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.

Content:
004 Key to Symbols used

005 Sources

007 Chapter 1 - Introduction

019 Chapter 2 - Contributions from our Readers

031 Chapter 3 - Thematic Combinations

079 Chapter 4 - Simple but not Easy

127 Chapter 5 - Missed Opportunities

145 Chapter 6 - Ivanchuk

159 Chapter 7 - Blitz Games

167 Chapter 8 - Winning the Endgame

187 Chapter 9 - European Team Championship 2009

201 Chapter 10 - Drawing the Endgame

213 Chapter 11 - Puzzles with Two Solutions

223 Chapter 12 - Defence

241 Chapter 13 - Puzzles with Pawn Promotion

257 Chapter 14 - More Missed Opportunities

277 Chapter 15 - Brain Crushers

343 Index of illustrative positions

344 Index of Players in the Puzzles