The best advice for chess players who want to improve quickly is: get better at tactics! Because the vast majority of amateur games is decided through tactics you will immediately start beating more opponents when you improve your tactical skills.

Improve Your Chess Tactics presents more than 700 decisive combinations from tournament practice and is a self-tutor and a sparring-partner in one. Experienced Russian chess master Yakov Neishtadt has selected those examples that have the biggest instructional value for club players.

In the first part of the book Neishtadt teaches a systematic course on the most important tactical themes. The second part consists of an exam with hundreds of tests from real-life chess, in random order so as not to give unwelcome hints on how to solve them. The solutions are not just lists of moves, but include clear, witty and instructive prose.

Content:
007 Concerning Chess Improvement, and This Book

009 The Alpha and Omega of Chess

015 Combinative Themes

016 Deflection

022 Exercises

031 Decoying

042 Exercises

049 Eliminating Defenders

052 Exercises

055 Clearing Squares and Lines

055 Clearing Squares

056 Clearing Diagonals

057 Clearing Files

057 Clearing Ranks

059 Exercises

061 Pinning and Unpinning

066 Exercises

069 Interference and Shutting-off

072 Exercises

075 Combining Themes

075 Deflection and Decoy

076 Deflection and Line Clearance

076 Deflection and Pinning

077 Deflection and Interference

078 Deflection and Clearing Squares/Lines

081 Decoying and Pinning

082 Decoy and Interference

082 Eliminating Defenders and Deflection

083 Eliminating Defenders and Decoying

084 Eliminating Defenders and Clearing Lines

084 Eliminating Defenders and Interference

085 Deflection, Decoy and Interference

085 Deflection, Eliminating Defenders and Decoying

085 Decoying, Interference and Clearing Squares

086 Eliminating Defenders, Decoying and Clearing Lines

087 Eliminating Defenders, Clearing Lines and Deflection

087 Clearing Squares, Decoying and Deflecting

089 Clearing Lines, Eliminating Defenders, Deflection and Pinning, Decoying

090 Exercises

097 Pawns on the Brink

103 Exercises

107 Miracle Saves

115 Exercises

119 Examination

119 Exercises

181 Solutions to exercises

183 Deflection (No 35-86)

197 Decoying (No 120-155)

207 Eliminating Defenders (No 163-172)

210 Clearing Squares and Lines (No 183-192)

213 Pinning and Unpinning (No 208-223)

218 Interference (No 232-245)

223 Combining Themes (No 281-310)

232 Pawns on the Brink (No 325-338)

237 Miracle Saves (No 359-380)

244 Examination (No 381-736)

369 Index of Players

377 Explanation of Symbols

379 Glossary of Terms

383 About the Author