Editorial Reviews:
Solving tactical puzzles is one of the most effective ways to improve your chess. This convenient book provides 300 exercises, with instructive points highlighted in the solutions. There is something here for everyone. The first 50 puzzles are based on a clear-cut tactic or checkmate, such as those explained in Gambit's best-sellers How to Beat Your Dad at Chess and Chess Tactics for Kids. The 50 endgame challenges highlight tactics and demonstrate endgame principles in action. In practice it is vital to avoid tempting but disastrous moves, and to defend resiliently, and there are innovative chapters on these rarely-covered themes. The last two sections will prove a stern challenge even for the best players, with the reader exposed to the full complexity of modern chess decision-making - though with a few helpful hints along the way. 50 of these puzzles are drawn from the 'Gambit vaults', with startling points spotted by Gambit's authors and editors over the last twelve years.

Editorial Reviews:
The advice frequently given to chess-players eager to improve their results is straightforward: study tactics! But there is often little useful guidance as to how this is best done. By solving puzzle positions? Or endgame studies? By dissecting the games of great tacticians?
Few books present a structured approach to tactics, so this book fills a valuable niche in the ambitious player's library. The authors present each major tactical theme in turn, explaining how it works and providing inspiring examples. They then explain how you can spot the idea in your own games and use it to your advantage. You immediately get a chance to put your knowledge to the test, as there are challenging exercises throughout the whole book, with detailed solutions.
The second part of the book offers more advanced material, and takes us inside the professional's tactics laboratory. Here we see how tactical themes are combined, and employed to achieve strategic goals. We are also shown how grandmasters spot the targets for their breathtaking combinations, which we thus come to see not as sheer witchcraft, but as the product of disciplined thought and training.

Editorial Reviews:
Assuming no knowledge of chess beyond the rules, Maurice Ashley guides you on an inspirational journey through the world of chess tactics. He brings the pieces to life by examining their fundamental characteristics, and shows how their powers can be put to use to win pieces or give checkmate - the building-blocks upon which all chess skills are based.
Ashley writes: "the approach is unique because it is basically me: the way I teach, the way I talk about chess, the way I think. You'll find my love for martial arts in these pages, as well as my ridiculous love for sports, story-telling and teaching." But his approach is not just entertaining: teams under Ashley's guidance have won six national junior championships. His charismatic teaching methods are the stuff of legend - and are to be the subject of a movie. This book makes his ideas and material available to all: teachers and students alike.

Editorial Reviews:
Most chess puzzle books put you in an artificial situation: you are told a combination exists, what the theme is and what you are required to achieve. This one is different. In a real game, a player may sometimes need to find a combination. On the other hand he may have to reject a tactical idea and simply find a good positional move. His task is to find the right move, whatever it may be. The 300 puzzles in this book put you precisely in that situation. Spectacular ideas abound in these positions, but it is for you to decide whether to go in for them, or whether you would be falling into a trap. If you need them, there are hints to help you on your way. The book ends with a series of tests to measure your skills against those of other players.
For this new edition, John Nunn, a top-class grandmaster and a solving world champion, has added 50 new puzzles (with hints and detailed solutions) to test your skills to the full. For ease of following, extra diagrams have been added to the solutions throughout. Overall the book is 60 per cent bigger than the first edition.

Editorial Reviews:
This book pits readers against the grandmasters by placing them in real-game situations where there is a way to defeat a well-known player. Kongsted: "Your task is to find the moves which lead to the defeat of some of the strongest players in the world. Quite often one move can change the course of the game, and calculating with precision at the right moment can mean the difference between winning and losing. Even if you have had a lost position for a long time, you may suddenly get the chance to turn things around if your opponent drops his guard for a moment." Contains 351 puzzle positions with full solutions. All positions are taken from real game positions, and the reader is challenged to find the continuation that defeated a top-class player. Includes a self-rating system.

Editorial Reviews:
Tactics based on checkmate ideas against the enemy king decide a large proportion of chess games, so it is vital to be alert to these possibilities when they occur. Joe Gallagher provides 365 checkmate puzzles to help readers sharpen their skills. In each position, the task is to find a way to force a clear-cut win. The theme is always checkmate: either the enemy king perishes, or can only be saved at a decisive cost in material. Joe Gallagher is ideally qualified to write on this subject. Throughout his career, he has been especially feared for his attacking ability and tactical skills. The puzzles, most of which have never before been published, are grouped into categories, starting with easier positions and working up to more difficult ones. Full solutions are given, and all the positions have been carefully checked for alternative solutions and for soundness of the actual solution.

Editorial Reviews:
Checkmating the enemy king is the ultimate goal in chess. In this book Simon Williams helps readers to practice and improve their skills in this vital area of practical chess. A mating attack typically involves a build-up of forces, followed by an opening of lines, often involving a sacrifice. Once the enemy king is exposed, it is either checkmated, or only saved at a great cost in material. The puzzles in this book are pertinent to all these phases, and involve questions of where to attack and what pieces to use. Topics include: Attacking the king caught in the centre; Central breakthrough; Standard sacrifices against the castled king; Chasing the king; Endgame mates; Combinative themes.

Editorial Reviews:
In this book, John Nunn, a top-class grandmaster who is also one of the world's finest solvers, explains the methods by which chess problems and studies are solved. The logical and creative methods advocated, while targeted at the solving of composed positions, may also help players find startling tactical solutions in their games. Solving in Style also constitutes an entertaining and insightful introduction to the world of problems and studies. There are chapters on series problems and other unorthodox stipulations, and also a discussion of specific themes such as the Novotny interference.

Editorial Reviews:
This book provides a wealth of puzzle positions to test just about every facet of your tactical skills. The puzzles in this book have been selected by analysing games new and old in search of original puzzle positions. It is very unlikely that even seasoned solvers will recognise many of these positions. Emms, by allying his skills with those of powerful computers, has also made every effort to ensure that the solutions are sound, and that there are no unmentioned alternative solutions. The book begins with 100 relatively easy positions suitable for novices, and ends with 100 extremely tough puzzles, which provide a mind-bending challenge even for top-class players. There are 1001 puzzles in all.

Editorial Reviews:
Very occasionally, a chess move is played that astonishes the whole world. It may be a move of astounding complexity, unearthly beauty, deep paradox... or all three. The move is discussed and analysed around the world as chess-players attempt to fathom both why the move works, and how on earth anyone thought of it in the first place. In this book John Emms has selected, from hundreds of candidates, the 200 most amazing chess moves of all time. In each case, the reader is given the chance to try to find the move for himself - making this one of the most challenging chess puzzle books ever published.

Editorial Reviews:
Most chess puzzle books put you in an artificial situation: you are told a combination exists, what the theme is and what you are required to achieve. This one is different. In a real game situation, a player may sometimes need to find a combination. On the other hand, he/she may need to reject a tactical idea and simply find a good positional move. The task is to find the right move, whatever it may be. The puzzles in this book put you in precisely that situation. John Nunn, a top-class grandmaster and one of the world's best chess solvers, has selected 250 positions to test your skills to the full. In each case you are challenged to find the right move. Spectacular ideas abound in these positions, but it is for you to decide whether to go in for them, or whether you would be falling into a trap. If you need them, there are hints to help you on your way.