Best Tactics Book

Originally posted by cmsMaster
Hey ritter, if I read Art of Attack now do you think I'd understand it and gain much from it? (Since my RHP rating is 1505)

My theory about teaching or learning chess is to go from the simple to the complex. Learn the mating patterns first, then learn attacking combinations that lead to positions where the mating patterns come into play.

Originally posted by cmsMaster
Hey ritter, if I read Art of Attack now do you think I'd understand it and gain much from it? (Since my RHP rating is 1505)

I read it around 1500, and didn't get much out of it. too much, too dense for me back then...

Yasser Seirawan - one of my favourite authors - has a book: Winning Chess Tactics that I reccommend.

If you are just looking for puzzles One Thousand and One Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations by Fred Reinfeld is good. I believe it is now in the public domain, so it's free if you can google. The downside of the book is that everything is sorted by theme and I do believe there is at least 1 error in the book.

Thing I find interesting about tactics in books or on websites is that you have a distinct advantage over an actual game in that you know the tactic / combination is there, you just have to keep looking untill you find it. In a game you can't be sure if it's there to be found or not. Consequently I tend to look harder at the puzzles than the games... when really it should be the other way round :-)

I use 'Chess Traps and Stratagems', by the reverend E E Cunnington (revised and re-written by J du Mont)
Published 1957!! (English money three shillings and sixpence)
All opening traps catered for! Anyone want info on it, let me know...

Originally posted by English Tal
I use 'Chess Traps and Stratagems', by the reverend E E Cunnington (revised and re-written by J du Mont)
Published 1957!! (English money three shillings and sixpence)
All opening traps catered for! Anyone want info on it, let me know...

Saw it recently for £14 in a secondhand book shop. Do you know of a cheaper reprint?

Reckon it's well out of print!
I quote from the very last paragraph:

'We would advise our readers to keep a scrap book containing all the interesting positions which they may encounter either in their own games or in master tournaments, and to keep them in some sort of classified order. A chess printing outfit represents a small outlay compared with the pleasure and benefit they would derive from such an original collection.'

If interested, let me know; I send you a list of contents.

Forgot to mention.
The only other book I use is:
'A Pocket Guide to.. The Chess Openings' (R C Griffith & H Golombek)
First published 1949. My personal edition reprinted 1973.