The Best Chess Puzzle Books Ever | Dojo Talks
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- The Dojo (GM Jesse Kraai, IM Kostya Kavutskiy, IM David Pruess) rank the top 10 chess puzzle books of all time, with a help from bibliophile Ben Johnson, the creator and host of the Perpetual Chess Podcast (www.perpetualchesspod.com) .
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0:00 Intro
0:12 How and Why Books Were Chosen
8:50 Puzzle Book Rankings
All books linked below (these are Amazon links which are no extra cost and help Dojo keep the lights on! win/win)
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The Dojo List!
1. Perfect Your Chess, Grabinsky/Volokitin amzn.to/43gqYI6
2. 5334 Problems, L Polgar amzn.to/43HyJH4
3. Think like a Super-GM, Adams/Hertado amzn.to/3qkFzDP
4. Mastering Chess Strategy Hellsten amzn.to/43jk9ph
5. Combinative Motifs, Blokh amzn.to/3WPbLLB
6. Winning Exercises for Kids, Coakley amzn.to/3OPFwu1
7. Encyclopedia of Chess Endings, Kalinichenko amzn.to/45GOHTn
8. Practical Chess Exercises, Cheng amzn.to/3MRydiP
9. Domination, Kasparyan amzn.to/3CdlT7D
10. Positional Play, Aagaard amzn.to/3WK9XUl
Ben's List
1. Winning Exercises for Kids, Coakley amzn.to/3OPFwu1
2. Practical Chess Exercises, Cheng amzn.to/3MRydiP
3. 5334 Problems, L Polgar amzn.to/43HyJH4
4. Think like a Super-GM, Adams/Hertado amzn.to/3qkFzDP
5. Chess Tactics from Scratch, Weteschnik amzn.to/43mHMNN
6. Perfect Your Chess, Grabinsky/Volokitin amzn.to/43gqYI6
7. Forcing Chess Moves, Hertan amzn.to/3MGvjNK
8. Mastering Chess Strategy Hellsten amzn.to/43jk9ph
9. Chess Steps, Brunia amzn.to/43HZkU3
10. 300 Chess Positions, Alburt amzn.to/3WMZmrC
Kraai's List
1. Encyclopedia of Chess Endings, Kalinichenko amzn.to/45GOHTn
2. 5334 Problems, L Polgar amzn.to/43HyJH4
3. Perfect Your Chess, Grabinsky/Volokitin amzn.to/43gqYI6
4. The Best Move, Jansa/Hort amzn.to/3ITUQSo
5. Think like a Super-GM, Adams/Hertado amzn.to/3qkFzDP
6. Endgame Tactics, Van Perlo amzn.to/3WQ3XJu
7. Domination, Kasparyan amzn.to/3CdlT7D
8. Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations amzn.to/42gvh4Y
9. Positional Play, Aagaard amzn.to/3WK9XUl
10. Calculation, Aagaard amzn.to/3oCCtuB
Kostya's List
1. Combinative Motifs, Blokh amzn.to/3WPbLLB
2. Perfect Your Chess, Grabinsky/Volokitin amzn.to/43gqYI6
3. Mastering Chess Strategy, Hellsten amzn.to/43jk9ph
4. Woodpecker Method, Smith/Tikkanen amzn.to/45IzelS
5. Recognizing Your Opponent's Resources, Dvoretsky amzn.to/3Ccbjxw
6. Manual of Chess Combinations, Ivaschenko amzn.to/3NaEcR2
7. Imagination in Chess, Gaprindashvili amzn.to/3C7z0ai
8. Positional Play, Aagaard amzn.to/3WK9XUl
9. Domination, Kasparyan amzn.to/3CdlT7D
10. 5334 Problems, L Polgar amzn.to/43HyJH4
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Chess Steps is a complete course and teaching method that was developed in the 1980s in the Netherlands. There are puzzle books at each step, and there is also a teaching manual for each step which is designed to be used to teach the relevant concepts. It’s pretty comprehensive and very well known in Europe.
and is it good for a 1600 chess player ?
