What are the best chess puzzle books...

What are the best chess puzzles books for someone rated 1250 - 1400?

Something lively and that does not announce "mate in two" or "knight fork." so that you feel like you are in the middle of a game without being told what to look for.

And also is there an easy book on the middle game? Every middle game book I hear about sounds impossibly hard.

Thanks.

Grit

Originally posted by grit
What are the best chess puzzles books for someone rated 1250 - 1400?

Something lively and that does not announce "mate in two" or "knight fork." so that you feel like you are in the middle of a game without being told what to look for.

And also is there an easy book on the middle game? Every middle game book I hear about sounds impossibly hard.

Thanks.

Grit

Polgar: Chess

I agree the Polgar book Chess is what I would also recommend.

I also notice Grit that we were supposed to recommend a book without telling you knight fork or mate so that kinda makes our recommendations look like we didn`t read the question.

The great thing about this Polgar book is that you don`t need more than one chess book in your collection simply read this book once if you wanna gain HUNDREDS of rating points.

Blokh - Combinational Motifs. A great computer program CTART 3.0 is based on tactical problems from this book.

Hi Gundel.

Together let us examine the original question.

"What are the best chess puzzles books for someone rated 1250 - 1400?"

So you tell him about some 'quick fix' and totally pointless Elmer Fudd website. 😕

I also draw your attention to the Grit post stating he does not like CT art.

"I have CT Art and find it hard to figure out the way it tries to give you hints or
help. I just can't figure out all those little green squares or red ones, and then
when I mess up a little small game appears for me to solve. It is supposed to
relate to the problem I had in the full screen CT Art. But it just not help me at this
point.

I just don't get it.
Can anyone point me to a manual or explanation of the way this works? "

Grit posted that on 13th November 2008.
You were a member then, Can't you remember it?

Thread 103594

"Tips for young players" by Saddler is a nice easy to read book. Anyway, priority for you should be tactics right now. i don't know what book to recommend, but online there is Chess Tactics Server.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi Gundel.

Together let us examine the original question.

"What are the best chess puzzles [b]books for someone rated 1250 - 1400?"

[/b]

all due respect, GP.. but what's wrong with suggesting a sw (or a website)? that might as well be helpful... given that all RHP players play *online* chess using a PC, why not suggest a sw or a website! let grit chose what suits him best, without dissing someone just because it's not a book, but a sw or a website..

if this qualifies as 'puzzle' might as well suggest CTS (http://chess.emrald.net/index.php) that's been endorsed by other RHPers

The Encyclopedia of Chess Middlegames.

Memorize it.

Originally posted by grit
What are the best chess puzzles books for someone rated 1250 - 1400?

Something lively and that does not announce "mate in two" or "knight fork." so that you feel like you are in the middle of a game without being told what to look for.

And also is there an easy book on the middle game? Every middle game book I hear about sounds impossibly hard.

Thanks.

Grit

Practical chess exercises,Ray Cheng.
Not just tactics though,it has everything,endgames,openings,tactics,positional themes,defense,attack.
600 positions,6 positions each lefthand page,6 solutions each righthand page.No hints!!

It's my bedside book 🙂

Thanks to you all for your help.

As for "green" whatever your name is, my question in 2008 about ct art was when I was a new player. And it was a sincere question. I don't believe sincere questions should be mocked or rediculed by "seasoned players.". As a matter of fact, I don't think anyone should be mocked.

Grit

Originally posted by grit
Thanks to you all for your help.

As for "green" whatever your name is, my question in 2008 about ct art was when I was a new player. And it was a sincere question. I don't believe sincere questions should be mocked or rediculed by "seasoned players.". As a matter of fact, I don't think anyone should be mocked.

Grit

If I had a stick I would poke you.

Originally posted by grit
What are the best chess puzzles books for someone rated 1250 - 1400?

Something lively and that does not announce "mate in two" or "knight fork." so that you feel like you are in the middle of a game without being told what to look for.

And also is there an easy book on the middle game? Every middle game book I hear about sounds impossibly hard.

Thanks.

Grit

If you haven't already done so, I think you'd benefit by reading over Dan Heisman's "Recommended Chess Books" web page:

http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Events_Books/General_Book_Guide.htm

Also be sure to read his two related Novice Nook articles linked on that page titled "Chess Books and Prerequisites" and "An Improvement Plan". The two links are near the top of the page, just underneath the Amazon cart logo.

Having given "Dan the Man" a blatant plug, I'll now throw in my maybe worthless 1.5 cents.

First, I'm assuming when you say "puzzle books", you really mean tactics books to learn tactics patterns, and not just for the pleasure of solving chess puzzles? (I think there's a difference.)

