Author: Albert Silver
Date: 07:13:51 07/22/99
Go up one level in this thread
On July 21, 1999 at 00:52:20, Jerry Creed wrote:
>Would appreciate comments as to the value of these books for studying
>tactics and additional suggestions.
>
> "Winning Chess Tactics (Road to Chess Mastery)"
> Bill Robertie;
>
??? Is this the same Bill Robertie who was 2-time world BACKGAMMON champion?
Never heard he played chess. Then again, Ken Smith, a master, was World Poker
Champion, so who's to say?
<Snipped the rest>
>Thanks, jcreed@snip.net
Essentially, books on tactics fall into two categories:
1) Primers which explain the mechanics of the various tactical devices, coupled
with examples and some exercises.
2) Collections of tactical exercises.
For the first, make sure the explanations are clear and make sense to you. Chess
literature is full of crazy long-winded explanations for simple things. The same
goes if you are looking for a book for someone else.
As for the latter, just make sure that the level of the exercises is
appropriate. If they are too easy, you may feel like a god, but your chess won't
be going anywhere, and if they are too hard, frustration may end up killing your
ambition and motivation.
The point is to provide you with the means to judge yourself whether these books
fulfill your needs. Personally, I grew up tactically on 4 books: "Lecons de
Tactique" by Yaacov Neishtadt (an excellent primer), and Test Your Chess IQ 1,
2, and 3, by Livshitz (published by Pergamon, Cadogan, or whatever they are
calling themselves nowadays). If you are already 1600-1700 or above then i
highly recommend Livshitz's books as they are superbly organized, and provide
excellent self-motivation.
If you are just looking for ready to solve exercises, and aren't too picky on
difficulty, then there is no need to buy a book. There are a number of tactical
suites, with excellent positions, designed to test a computer program's prowess.
On Dann Corbit's FTP site you can find a number, including an ECM suite with
more than 7000 positions (or so I understand) to resolve.
Albert Silver
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