Sharpen Your Tactics

Rating:
Summary: ruined by poor publication
Review: The printing is so poor, the diagrams so small that it defeats the value of the exercises. Yet the appendix with the listing of the sources is very large print (why not make that the small print?). If I had seen the book first, I would never have bought it.

Rating:
Summary: Sharpen Your Tactics
Review: This book contains approximately 1000 problems of varying difficulty. I am still working my way through it, but have noticed both an improvement in my play and attitude toward the game since beginning it. (As result I am organizing my approach to the game.) I like the fact that the problem level varies throughout, so I do not get discouraged when I miss a couple of hard problems in a row. I also like how problems on a similar theme are placed close together to emphasize the theme in one's mind.

Rating:
Summary: Good - Especially for the 10 a day course
Review: This book is brilliant for providing the material for the only true way to improve your chess, practising 10 problems a day. However when compared with the other 10 a day book 'Combination Challenge' it only draws level. This is because although the problems are more ordered than Combination Challenge (which I started before I lost it) they lack the sparkle and can get pretty 'samey'. However it is much easier to get stuck into SYT than CC and so it is equal, if not better to CC, and so it deserves 5*. To use the cliche chess is 99% tatics and so this book should be in every players bookcase. This is the one book I could say would DEFINITELY improve your chess as after I started it I came third at a chess tournament and won several 'En Passant Trophy' club games against higher rated opponents, due to tatics.

Rating:
Summary: TACTICS! TACTICS!
Review: This is the best chess book you can own and not use a chess board (except for Logical Chess: Move by move by Chernev). A few minutes every day keeps the chess juices flowing and my chess strength is moving up after a 11 year gap of ANY playing. Tough problems? You better believe it but when you work through them, you will find yourself seeing the chess board in a new way! I'm on a U.S. Navy ship and when I'm out to sea, this is the book that I read every night before I turn the light out in my rack. While this book is very short on words, read those words carefully! Lou Hays gives good advice. Don't see the answer after a while, look it up! Go through the book two or three times and then use it as a refresher book that sits in your reading room!

Rating:
Summary: DEVELOP CHESS SENSE
Review: You can keep this book on your bed side table, in your brief case, in your desk drawer --- you don't need a board and pieces to study a little whenever you have a few minutes. The positions are graded from one to three stars in order of difficulty, and will benefit everyone from novice to master. This is an excellent book and a few minutes a day will greatly enhance your tactical ability, which is, for those of us in the beginner to intermediate category, the heart of the matter.