I suspect there's not an easily determined "best" book. Every one of them has plusses and minuses. Most of them give some kind of hint to the solution. None of them has all the tactics you'll ultimately need to learn. (Dan lists seven books needed to get you close to the 2000 tactics goal.) Probably most tactics books are far from "lively".

I've only gone through three tactics books:

1) Bain's "Chess Tactics for Students". Pretty easy, it was a good start for a novice like me. Not too many typos. Not a huge number of positions, so you'll want to get more books after this one. Gives major hints, so you'll have to work at ignoring them. (Maybe cover the hints with an index card or something.) I plugged the positions and answers into my freeware Scid database program (lots of work) so that I can have the positions pop up with no hints. You can set Scid so that it doesn't show you the answer until you're ready for it.

2) Woolum's "The Chess Tactics Workbook". I think it has more positions than Bain's book, but it had too many mate problems to suit my taste, and it had too many typos, imho. I didn't care for this one.

3) Heisman's "Back to Basics: Tactics". Not a huge number of problems, but what is there was carefully selected for maximum benefit. A good section on counting near the beginning of the book that you probably won't see anywhere else. Not too many mates (that's a good thing); The types of tactics are fairly representative of what you'd see in actual games. Despite that fact that it's not a big, thick book, I liked this one a lot. (Edit- I forgot to mention that this book does give hints. Book sections are by tactical motif, and positions will say something like "White to play and win a pawn", or something similar. But I didn't think the hints detracted much from the learning experience.)

Probably next on my list will be Coakley's "Winning Chess Exercises for Kids".
....No, I'm not joking.....Yes, I'm serious. Despite the turn-off title and the juvenile, cutesy-pie illustrations, Dan states, "Possibly the best 'intermediate' book to test the tactics for players of all ages! Highly recommended." I've seen the innards of the book. Hints? Nine positions to a page, three of them are labeled as "mate", three labeled as "material", and three labeled as "best move". Don't confuse this book with Coakley's other two books, Winning Chess Strategy for Kids (easier) and Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids (much easier). The "Exercises" book may be a bit of a stretch for me, as it's an intermediate book. Dan claims that some of the positions near the end give even him a hard time, and he's around 2200!

Middlegame books? Sorry, no comment, I haven't really read any of those yet. But the two Novice Nook articles that I mentioned have some decent advice on this topic.

Good luck, I hope you find some books to your liking.

Originally posted by toeternitoe
Practical chess exercises,Ray Cheng.
Not just tactics though,it has everything,endgames,openings,tactics,positional themes,defense,attack.
600 positions,6 positions each lefthand page,6 solutions each righthand page.No hints!!

It's my bedside book 🙂

That one I consider a double-edged sword.

It contains lots of examples of amateur games, which is a great practical exercise..but the positional problems are a bit questionable for me.

I think that if you're at the level where you would benefit from lots of positions from amateur games, you're probably not going to benefit from a positional problem that doesn't go into considerable detail explaining why a certain positional move is called for.


That being said, the book is a mainstay in my bathroom library.

Hi Renars, Grit and most likely Gundel.

Have I really got to put a smiley after everything I write?

(The lad asked for a book - he was given a website. Thought I'd have some fun.)

Jeesy-peeps some people have skin as thin as eggshells.

OK serious answer.

Grit. Buy the Polgar book or any of the books Mad Rook recommends.
It's a human nature thing.

If you go to a free website where is the obligation and motivation?
It's free.

If you spend hard cash some part of you will be saying
it's foolish to buy a book and not read it.*

Also from time to time you will see the book on your shelf even when you
are not looking for it and it will be a wee reminder that it needs finishing.

Solve from the diagram, if you get stuck then set up the position,
still stuck? Then move the bits about.

Under no circumstances do you give up and look at the solution.

If you do that you might as well have a book full of final mate postions...



....without the moves for you to find leading up it.

And don't stick the position into a box to get it to show you the solution.
What have you learned doing that?

Still stuck - post the position, and ask for a clue. **


*
I and 100's of other players on this site have dozens of chess books we have
never read. With me it's mostly opening books on openings I'll never play.

I pick them up for 50p or so in junk shops (where some of them they really belong).
I read the introduction and that's it.

Books deicated to solving tactical puzzles I will always work my through.
And I never peek.

**
So what do I do if I'm stuck.
Yes some of these things are hard, especially if it's not tactical and
just looking for a postional plus.

I select a move I know I would have played. Stick with it and then look.
If I'm wrong. I'm wrong.
I suppose then I should I play out my move v a box and see how wrong I am.
But I don't.

Has anyone ever used The Times Winning Chess Moves by Jacob and Keane? Any good? How difficult?

Thanks,

Grit