Understanding Chess Tactics `Chess is 99% tactics’ is an old saying. This may be an exaggeration, but even the remaining 1% still depends on tactics. When Martin Weteschnik started working as a trainer in his local chess club, he quickly realized that even the stronger club players had great weaknesses in their tactical play. He also discovered that simply asking them to solve a huge number of puzzles did not fix the problem. These players clearly needed a good book, but when Weteschnik looked for it he found nothing suitable, so he decided to write it himself. But Weteschnik was not completely satisfied with the book and decided to restructure and rewrite it completely.
Customer Review: Understaning tactics, finally!
I’ve followed the Michael de la Maza method (he used to play at our club) “400 points in 400 days” tactic improvement strategy, published on ChessCafe.com a few years ago. And, I have used CT-ART, done the puzzle books, etc. However, there was something missing (for me anyway) in that I felt I was just learning a few tactic patterns without understanding how it all fits together, how various tactical operations build on each other.

This book fills that void of understanding tactics, and is loaded with real game examples that the reader is walked through step-by-step. To some, the scarcity of extra “black to move, what next?” practice puzzles takes away from the book, but I do not think so. There are plenty of raw puzzle practice books out there.

What would make the book perfect is to have a PGN file of the games he uses for illustration, so we can go to the move number, and play the tactics (and all the variations) against a computer for practice.

All-in-all I highly recommend the book!
Customer Review: excellent!
This is a gem. Its strengths are the highly interesting examples and its ability to improve your board vision. No chessboard or computer needed.

Tags: chess book, chess guide, learn chess, chess tactics