John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book

Test and improve your over-the-board decision-makingMost chess puzzle books put you in an artificial situation: you are told a combination exists, what the theme is and what you are required to achieve. This one is different. In a real game, a player may sometimes need to find a combination. On the other hand he may have to reject a tactical idea and simply find a good positional move. His task is to find the right move, whatever it may be. The 300 puzzles in this book put you precisely in that situation. Spectacular ideas abound in these positions, but it is for you to decide whether to go in for them, or whether you would be falling into a trap.If you need them, there are hints to help you on your way. The book ends with a series of tests to measure your skills against those of other players.For this new edition, John Nunn, a top-class grandmaster and a solving world champion, has added 50 new puzzles (with hints and detailed solutions) to test your skills to the full. For ease of following, extra diagrams have been added to the solutions throughout. Overall the book is 60 percent bigger than the first edition.Dr John Nunn is one of the best-respected figures in world chess. He was among the world's leading grandmasters for nearly twenty years, winning four gold medals in chess Olympiads and finishing sixth overall in the World Cup in 1989. He is a much-acclaimed writer, whose works have won 'Book of the Year' awards in several countries. In 2004, 2007 and 2010 Nunn was crowned World Chess Solving Champion, ahead of many former champions."Is there anyone more qualified to write a puzzle book? ... I think puzzle books serve as a great training tool before tournaments, to sharpen up tactics and help players to get into the groove of being able to calculate some lengthy variations. I don't have a great deal of puzzle books but this is clearly the best one on my bookshelf!" - GM-elect Stephen Gordon, 3Cs Chess"I find chess puzzles to be truly intriguing and beautiful, and so a book such as Gambit's new enlarged edition of John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book is an absolute feast to fans like myself!" - GM Paul Motwani, The Scotsman"an outstanding encyclopedia of chess middlegame puzzles" - Gerhard Josten, Rochade Europa"Excellent training resource for stronger players." - Paul Dunn, Australasian Chess"I found the book both fun and informative to work through, and no doubt it can be a great tool in helping the player (strong or weak) to sharpen up his/her analytical skills. The last words, I leave to the author himself, who says in his introduction, 'Many of the worthwhile things in life involve some effort - improving your chess by going through this book is one example!'" - John Lee Shaw, Chess Check E-zine"Dr Nunn has cleverly combined entertainment, self-assessment and instruction and it is certainly the only book of its kind that I have truly learnt something from." - John Anderson, BCCA"A very good typical John Nunn book - enjoyable, enthralling, educational!" - Martin Rieger, freechess-info"As a writer John Nunn always gives value for money and this is certainly the case here. ... if playing through the positions has taught me anything at all, it is that even the most innocuous looking positions can have hidden depths and complexity, and none can be treated lightly." - Alan Sutton, En Passant"It contains more than just puzzles: there is a cogently-argued essay comparing the strength of the great masters of the past with modern players, with some surprising and challenging conclusions." - John Saunders, British Chess Magazine Read more