The last step or 2 probably yes, as far as I know it goes fairly high up in terms of rating range
As a person who’s older and wears glasses Something I’ve run into is ordering a book like Aagaards excelling at chess calculation and being disappointed at how small the font is. I know there’s kindle etc but there’s just something about a physical book that can’t be replaced.
Happy to see Kostya recommended Ivashchenko and Blokh. Btw the ChessKing / CT-ART software has Ivashchenko 1A and 1B under the title Chess Tactics for Beginners.
I did 50 puzzles a day from CT for beginners (repeating several times when I finished all 1300 puzzles) back when I was a kid and that was the primary driver to jump from 1200 to 1600 USCF in a year. Can’t recommend it enough to lower level players
Dojotalks is my favourite chess podcast. Thanks so much for this content.
As always a very entertaining and enjoyable chat. Thanks.
Here a few interesting possibilities for the list:
1. Bent Larsen's Good Move Guide, It is a slim volume with a mixture of different types of exercises -Combinations, Find the Plan, guess the move in classic games and Endings
2. The 9 book Yusupov series, this can provoke varied and extreme opinions, but if you do waht he says you will definitely improve!
3. Excelling at Chess Calulation by Aagaard - The Grandmaster preparation series is always mentioned but if you are the wrong side of 2100 this is where you should go first!
4. Analyse to Win by Byron Jacobs - a true classic!
Such an instructive video, thank you 🎉
Thanks so much. This episode was really useful
Hellsten's Chessable video course, based on his book recommended here, is phenomenal. My favorite chess instruction anywhere.
Regarding this, do you think the video section for Hellsten chessable is necessary? Or the written text itself is sufficient?
His promptness in replying to questions is astonishing.
Looking forward to watching this!
@ 54:30 i think doing puzzles are important, because you sometimes don't see them in game if you are not familiar with the pattern. Also personally I think if you don't do puzzles separately it will take alot of extra time to improve in chess, because tactics are one of the first hurdles in improvement, so by not doing puzzles you are extending that hurdle
I went from 1500 to 1750 USCF pretty much through learning a few openings and working through Fred Reinfeld's 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate and 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations. I've recently gone through them again at 2000 and have found a number of mistakes or quicker/simpler solutions to the puzzles.
John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book (expanded edition) is one of the best!
Whats ur fide rating? As a 2050 I found even the lower level puzzles in that really tough
Ohh no... Another best books and for sure at least one I "must" buy when you're finished. 😙 Love your talks btw! 👍
Huge like. Thanks for the review of great books and suggestions! I'm definitely gonna check _Encyclopedia of Chess Endings_ by Kalinichenko and _Imagination in Chess_ by Gaprindashvili. I think they will be useful for me. I didn't know about them, as they are not so famous as books by Hellsten, Aagaard, Nunn, Dvoretsky, etc.
By the way, there are a few really great books that can be added to your list (most of them are for 1800-2000+ players):
- Nunn's famous puzzle books.
- Yusupov books (Build up Your Chess, Boost Your Chess, etc. in various levels. He offers 3 levels and 9 books)
- Neishtadt's book _Test Your Tactical Ability_ This is a classical Russian book. It's something like AK47!
- Ramesh's book _Improve Your Chess Calculation_
For beginners there's a great book by Polgar _Chess Tactics for Champions,_ and Seirawan's book on tactics. I fully agree that for beginners even online tactics is fine. I mean just for starting out, otherwise I recommend books for beginners and amateurs as more helpful. It's just my two cents. Thanks for the great review. I really appreciate it!
always instructive their participations note the covers of the mentions of books were missing gg video
I had two huge spikes in my online rating of 300-400 points. The first was when I had like an 800 chesscom blitz rating and studied Winning Chess Tactics by Seirawan. It was the first time I had the motifs explained to me. The second one was more recently doing very difficult mate studies from Rewire your Chess Brain and 100 Headachingly Hard mate in 2s composed by Sam Lloyd. I got turned onto the composed mates by a local master at an Ohio club. My rating has actually gone back down a bit since I stopped doing it. It may have randomly coincided with my rating gains but I’m not sure. It felt like the really tough mate studies (took me 15-60 minutes per puzzle) really helped me. More so than the Polgar has.
