Lots of good tactics books recommendations for you here....
Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
Enjoy!
Beginner Tactics Book
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Thanks!
*head explodes*
May 31, 2017
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#4
Having read both the Heisman and Bain books, I can't imagine just getting by on one of them. They're both good in different ways. The Bain book is a good starter tactics set, while the Heisman book gives valuable tactics information. If you held a gun to my head and said "One book only", I'd pick the Heisman book, since you can always get tactics problems from other sources.
No opinion on the Seirawan book, as I haven't read that one.
damnfinecoffee wrote:
*head explodes*
Take your time...there is no rush!
At your level (beginner-novice) there several good choices of tactics primers. All of the books you listed in your initial post are worthwhile and recommended. However one excellent choice, which I highly recommend as a first book on basic tactics is the classic....
"Winning Chess - How to Perfect Your Attacking Play" by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld
This is simply a great chess book!
When I was a beginner I used The Complete Guide to Chess Strategy by Jeremy Silman. This helps more as you'll spot more tactics eventually, but it gives a better starting point to understand important strategy. Hope that helps!
I like Chess Tactics for Champion by Polgar.
The best tactics resources are Chess Tempo, Tactics Trainer, and the Chess Steps workbooks and Chess Tutor CD's. The latter two are more than tactics, but have plenty of them.
If you absolutely want something in book format for tactics, I recommend the following 3 fantastic titles in order of preference ...
1. Predator at the Chessboard I and II by Ward Farnsworth (2 volumes, but by far the best, gradual increase in difficulty of problems, 1200 or so of them)
2. Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar
3. Back to Basics by Dan Heisman
All 3 of the above are great.
Seirawan's tactics book is good for explanations, but short on problems (137 total), and some are very difficult for a low level player.
Bain I never read, but Heisman recommends it.
If you absolutely want something in book format for tactics, I recommend the following 3 fantastic titles in order of preference ...
1. Predator at the Chessboard I and II by Ward Farnsworth (2 volumes, but by far the best, gradual increase in difficulty of problems, 1200 or so of them)
2. Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar
3. Back to Basics by Dan Heisman
All 3 of the above are great.
Seirawan's tactics book is good for explanations, but short on problems (137 total), and some are very difficult for a low level player.
Bain I never read, but Heisman recommends it.
so I used the search function, which was great, but the advice was spread out or conflicting.
From what I can gather, the following books seem commonly recommended:
Back to Basics by Heisman
Winning Chess Tactics by Seirawan
Chess Tactics for Students by Bain
If you were to get just one, which would it be? Or which if any would you avoid at all costs?