Quality Chess Puzzle Book (hc)

Nothing is more important in chess than tactical skill - it is the foundation of all playing strength. In any game, no matter how great the opening preparation or profound the strategy, there will always be a moment when tactics are needed. Thus, a tough tactical workout is essential for players of every level who wish to improve. The Quality Chess team has spent years gathering puzzles that are perfect for this task, with almost all of them coming from games played after 2000.

The Quality Chess Puzzle Book starts with less difficult thematic combinations, then moves on to various scenarios where tactics arise such as in Endgames, Defence, Positions with Pawn Promotions and even the games of Vassily Ivanchuk, before ending with the appropriately named Brain Crushers, where the reader's challenge is made more realistic by puzzles where the crash-bang-wallop moment is a few moves in the future. The solver still has to find the one correct move, but the answer will rarely be Bxh7+.

• Ideal for developing tactical skill
• Entertaining and educational
• 735 challenging puzzles - almost exclusively from the 21st century

John Shaw is a grandmaster and Chief Editor of Quality Chess. He has been Scottish Champion three times.