I’m currently in the 1600-1700 cohort for reference. I could move to the 1700-1800 if I cherry picked the rating guidelines but am still working on the 1600-1700 stuff.
Where do you play in Ohio? (If you don't mind me asking)
This was at the Parma Chess Club. Im in Toledo now though and haven’t been back in over a year
@@connormonday oh yeah! I've played there, who was the nm who game you the book idea?
@@francislally6066 honestly i don't remember his name. Older thin gentleman. He sets up a mate in 2 puzzle before the tuesday night quads. I talked to him a bit about where he was getting the puzzles. He seemed very well read. Read a lot of books I'd never heard of. Lots of lesser known Chernev books.
I'm glad to see 5334 high on all the lists as I recently bought it (my first printed chess puzzle book) not really knowing anything about, but limited by my options for chess books in China. I've worked through the first 300 or so one-move mate puzzles (all pretty easy, tbh).
I’m going thru the mates in 2, much harder IMHO
Can't argue with any of the selections but I think I'd find Ben's list most relatable. That said, for beginners to around 1400-rated players my top choice for tactical puzzle book/primer is "Winning Chess" by Irving Chernev. Not many people know of it because it was out of print for many years but it's currently available again.
I love how quick Jesse and Kostya are to remind David who's boss lmao. Every time he opens his mouth they can smell the sarcasm and slam the ideas right out of the air
I'm curious if the Yusupov books were considered or if you didn't consider them as "puzzle books" due to the instruction at the beginning of each chapter
Ramesh's calculation book is top notch. It's difficult even for titled players and require a lot of hard work, but offers an abundance of things to learn
Anyone got any tips for working through 5334 by Polgar? Do you write the answer directly next to the puzzle, or on a separate piece of paper? The book is chonky, indeed.
Ben Johnson's list really struck a chord with me. Coakley's book is a masterpiece -- the first puzzle book I would take with me to a desert island, or to jail. Do NOT be fooled by the fact that Coakley's book is pitched to kids. Swallow your adult pride, plunk down the money (it's expensive, sadly), and get down to work. You'll be rewarded with one beautiful and thoughtful exercise after another. Ben also praised Ray Cheng's book -- another great selection. Well played, Ben! With just these two books in your hands you can go very very far. Even dedicated folks will take about a year to do all of the puzzles in these two books.
Coakly's book is recommended by Dan Heisman who says its good up to 2000 elo. I'm quite a big fan of the 2 volume set called 'Predator at the chessboard' lots of great examples and each tactic is broken down into parts and worked on separately
I love a good book discussion. I Just wish I could read and retain the information in all the books I already have.
1:05:18 As a Finn, I would say that your pronunciation of Tikkanen is quite good. If you want to strive for perfection, in Finnish words the stress is always on the first syllable. Thus TIK-ka-nen.
Thanks 🙂
I need a plug-in that will just add the whole video description to my Amazon wishlist. 🤔
i have a question i have 1001 chess for beginners book and i was wondering if i should write down my solution under the diagram and fill out the book like a puzzle or should i not write in it and just study them one by one?
Does anyone know if a puzzle book has been done with the same tactics each chapter but one move deeper? Would be nice to memorise a bunch of mate in 2's, and the next chapter the same puzzles become mate in 3's. Then 4's. Or by opening/pawn structure/ attacking theme
Years ago, I went through Steps 2-5. Since then, I haven't seen anything else that measures up to Steps for progressively learning tactics. I think there are around 500 new puzzles at each step, which repeat in the workbook. It also included basic theoretical endgames; rook endgame tactics; basic principles of openings and positional play. But its approach to tactics was best.
After Steps, I also enjoyed CTA, aka Blokh's Combinative Motifs.
(I merely browsed Artur Yusupov's 9-volume series, which might be competitive.)
What was elo after doing chess steps?
@@xevation I want to know too!
