Impovement

I would like to discuss how to improve at chess. From what i understand the best way to improve at chess is to study tactics. Things like studying openings in depth and position come secondary. The only real way to improve your tactics is to reapetedly solve problems. A good way to do this is to use chess.com's tactics trainer. I would also recommend getting a tactics book. I've found several good book reviews on amazon.com. For players under 1600 there is Winning Chess Tactics for Junoirs. The preface of the book says to go through it 3 times and then move on to Combination Challenge when you are around 1700 (both of these are written by Lou Hays). It is still important, however, to know at least some basic stategy. I found Jeremy Silman's Complete Book of Chess Strategy to be helpful. It is also useful to more advanced players as a reference for various concepts. If you have any good suggestions on how to improve for any level player or any good book suggestions then list them here.

"Chess, 5334 Problems, Combinations, and games" is the best for tactics. If you want to improve tactically and mentally, I would highly recommend "The Tao of Chess." If you can only buy one, I would recommend the latter.

There is a very old book by Ludek Pachman called "Modern Chess Tactics". It's a 1970's book, but it's still great. You can even read it online on Google books.