by Zenon Franco, 288pp. (Gambit Publications, 2010)

1001 chess puzzles with solutions

Read an excerpt here

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 practise 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 Franco has searched recent events and used powerful computers to seek out previously unpublished puzzles, and has also drawn extensively upon Latin American sources that he has been scouring for brilliant examples over the last three decades.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.

 

Zenon Franco is a grandmaster from Paraguay who now lives in Spain. He is an experienced chess trainer, his most notable former pupil being Paco Vallejo, now one of the world's top grandmasters.