A Tactical Syllabus
A systematic study of tactics is the best preparation for finding the solution to a puzzle or the best move during a game.
The last 2 posts recommended looking at all the violent moves (Lasker) in solving a tactical puzzle when you don't know what to look for. But it is better to see the idea of the position by learning themes and typical mates. Lasker's advice can keep your score up while woking through the literature. After all, these early players had to find the combinations before they were all classified.
Most books on tactics classify positions by motifs and themes; Tal's and Khenchin's book classifies them by the pieces used.
A good first book is 1001 Brilliant Chess Sacrifices and Combinations by Fred Reinfeld
This book shows the motifs of
- pins
- forks
- double check
- overworked piece
- removing the guard (deflection)
- clearance
- interference
- queening combinations
- vulnerable first rank
- queen sacrifices
- x-ray attack
- trapped piece
- zugzwang
- miscellaneous categories like weakened castled position and defensive combinations
- Even Lev Alburt worked through this book early in his tactical training.
A good second: Chess Training Pocket Book, 300 Most Important Positions and Ideas, by Lev Alburt
This book shows the ideas by themes but also gives positions that should be known in addition to ideas.
- Back-rank weaves
- Blocking
- Building a Bridge
- Creating weakness
- Cutting off the king
- Decoy
- Deflection
- Desperado
- Discovered attack
- Double attack
- Double Check
- Exposing the king
- Fork
- Fortress
- In-between move - Zwichenzug
- Interference
- Line clearance
- Long-side defense
- mating patterns, including
- Arabian mate
- Bishop and knight mate
- Corridor mate
- Diagonal battery mate
- Diagonal mate
- Double diagonal mate
- Epaulet mate
Livshitz Test your Chess IQ Chess IQ volumes 1-3: First Challenge, Master Challenge and Grandmaster Challenge
This series has a scoring system based on the solving time of an exercise. By the end of the 3rd volume the rating seems consistent with USCF ratings (for tactics), or with the rating system for tactics on chess.com.
Tal's Winning Chess Combinations, The Secrets of Winning Chess Combinations Described and Explained by the Russian Grandmaster Mikhail Tal
This book categorizes the problems by the pieces involved rather than the themes, with chapters on:
- The Rook
- The Bishop,
- The Knight
- The Queen
- The Pawn,
- Two Rooks
- Queen and Bishop
- Queen and Knight
- Rook and Bishop
- Rook and Knight
- Two Bishops
- Two Knights
- Bishop ad Knight
- Three Pieces
The book shows basic mates at the beginning of a section, like the Arabian mate:
Then has tests later in the chapter based on these positions, usually mates in one quadrant of the board:
Recommended
Encyclopedia of Chess Middlegames [Middle Game Combinations] Matanovic, editor
This has about 1800 diagrams with positions classified by themes. If you are a practicing player, you will probably be solving a few puzzles every day, and these are good ones to know.
Averbakh Chess Tactics for Advanced Players
This has useful ideas and studies, and the theory of contacts. For instance sometimes the game is a race to connect 2 pieces and whoever does this first sometimes wins.
I also recommend the section in Laker's Manual of Chess in the functions of the pieces. This is useful for finding a combination as well as finding the right plan.
More advanced books that don't necessarily have short combinations leading to immediate material gain or mate:
Advanced
John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book
This gives puzzles with 5 levels of difficulty, and from 3 to 5 he recommends moving the pieces to solve them. Not a simple book.
Find the best Move Hort
This book is a test of strategy and evaluation as well as tactics.
