English Chess Forum

Howdo all again
Just wandering what Chess Puzzle Books you all have?
After categorizing some of my book collection these are the ones I currently have:
1. It's Your Move Tough Puzzles 2003 Edition
by Chris Ward
2. Jon Speelman's Chess Puzzle Books 2008 Edition
by Jon Speelman
3. 365 Ways to Checkmate 2004 Edition
by Joe Gallagher
4. The Gambit Book of Instructive Chess Puzzles 2011 Edition by Graham Burgess
5. The Times Winning Moves 1991 Edition
by Raymond Keene
6. The Times Winning Moves 2 1996 Edition
by Raymond Keene
7. The Times Winning Moves 2003 Edition
by Raymond Keene
I have two copies.
Also is there also any puzzle books that I am missing or you can recommend?

Agaard - Excelling At Combinational Play is one of mine (also his Inside The Chess Mind, though that's not a puzzle book as such)

Apologies all.
I've just found some more chess puzzle books.
They are
1. The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book 2003 Edition
by John Emms
2. Test Your Chess IQ: Grandmaster Challenge 1993 Second Edition by A.Livshitz
3. Test Your Chess 2000 Edition
by Steffen Pedersen

The Penguin Book Of Chess Positions by C H O'D Alexander (1974) was pretty good, but copies in reasonable nick may not be easy to find now.

A decade before that came Gerald Abrahams' Test Your Chess (Constable, 1963). A mixture of the quite easy and very hard, mostly somewhere in between. Usually one exact sequence has to be found, sometimes a more thorough appreciation of the possibilities of the position. The author's way of posing the question may sometimes send the reader off on a false trail.

Also arguably coming into this category are Leonard Barden's How Good Is Your Chess? (Dover paperback edition 1976, but dating originally from 1957), and Israel Horowitz's Solitaire Chess (Cornerstone Library, 1962/72).

The mammoth book of chess and polgars training manual has some good 'proper' puzzles. I enjoy the occasional mad mate in two composition where it is always designed to be the one move nobody would ever even consider, they can serve as a bit of a pre game workout to get yourself thinking in the right way but I would definitely say doing 1000 low end puzzles and building up your pattern recognition is far more useful and rewarding then spending the same amount of time agonising over 10 near impossible compositions.

Thanks Matt, John and Joey for the information.
Just realised the author of the book:
Test Your Chess IQ: Grandmaster Challenge
has a surname that sounds a bit rude "Livshitz" .

Don't know what his Christian name is, but I am glad that Stewart Reuben not typed his surname.

I wonder if there is any other chess players with rude sounding surnames.
I know there are plenty of professional footballers with rude sounding names, particularly German.
Might be worth starting a new topic on these.

Simon Rogers wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 11, 2020 1:30 pm

Might be worth starting a new topic on these.

No, please don't!

And please stop knocking my friend Stewart Reuben. I don't know how old you are, but I hope that when you are in your 80s you are as coherent as Stewart is.

SORRY. I was only joking David. I have met Stewart a number of times and have a lot of time for the guy.
I appreciate Stewart Reuben's contribution to the forum.
As I said to Justin Horton on Black Lives Matter.
ALL LIVES MATTER
I have NO intention to fall out with anyone.

I've have noticed on this forum that other people joke about his typing mistakes.
I apologise again.
ALL LIVES MATTER

Simon Rogers wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 11, 2020 4:14 pm

I've have noticed on this forum that other people joke about [Stewart Reuben's] typing mistakes.
I apologise again.

I apologise for singling you out.

I have more than a few of the books listed. All are good and worth dipping into.

Arm twisted to say which one I'd take to a desert island. '365 Ways to Checkmate' by Joe Gallagher.

Maybe if I tell Lauren Laverne that I don't want the Bible or Shakespeare '...can I get Richter's 'Chess Combination As a Fine Art' as well.'

John Nunn in the January 1993 BCM (page 26) says puzzles that are in magazines (and I must presume, also in books)
are not a good way to improve your tactical ability because you know something special is in the position and it is too easy
to spot the idea. (for John maybe, I struggle on the tougher ones, especially if it's a not mate.)

John advocates playing through complete games from an Informator and seeing
if you spot any missed shots. I agree as this method also tunes up your 'sixth sense'.

However, It is hit or miss, you may meet a run of games were nothing shows. However you will,
if done correctly, have fully studied that game and other ideas that were actually played may seep in.

Come to think of it Informators usually have a large puzzles section as well as 700+ games.

Changed mind Lauren, as many informator books as I'm allowed.

The one object you are allowed to take? That is easy, A bag of quick drying cement.

(I'll mix it with water, build a statue and I'll get rescued when they come, and they will, to pull it down.)

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 12, 2020 3:49 am

I have more than a few of the books listed. All are good and worth dipping into.

Arm twisted to say which one I'd take to a desert island. '365 Ways to Checkmate' by Joe Gallagher.

Thanks Geoff for replying.
It's one of my favourite puzzle books as well.
Joe Gallagher wrote a number of great books, which I will be starting a new topic on in the not too distant future.

Simon Rogers wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 11, 2020 1:30 pm

Thanks Matt, John and Joey for the information.
Just realised the author of the book:
Test Your Chess IQ: Grandmaster Challenge
has a surname that sounds a bit rude "Livshitz" .

Don't know what his Christian name is, but I am glad that Stewart Reuben not typed his surname.

"Livshitz, Avgust Semionovich", a trainer in the USSR sports system.

I would suggest that he might have been (or is) Jewish ("Livshits" is possibly of Yiddish origin), in which case he would not have had a "Christian name".

"Livshitz, Avgust Semionovich", a trainer in the USSR sports system.

I would suggest that he might have been (or is) Jewish ("Livshits" is possibly of Yiddish origin), in which case he would not have had a "Christian name".

Thanks for that Paul. I was wondering what the A
stood for.

The puzzle books I have which I enjoy reading the most are the Times Winning Moves books by Raymond Keene.