tactics

I have never read a tactics book, I'm just born with it. But I want to read one anyway. Does anyone know of a book with every single theme where the puzzles are sorted accordning level of difficulty? Thanks

I don't want a book where every puzzle involves a queen sac and fancy stuff like that just simple puzzles but many of them.

get the cd software, Chess Tactics for Beginners

It's about 1300 puzzles, all sorted in order of difficulty and theme. If you can't understand one it gives you hints that actually help your tactical ability.
It gives you an elo rating that changes with every puzzle you solve- helps you track your progress. Finally, you don't have to thumb all the way into the last 50 pages in a book to get the correct answer.

Here is a free website that has been reccomended in the past and that I am currently and slowly working my way through: Chesstactics.org. I am also reading Winning Chess Tactics. This book was thinner than I expected and jumps pretty quickly into the more difficult problems.I would have preferred a more gradual learning curve, but I still would reccomend it as it explains the basics very well and also provides you with something to strive for.

chesstactics.org was a good site. Thanks for the tip. I actually don't like chess software so I think I will go with a book instead, if I can find one that is good.

"Chess Tactics for Champions" by Susan Polgar

I read a chess book on strategy when I started to play chess called "Power pawn chess" and I thought it was boring as hell. It was more demotivating then it was helping me. Most things on strategy and tactics that I know have I learned from watching and asking better players at my club. Has anyone actually improved a lot from studying one single book? It would be nice to hear before put any effort into this. Or is it that you are more or less born with a tactical ability. I seem to be quite good at tactics although I have never studied it.

maybe off-topic but: check out http://www.braillechess.net/puzzles.html
Without any doubt I can say that without this site I would be 100-300 points weaker right now.

Originally posted by sorrymate
I have never read a tactics book, I'm just born with it. But I want to read one anyway. Does anyone know of a book with every single theme where the puzzles are sorted accordning level of difficulty? Thanks

"303 More Tricky Chess Tactics" by Wilson and Alberston is arranged by difficulty and the theme employed is in parenthesis at the top of each diagram.

Originally posted by gaychessplayer
"303 More Tricky Chess Tactics" by Wilson and Alberston is arranged by difficulty and the theme employed is in parenthesis at the top of each diagram.

I have a few of the Wilson and Alberston 303 books. They are handy because of their size and large clear diagrams, but they are prone to errors due to bad editing. All in all good books for the money though, IMO.

As far as online, I have come to like the following site very much:

http://chess.emrald.net/

I have bought a puzzle book now called Imagination in chess with many puzzles. The only downside is that it does not explain any themes but it is orderd by difficulty though.

Has anyone read "How To Calculate Chess Tactics" by Beim . .something? I thought this was an interesting book too but the question if there is anything to learn from?

Originally posted by sorrymate
Has anyone actually improved a lot from studying one single book?

While not tactics... I definately feel I'm improving reading The Amateur Mind by Silman.

Yes I have seen it at the library and looked at it a little. It seems like a good book but as you said doesn't help very much to improve tactics 😉