’s not!) Although blindfold chess seems amazing, even impossible, to some people, it is a skill that is very attainable. I would even c...

Chess can be brutal. It seems that at any given moment your position can go from playable (or even winning) to completely lost. I am sure it hasn't happened to you, but I have certainly found myself in this uncomfortable situation many times. Even the most experienced players fall victim to this every now and then. This is but a small consolation for the suffering amateur. But the true upside is that there is something to be learned here. This is especially true when a player loses right out of the opening due to an incorrect plan or other mistakes. Danish/American trainer and author Carsten Hansen has collected a number of games in this category and put them together in no less than ten books. I have had the opportunity to read one of them and would like to share my thoughts on it with you. What can you expect from this book? A chess miniature is a chess game that ends quickly. This is perhaps a somewhat simplistic definition, but it is probably as close to a "true...

Chess is 99% tactics. This is a truism that is often repeated. I don't know if it's correct, or if it even makes sense to discuss the validity of the claim. But anyway you slice it, tactics are important. If you don't know your basic tactics, you'll get shredded on the board. A while back, I decided that I would brush up on my basic tactics. This was based partly on recommendations from various sources, and partly on inspiration from people within the Twitter chess community (shout out to all #chesspunks out there!). I don't think there is anything directly wrong with my tactical abilities, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ensure that I had a solid tactical Foundation before pursuing my more advanced studies. So I designed a training program for drilling basic tactics, drawing on a number of different books. Thus, I thought I would write another multi-book review, with focus on basic tactics books. In this review I take on the following titles: Chess ta...

You should not judge a book by its cover. I don’t think this has ever been more true about a chess book than in this case. Lev Alburt’s Chess training pocket book is an excellent book, but the cover is horrible. I first read about this book in a forum on chess.com, and one member described how he wrapped a piece of paper around the book so people on the bus wouldn’t think that he read a book about how to attract women through chess (however unrealistic that concept is). But don’t be put off by the artwork. Let’s take a look at the content instead. What can you expect from this book? According to the author, this tiny book (only 175 pages) contains the most important positions and ideas you need in order to improve as a player. The statement on the cover (”300 most important positions & ideas”) may be interpreted as an indication that the book contains all you need to know in order to become a strong player. Of course, this is not true. It is hard to disagree with the fact t...