Good puzzle books

I just finished the woodpecker method and am looking for a sequel with similar difficulty to the intermediate puzzles. Any advice?

What a nice method!

Maybe https://fr.chesstempo.com/chess-tactics/

I have references in french, as the book from Sylvain Landry (la tactique aux échecs)

There is a Woodpecker 2 due out this year. Otherwise the Quality Chess Puzzle book is good, though maybe slightly higher level. Understanding Chess Tactics is good too, as is Tacticmania, despite the cover. All are by Quality Chess.

Thanks

Have a look at this series:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CNZD74W9?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_cl_3&storeType=ebooks

This is a series of tactics puzzle books, each with 1001 exercises. Each book is aimed at a narrow Elo range . For example book 4 is aimed at 100-200 Elo, book 5 is 200-300 etc, book 17 is 1400-1500. The final book is book 27, 2400 to 2500 Elo.

Each book is £5, or about $6.

Thanks for this recomendation, IpswichMatt. This series looks like it's worth a shot. I realize that there's always the excellent CT-Art on my phone, but I do get tired of screens. I like the idea of a paperback that I can carry with me on my travels, and also like that the books are divided into 100 Elo level bands. Also, six bucks is reasonable for 1,001 puzzles. I'm going to get one and give it a try.

Will do. I just ordered one from amazon, and it's scheduled to get here on Monday.

I read this topic and bought a few puzzle books by Vincent Labbé from Amazon.

They are decent puzzles, but be warned they are all selected from the Lichess database. So they are not 'original', the author just made a selection and printed it in bookform.

For me, that's a little bit of a disappointment, so I have decided to return these.

I can imagine that for some people it might be fun to have these in print, rather than having to use the Lichess website. However, I think I prefer the puzzle books where the author wants me to learn certain principles (for example Susan Polgar's Chess Tactics for Champions or Everyone's First Chess Workbook by Peter Giannatos) and are not just random puzzles.

@zephyrusid,

I agree 100% about Susan Polgar's Chess Tactics for Champions and EFCW-- they are excellent! I have worked through EFCW and the first two Polgar books on chessable, and found them to be outstanding. I also agree with you about the value of a well-curated set of puzzles designed to teach certain skills.

On the other hand, I think that there is something of value in simply looking for the best move in a situation, rather than knowing ahead of time what sort of tactic to look for. Looking for the best move without the benefit of getting tipped off about what to look for more closely resembles playing actual games.

Probably it's best to begin with material like Giannatos' EFCW and the Susan Polgar series, and Solveig Friberg's "Breaking 1000" (all available on chessable), and then supplementing with puzzles where you're entirely on your own.

As to the book vs. lichess point, I have certainly enjoyed doing puzzles on Lichess. I do like the idea, though, of a physical paperback book that I can toss in a bag, that keeps me away from electronic screens for a while.

EDIT: Oops-- I didn't work through Susan Polgar's Chess Tactics for Champions on chessable. Rather, it was her "Learn Chess the Right Way" series, books 1 (Must-Know Checkmates) and 2 (Winning Material).

I prefer Woodpecker book. Try using that