Classic exercise books?
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The classical and hypermodern eras in the late 19th and early 20th centuries gave us many of the great instructional chess manuals: by Capablanca, Lasker, Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch, and others. Also many fine collections of chess problems. I'm curious if anyone knows of chess exercise or puzzle books from this era, or if these became popular only later as pedagogy changed and printing numerous diagrams became cheaper.
1 day ago
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#2
Earliest I know of are Reinfeld's 1001 combinations books. These are from the 1950's I think.
1 day ago
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#3
@B-Kt2
You're right the modern tactical exercise book is largely a post-WW2 phenomenon, even though its precursors existed in the 19th century in different forms, so your hypothesis (printing costs, pedagogical philosophy, etc.) seems correct. There were early exercise books, but they were different; there is a difference between chess problems/studies (very popular in the 19th century) and tactical exercises (these came later). The classical era authors you mentioned (Lasker, Capablanca, etc.) wrote "instructional manual" explaining principles through annotated games, not puzzle books "per se". The modern puzzle book era begins with Reinfeld's "1001 brilliant chess sacrifices and combinations" (1955), designed specifically for pattern recognition training. Ciao 
Good comments- thanks. The Art of The Checkmate by Renaud and Kahn (also 1950s-ish) includes some exercise sections. I haven't encountered an earlier book.
9 hrs ago
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#5
Yes, you are correct that "The Art of the Checkmate" (1947) may be one of the earliest books that classifies mating patterns into categories and includes exercise sections/quizzes for practice. There were certainly chess books in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but Renaud & Kahn's book appears to be a pioneering work in its specific approach. The book has remained influential enough that is was reissued as "The Art of Checkmate: 21th Century Edition" in modern algebraic notation, and it's still recommended alongside more recent works like Mesotten's "The Checkmate Patterns Manual - The Ultimate Guide to Winning in Chess", a Chessable course (2022). Ciao