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Essential Tactics: Building a Foundation for Chess Skill
Essential Tactics explains the patterns that occur most often in chess. If you want to play chess well, understanding these patterns is a necessary foundation. These patterns are presented through 150 exercises with full and detailed solutions.
The exercises are grouped into 23 sets of varied length. Solutions immediately follow each set. Each begins with a diagram featuring colored arrows. A single green arrow shows the key move. Yellow arrows highlight threats and possible follow-up moves. These arrows cement the pattern in the reader’s mind. They also render the book accessible to readers who are still learning chess notation. Following the diagram, the solution is presented in algebraic chess notation and a prose explanation of the pattern.
Essential Tactics presents examples of and explains vital tactical concepts: pin, fork, skewer, piling on, en prise, clearance, discovery, double check, double attack, deflection, decoy, remove the defender, x-ray, weak back rank, smother mate, and underpromotion. It also shows and explains typical winning and drawing pawn endings. It highlights the concepts of opposition, outflanking, triangulation, square of the pawn, and zugzwang. These key terms are all listed in the table of contents to facilitate review.
The book was created for young players and adults who seek a practical introduction to common tactical ideas. Chess teachers who work with such players may also find it useful.
The exercises are grouped into 23 sets of varied length. Solutions immediately follow each set. Each begins with a diagram featuring colored arrows. A single green arrow shows the key move. Yellow arrows highlight threats and possible follow-up moves. These arrows cement the pattern in the reader’s mind. They also render the book accessible to readers who are still learning chess notation. Following the diagram, the solution is presented in algebraic chess notation and a prose explanation of the pattern.
Essential Tactics presents examples of and explains vital tactical concepts: pin, fork, skewer, piling on, en prise, clearance, discovery, double check, double attack, deflection, decoy, remove the defender, x-ray, weak back rank, smother mate, and underpromotion. It also shows and explains typical winning and drawing pawn endings. It highlights the concepts of opposition, outflanking, triangulation, square of the pawn, and zugzwang. These key terms are all listed in the table of contents to facilitate review.
The book was created for young players and adults who seek a practical introduction to common tactical ideas. Chess teachers who work with such players may also find it useful.
348 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 13, 2017
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