Tactics Book?

I'm starting to pick up books for study this summer, and didn't feeling like digging up the old best book thread, so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good tactics book. I already have Laslo Polgar's puzzle book but would like to add something else to study along with it. I need to pick up a good opening book as well (no specific openings yet, just a general guide (preferably fairly easy to read 😉)). Thanks

ive read good things about alexander alekhines "my best games of chess".ive read hes a great annotater and his games are great to improve your calculation and attacking ability(if studied in the right ways for the calculation.) im pretty sure its good for tactics in ways puzzles arent. shows how they came about and such.

For the openings...
Reuben Fine's book is great. Let me find the exact title though...
Nevermind, I remember, Reuben Fine's Ideas Behind the Chess Openings.

For tactics I hear Reinfeld's 1001 Tactical Puzzles is good
Also Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics.

For more advanced play Keres (I think) Art of the Middle Game and Silman's Reassess Your Chess are often highly recommended and when you're about 1700-2000+ Art of Attack by Vukovic is supposed to be excellent.

Oh yeah, Bobby Fischer's My 60 memorable Games.

Yasser Sierawan's Tactics is really helpful and accessable; he diagrams all positions so they don't need to be set up, and there are many tactics problem tests in the back.

Originally posted by cmsMaster
For the openings...
Reuben Fine's book is great. Let me find the exact title though...
Nevermind, I remember, Reuben Fine's Ideas Behind the Chess Openings.

For tactics I hear Reinfeld's 1001 Tactical Puzzles is good
Also Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics.

For more advanced play Keres (I think) Art of the Middle Game and Silman's Reassess Your Che ...[text shortened]... y Vukovic is supposed to be excellent.

Oh yeah, Bobby Fischer's My 60 memorable Games.

Originally posted by ark13
Yasser Sierawan's Tactics is really helpful and accessable; he diagrams all positions so they don't need to be set up, and there are many tactics problem tests in the back.

Hi Galaxy,

Like the other people have noted Yasser Seirawans book Winning Chess Tactics is excellent, I also own, Neil McDonalds very excellent book Mastering Chess Tactics (derschwarzeritter recommended) I think a few other tactics books are most excellent:

1. Winning Chess Tactics
Excellent read, covers all the major different tactics and alot of prose, Yasser is an excellent writer


2. The Art Of Checkmate
this is a must read, covers mating patterns very easy read, but in descriptive notation (descriptive is very easy to learn)

3. The Art of Sacrifice
Covers different sacrifices a must read, also in descriptive notation

4.Mastering Chess Tactics
I havent gotten to this one, but DerSchwarzeRitter recommended it to me, and he's always given me rock solid advice, he was the one who recommend 1 and 2. A little too advanced for someone like myself.

5. Chess Tactics for the Tournament player
Ive read part of this book, and its a solid read, I read Yasser Seirawans excellent book Winning Chess Tactics and this book overlaps with that quite a bit more than Id like. RahimK read the whole thing and loved it
I for one dont think its as solid as Yassers text

6. The Art of attack
tough read a little too tedious for someone of my patients, but heard it teaches you alot, I have it on pdf if anyone wants it. Youve got to be like 1800+ to understand this book.

Originally posted by GalaxyShield
I'm starting to pick up books for study this summer, and didn't feeling like digging up the old best book thread, so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good tactics book. I already have Laslo Polgar's puzzle book but would like to add something else to study along with it. I need to pick up a good opening book as well (no specific openings yet, just a general guide (preferably fairly easy to read 😉)). Thanks

Originally posted by Red Night
I know we've talked about it before, but I can't say it enough. My System by Nimzovitsch is the best chess book ever written.

Originally posted by Red Night
I know we've talked about it before, but I can't say it enough. My System by Nimzovitsch is the best chess book ever written.

"Learn Chess Tactics" is a nice tactics book by GM John Nunn.

The book contains about 300 or so problems to solve, and Nunn offers some interesting insights into the creation of certain tactics...

For example, he describes the following game played in 2002 (J. Polgar - Macieja):

Black to move (white has just played 23. Rd7




Black followed with the correct move, 23. .... Qa4 at which time Polgar immediately resigned, as she overlooked the Queen fork, attacking both of her rooks.

Why would Polgar overlook such a move?

Nunn points out that "...even this elementary case reveals an important psychological point. A fork is easier to overlook if there is something a little bit out of the ordinary about it. It is not immediately obvious that the white rooks are vulnerable to a fork: they are only undefended because the pawn on d5 interrupts the communication between them. Moreover, one 'prong' of the fork points up the board and the other points down, which often makes a fork harder to see than if both prongs point forwards into the enemy position ."



Here is the PGN of this game:

[Event "MVM Cup"]
[Site "Budapest"]
[Date "2002.08.22"]
[EventDate "2002.08.19"]
[Round "8"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Judit Polgar"]
[Black "Macieja"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2681"]
[BlackElo "2607"]
[PlyCount "46"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. Re1 Bf5 9. c4 O-O 10. Nc3 Nxc3 11. bxc3 Bxd3 12. Qxd3 dxc4 13. Qxc4 Bd6 14. Qb5 Qf6 15. Bg5 Qg6 16. c4 a6 17. Qb2 b6 18. a3 Qd3 19. Rad1 Qxc4 20.d5 Na5 21. Be7 Bxe7 22. Rxe7 Rae8 23. Rd7 Qa4 0-1

Originally posted by HomerJSimpson
my system is quite old, and Nimzowitsch seems like he doesnt have very good command of the english language, hence it takes him 2 pages to say something that should have taken him 1 or two lines. Its an ok read, he teaches a very mechanical style of chess, ie, dont move a pawn more than 3 times in the first 8 moves, dont go pawn grabbing in the openin ...[text shortened]... down a better book than My System, was voted the best chess book of the year when it came out 🙂

My book, "Secrets Of A "C" Player", is the last word on tactics.

Originally posted by GalaxyShield
I'm starting to pick up books for study this summer, and didn't feeling like digging up the old best book thread, so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good tactics book. I already have Laslo Polgar's puzzle book but would like to add something else to study along with it. I need to pick up a good opening book as well (no specific openings yet, just a general guide (preferably fairly easy to read 😉)). Thanks

Don't blame Nimzowitch for his bad English. He wrote the book in German. Mein System. My translator (Phillip Hereford) says that it is impossible to translate N. literally because of his humor, puns, etc. As i remember the book, i don't recall any humor, but that's what the man said.