Tactical Fireworks! When released in 2002, the first volume of The Magic of Chess Tactics by FIDE Master Claus Dieter Meyer and German Grandmaster Karsten Müller was extremely popular. It was one of the first books to deal with tactics on high level. Like the first book, intended for advanced (Elo 1800+) players, this second volume puts special tactical motifs and themes under the analytical microscope. Complicated tactics – the kind that separate tournament winners from the pack – require intuition, imagination and precision. The focus in this book is on attacking techniques and transformations. The contents include: Attacking with the Queen and Knight; The Knight on the Attack; Attacking with Bishops of Opposite Colors; Pins; Learn from the World Champions; and Exchanges & Transformations. The reader will find the analysis comprehensive and challenging. Dozens of exercises help reinforce the reader’s understanding of this complex subject matter. So, roll up your sleeves and prepare to ride herd on tactical fireworks and sharpen your tactical skills.

Chess is 99% tactics. So to be a good chess player, you have to spend a lot of your training time on tactics. Although basic tactics are explained in a number good books, complicated tactics the kind that separate tournament winners from the pack require intuition, imagination and precision. The Magic of Chess Tactics helps you develop these qualities. Aimed primarily at aspiring chess players from club to master level who seriously want to improve their chess understanding, The Magic of Chess Tactics provides examples selected for both their entertainment and instructional value as well as detailed explanations and exercises. Claus Dieter Meyer, chess author and FIDE Master, is a well-known analyst and professional chess trainer. Karsten Muller is an International Grandmaster and co-author, along with Frank Lamprecht, of the highly acclaimed Secrets of Pawn Endings and œFundamental Chess Endings. "I have come to realise that there are basically two types of chess tactics. First, simple kinds of combinations you need to know when you start to play chess. I still believe they are the basis of everything. Things that computers see in a half-second. But the book is not about them. For those simple tactics, old Koblentz books are more than enough. This book is about *complicated* chess tactics, the kind you sometimes need hours of analysis just to discover the truth of the position. It's hard to see and calculate perfectly on the board; one needs intuition, imagination and precision. "It's not easy to develop these qualities but I believe that the present book, full of examples and high quality analyses, will help you achieve that objective. Welcome to the magical world of tactics!" From the Foreword by Alexei Shirov

Tactics Time 2 presents 1001 fresh and instructive positions that Tim and Anthea have assembled from real amateur chess games, leaving you able to spot relatively simple patterns like a knight fork, an overloaded piece or a weak back rank.

The best advice for chess players who want to improve quickly is: get better at tactics! Simply because the vast majority of amateur games is decided through tactics you will immediately start beating more opponents when you improve your tactical skills. Experienced Russian Grandmaster Jakov Neishtadt has selected those examples from the games of masters that have the biggest instructional value for club players. In the first part of the book Neishstadt teaches a systematic course on the most important tactical themes. The second part consist of an exam with hundreds of tests from real-life chess, in random order so as not to give unwelcome hints on how to solve them. The solutions are not just lists of moves, but include instructive prose.

Train Your Brain to Recognize Checkmates! This first book in the Mastering Mate series presents a challenge for players relatively new to chess and for readers seeking a novel and interesting set of puzzles. Books on chess tactics can overwhelm beginners and young learners. These relatively simple, carefully chosen exercises serve to illustrate the wide variety of examples of checkmate, as well as showing off the harmonious cooperation of chess pieces delivering the final blow. You will certainly learn what checkmate is and how to deliver it. And you will learn how chess pieces can coordinate their influence on the board. Every one of the 1,111 positions in this book is from an actual game. Each position has a single, unique solution. And all of the solutions have been carefully checked. Most of these problems are relatively easy, but not all of them! Indeed, many involve solutions are not completely obvious. In fact, some of the masters who played these games actually missed the mates! With Mastering Mates 1, you will fine tune your checkmate radar, with greater success and enjoyment of the royal game sure to follow!

Chess Tactics Can Be Fun! This book is an introduction to the various kinds of basic chess tactics. With instructional material, examples, and problems of all types, the subject of chess tactics is covered comprehensively. There are approximately 500 examples ranging from too easy to very difficult! Tactics are usually why most people find chess fun! This book will greatly enhance your enjoyment learning about - and benefiting from - the recurring patterns of tactics. It is well established that the study of basic tactics is probably the single most important thing any beginner can do to improve at chess. This book will help you do that!

Every club player knows the problem: the opening has ended, and now what? With this new edition of his award winning book, International Master Herman Grooten presents to amateur players a complete and structured course on how to recognize key characteristics in all types of positions and how to make use of those characteristics to choose the right plan. His teachings are based on the famous “Elements” of Wilhelm Steinitz, but Grooten has significantly expanded and updated the work of the first World Champion. He supplies many modern examples, tested in his own practice as a coach of talented youngsters. In Chess Strategy for Club Players you will learn the basic elements of positional understanding: pawn structure, piece placement, lead in development, open files, weaknesses, space advantage and king safety. You will master the art of converting a temporary plus into other, more permanent advantages. The author also explains what to do when, in a given position, the basic principles seem to point in different directions. Each chapter of this fundamental primer ends with a set of highly instructive exercises. This new 3rd edition has, besides various corrections and improvements, a new introduction and a brand-new chapter called ‘Total Control’ with new exercises.