Went from 1200 to 1650 USCF, but stopped playing because my daughter was born... But I was still rising
I think David is on to something. Training with a computer can alter a player's intuition about what is a "normal" chess move. I think it's quite possible that for future generations of players the line between human and computer generated moves will be blurred.
My bank account hates these chess books videos lol
Speaking about SayChess guys, you guys need to review his 100 Headachingly Hard Mate in 2s! It was absolutely brilliant. As always this is a good video.
In order not to accidentally see the solution for the next problem I have created ab EXCEL sheet with my intended solutions and then later check a whole batch of solutions.
I am currently doing this with Nunn's "1001 Deadly Checkmates". Of course, this is not feasible with epubs.
Susan Polgars Tactics for champions is great for 1000+.
Chess Steps, three point I wish to make. 1 The problems are clever even for simple topics. Even in relatively easy problems you have to calculate clearly because they set little traps for you. 2. I use it for woodpecker training as there are approximately 1200 original problems per numbered level, a good number to work with. 3. There are additional non-puzzle books that accompany the student books, initially for the teacher but later for the student.
What do you think It’s the main difference between puzzle books and chess combinations encyclopedia, besides the puzzles being devised by themes?
No love for my favorite, Jon Speelman's Chess Puzzle Book, which has plenty of talk, and which teaches every tactic before you are expected to solve puzzles with that tactic.
I like that Jon Speelman's Chess Puzzle Book teaches how he thinks about tactics and not just book motifs. There is a chapter on opening and closing lines. That is not a book motif, but "which lines do I want open and which lines do I want not to be open?" is a helpful question.
I have a question. My daughter is now doing "gain a rook" puzzles out of Ivashchenko's book. Is it important that the intermediate move, usually a king out of check, matches what the answer is in the book?
Yes. There are usually, though not always, good reasons for every move (if the move isn't straight up necessary).
Maybe it's a good moment to point out, that there is actually another book by laszlo polgar thats equally as good. Its called 'Middlegames' and again has about 4500 tactical Puzzles from typical middlegame situations in it.
Thanks for tip. Will check this out.
How are the tactics themed? Would be handy if they were for say the Grand Prix attack. Or ones with familiar pawn structures
Yes! That is the actual good Laszlo book.
@@stevejones3008as far as specific pawn structures go, there are two hedgehog sets, a stonewall, Kings Indian attack on King, minority attack, three sets on Sicilian sacrifices, also sets on various pawn weaknesses, sacrifices on various squares and tactical themes.
And there is a Polgar book on endings (mostly studies) which is the largest and is suitable for masters. Neither book is computer era so there are some bad evaluations here and there. But the thematic organization is excellent.
Have you guys thought of putting the CT-ART/Blokh in the training program?
CT-Art is mentioned under the tactics section of the program
@@RaabStephan it’s not clear to me if we’re supposed to do them though. It seems like no.
I have the Think Like a Super-GM book, and IMO by far the puzzle book best I have read.
But..
It took me some 6-8 weeks to read (and its even not that big). I cant get home after work, doing Real Life things, and then sit down solving puzzles in a meaningfull way. My brain is simply meltet and Im tired.
How do you guys get through all these books, is what Im wondering.
Studying it at work, simply. The things that I am supposed to do in 8 hours daily job , I efficiently do it in 4 max 5 hours. The rest of the job day I study my chess books
@@Insidia85 Good advice but not for everybody hehe. That said I do solve puzzles at work, but has to be in-between. However Retirement is just around the corner so .. 👊
Practical chess defence by Aagaard is amazing
Chess Workout I & II by Palliser
Can you please write down all the list?
Did I hear right, Kostya did 1100 woodpecker puzzles in 1 day? That’s not possible surely!
Sure did!
Did they ever talk about their recommended rating for each book?
They mentioned something in some books. I think it could be easier to have separate top10s (or 5 or whatever) per elo group. Below 1000, 1000-2000, 2000+
This discussion has made me realize I may not be interested in the Polgar book, not to buy anyway. I don't know if it's engine checked. I completely disagree with Jesse and Kostya on engines, I think all books should have verified sound content, and I don't think there's any reason why carefully selected engine generated puzzles can't be just as useful as ones picked from master games, or wholly created by an author. There's not much I'll buy that's not engine checked, and definitely not puzzle books.
