School of Chess Excellence 2: Tactical Play

on chess.com my rating is a bit more than 1700 and yet i can't learn anything from these books of Mr. Dvoretsky , the other reviewers got me interested and i purchased about 5 books for this author, non of them is what i had in mind as a training book.as a matter of fact i highly believe the whole book industry will vanish and will be replaced by youtube.a good chess book would probably consume few months to be read and one should have a chess set along side with the book to either see the steps of the game or solve an exercise ...in either way it will a time consuming process, video courses are much superior and easy to learn.i should return back those books.

Russian IM Dvoretsky is considered by many to be the world's best chess trainer of advanced players. This volume is about as 'easy' a text as he has written, as some of his tomes can probably only be profitably used by titled players. But this is not a tactics primer, and you will probably want to master a couple thousand or more basic tactical problems before you tackle this work. Short of having a first rate coach, a book like this is about the best you can do to improve your tactics, as you are not just solving problems, you are absorbing the wisdom obtained from Dvoretsky's decades of exposure to Russian chess culture. You are also, of course, getting the benefit of learning from such a gifted and experienced trainer. Topics include choosing candidate moves, using logic vs. using intuition, the method of elimination (a very important technique to learn), traps, paying attention to your opponents' possibilities, defense, and positional exchange sacrifices. So as you can see, there is much to be learned here that you will not get from solving tactical puzzles. Once you are adept at solving a comprehensive range of basic tactics, you owe it to yourself to tackle this challenging but highly worthwhile work. Even better yet, have your chess coach guide you through it! Good hunting!

Dvoretsky provides outstanding coverage of the process of finding, calculating and playing tactics and combinations in positions. In addition to explanations of this difficult process, he provides many exercises and their solutions to train your vision, calculation and play of tactics and combinations.

This is a great book for overall calculation skills such as calculating for a slight advantage, maintaining equality in tough positions, defense, positional sacrifices, etc. The difficulty of the problems varies, and you probably won't get all of them right. The important thing is working out calculation and visualization skills and where we're likely to err is in misevaluating the ends of the forcing variations. Other times still the best move might not even be a candidate! Most of the study comes from whole games so we know the entire context from beginning to end. In a practical game we aren't always winning so it's good to practice calculation for other situations as well.

im > 1800 uscf and this book is very difficult. These are the types of exercises I was looking for. THIS IS NOT A BEGINNER TACTICS BOOK and is IDENTICAL to "secret of Chess Tactics" by Dvoretsky So if you own one there is no need to buy this one.

Excellent Thanks!

Dvoretsky's book is for advanced players. In order to get maximum benefit one should probably have a rating of at least 2000 FIDE (app. 2100 USCF). At that level basic tactical skills would be in place. However, in order to develop further one must work with more complicated material, basically well-annotated complex tactical games.This is where Dvoretsky comes in. The book is packed with complex games and analysis of very high quality, with additional observations and succinct advice about decision-making and psychology in tactical situations. In this book chess is a very concrete game - the master-teacher is a firm believer in the power of the specific example more than in overall synthesis or general conclusions.If you are looking for quick fixes or easily digested "lessons", look elsewhere. However, if you have reached a certain level of play and are willing to put in the work (answering the training questions, doing independent analysis) its instructional value is very high.I am rated 2200 ICC standard and have gone through about half of the book. In some positions I have managed very well, but in many others I have missed some points or the main point. I know that I am relatively weak tactically so I have to remind myself that rewards will come from the very fact of trying to solve these problems.In short: a excellent book for hard-working advanced players

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