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Tactical skills are paramount in chess. More than anything else, a player's ability to find tactical solutions determines how successful he is over-the-board. No endgame scheme, opening idea or strategic plan, however brilliant a concept it may be, is of any value unless it is accurately calculated and implemented.

The best way to develop tactical skills is to practice them by tackling new and challenging positions. This book provides a wealth of chess puzzles to test just about every facet of your tactical ability. It is very unlikely that even those who have read many other chess puzzle books will recognize more than a handful of these positions. Franco has searched recent events and used powerful computers to seek out previously unpublished puzzles, and has also drawn extensively upon Latin American sources that he has been scouring for brilliant examples over the last three decades.

Following the pattern of Gambit's hugely successful Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book (by John Emms), the book begins with 100 relatively easy positions suitable for novices, and ends with 100 extremely tough puzzles, which provide a mind-bending challenge even for grandmasters. There are 1001 puzzles in all, including themed sections and graded tests, all with detailed computer-verified solutions and verbal explanations of the main instructive points.

In this highly original and instructive test yourself book Chris Ward invites readers to solve a selection of carefully chosen puzzles. In this, the second book in the 'It's Your Move' series, the positions are aimed at improving players, specifically the low level club players who are looking to hone their skills in order to climb further up the chess ladder.The reader is given a choice of five plausible plans for each position and has to decide which is the most likely to succeed.

This book will sharpen your tactical vision, deepen your positional understanding, and enrich your knowledge of theoretical positions.

Russian chess trainer Livshitz, who has had extensive experience teaching a wide range of players from novices to masters, presents here a course for developing your combinational skill, based on the recognition of tactical motifs. As you work your way through this carefully graced series of tests, themes such as 'diversion,' 'interference,' 'X-Ray,' and many more will become an integral part of your chess armoury, to be employed in your own games. Solving these positions will not only provide many hours of pleasure but will also enable you to test - and improve! - your chess IQ.

A fascinating collection of more than two hundred typical errors committed by the world's greatest players challenges you to test your skills by choosing between two moves: the right one, or the one actually played. You will be amazed at how even world champions make errors in critical situations and violate the basic principles of chess.

This book contains a collection of the most brilliant, ingenious and outrageous moves ever played by Bobby Fischer, the American who is generally acknowledged to be the greatest chess player of all time.

These 101 moves - every one a move that either forced checkmate, gained material or lead to an overwhelmingly superior position - have been selected from among all of Fischer's recorded games, most of which were were played under tournament or match conditions.

Zenon Franco guides readers through 50 top-level games, challenges them to guess key moves correctly, and poses questions at critical moments. Points are awarded for good answers, and at the end of each game, a score-chart rates the reader's performance. This material has never appeared in the English language before, and represents the pick of monthly articles that Franco has written for a quarter of a century in Spanish-language magazines, revised and rechecked for this book.