Whether I disagree or not, I always enjoy Dojo talks, so thanks to the sensei for another fun and interesting one.
"Zeitvertreib" is most impressive 👍Henry VIII has composed a famous song "Pastyme with good companye".
Good song. My favorite of his is Helas Madame.
And of course there's Greensleeves, but apparently that wasn't really composed by him.
In fact, it's possible that Henry VIII's other compositions aren't his either and they were "ghost written" by Thomas Tallis, Mark Smeaton, or others.
@@joeldick6871 Henry has nothing to do with green sleeves. The surviving versions of Greensleeves have even different melodies. Greensleeves is based on the Romanesca. Listen to Recercada VIII by Ortiz.
By the way, Greensleeves is much more popular today than it was in the 16th century. The version played today is from the so-called "Ballet lute book".
I learned that Kostya likes books with longer titles
My personal top 5:
1: Polgar CHESS
2: Polgar Chess Middlegames
3: Polgar Chess Endgames
4: Combinative Motifs
5: Tune YourChess Tactics Antenna
Was there any question or doubt that philidor wouldn't be number one?? The man is 1st ballot hall of fame goat…
🔥
Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games by Laszlo Polgar is my desert island puzzle book, 100%
This is a great book. the mates in one and mates in two are like doing scales for a musician. The miniatures are gems. I have strongly recommended them to students.
Like it being lost for so many puzzle books for years
Given David's rationality and logicality, I'm half-surprised he didn't recommend Peter Pan as the best chess book out there.
David is such a grump sometimes lol. The fact he had any comments at all this whole episode refutes his 'all puzzle books are created equal', regardless of whether he hid behind putting the word 'generally' in there!
I second the thought that best books are not computer driven and not computer-checked. I mean it's good to have a book checked by the engine. Nothing wrong with it. It's even commendable to go extra lengths like Kasparov did with his books. However the main usefulness of chess books is human ideas, human lines, human strategies. A book checked thoroughly by, say, Stockfish 15 and written by some chump, is of no use to me. And most of engine generated puzzles are just garbage. The same is the case with online puzzles but they are okay for beginners and for 2-4 move puzzles. More serious levels (even average club levels, i.e. amateurs) still will benefit a hundred times more from books created by strong pro players/coaches rather than by online/engine generated (or checked whatever) crummy puzzles.
So, I agree that old books are often better but non necessarily so. Checking your book with an engine is fine and it will make it even a better book but not a much better book. That's because the *most important thing* is how good your book is in the first place, how instructive your ideas are, how efficient your selection of puzzles is, etc. If the engine selected/generated most of the stuff for you, I'd say the book is probably garbage. If it's not based on long classical games and pro players' experiences, ideas, strategies, it's mostly like garbage too. That said, I love chess computers and I have a lot of books on them. It's a great practice to improve by playing vs an old engine. It makes you play very accurately and carefully checking more options and counter play resources just like a good book by Dvoretsky: _Recognizing Your Opponent's Resources_ It simply makes you a stronger player, more thorough player.
Dojo, I.appreciate the idea behind these kind of videos comparisons, but for the Lord Jesus Christ, you must enlarge the writing on the table screen. It s unreadable
Sorry! We didn't know 🩵
@@ChessDojoease could you write down here what is the first choice of all.of yours? White here the three titles, thanks in advance
Write*
Kostya needs a "like" filter.
😂😂
Jesse is an interesting person with provocative opinions, but his diatribes against the engine are so tedious and predictable. We get it already!
Pruess being so weird and passive aggressive the entire time really makes this hard to watch.
Has anyone ever heard of Kotov\Beliavsky ' 4-volume series? I can't believe it :-)
2000 chess exercises.
Can't give the link because YT delete it i don't know why
Just googled that - it's "Kostrov" not "Kotov". Thanks for that though, these look good and they're for 1700-2000 Elo