Carsten Hansen - Chess Tactics for Improvers - Volume 1

Chess Tactics for Improvers Volume 1 Sharpen your tactical ability daily on your way to mastery by Carsten Hansen D aily Chess Training : Chess Tactics for Improvers - Volume 1 Copyright 2020 by Carsten Hansen All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Printed in the United States of America First Printing, 2020 ISBN 978-87-93812-17-8 (ebook edition) CarstenChess 40 Kennedy Blvd Bayonne, NJ 07002 www.WinningQuicklyatChess.com

Books in the Winning Quickly at Chess Series: W hat is the best way to improve your chess, and win more chess games? In my playing career, my big surges in playing strength came when I solved a lot of tactics puzzles. In late 2003, as a 10-year old, I decided to start solving lots of puzzles at first checkmate puzzles before moving on to tactics programs such as CT-ART. Solving these problems several times, and then applying the tactical themes regularly in tournaments, allowed me to surge from a 1400ish rating to over 1800 in about a year, and get a starting FIDE rating of over 2000 soon after. I know that I wouldnt have become an Australian Junior Champion (Under 12), and then an Australian Champion (twice), if I hadnt done regular tactics solving. Im sure you know that you can lose after playing a lot of great moves, just because you missed some trick in the position, right? Thats why, in the many years Ive spent coaching chess (starting with helping my primary school teammates to play better chess and win the school competitions), Ive consistently recommended that anyone serious about improving their chess should solve tactics puzzles every day.

It should eventually become a habit as natural as brushing your teeth or showering each day, if you have dreams of becoming a chess master or chess champion. In fact, I once read that Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (the former no.3 player in the world) had solved about 250,000 chess puzzles! That explains where his amazing tactical vision and calculating ability comes from! In my case, I found that my Chess.com blitz quickly improved from a 2500 to a 2700+ level (back when such a rating meant a top 50 ranking) when I solved thousands and thousands of chess puzzles I have solved about 150,000 chess puzzles (including repeating old puzzles) by now. You know that the single best thing you can do to improve at chess, along with playing and learning from your games, is to solve tactics puzzles. So, why should you use Carstens book for your training, as opposed to the many other resources out there? First, I can vouch for Carsten as a quality author, whose dedication comes through in both his books and the many challenging puzzles he shares on social media. Indeed, even though I am currently retired from professional chess, I solve his puzzles regularly to stay tactically sharp for my lessons with my students. Hes very willing to help others and he cares about you, and the results you get from working through his material.

Finally, what about those players that solve lots of tactics puzzles, but still dont improve? In my experience, this happens because they get into the habit of working through the puzzles too quickly, causing them to miss key variations when calculating in a real game. Its not enough to have good pattern recognition in chess we also need to be able to slow our thinking down, and deliberating come up with good moves that dont come automatically to us. Carstens tactics puzzles are somewhat different from those you can find in other resources. He has a knack for picking positions where its not enough to see the first move you have to sit there, work out the variations, and spot some clever ideas along the way, much like in a tough chess game against a good player. He also doesnt rehash examples from other tactics books his material is all original, so even if youve solved lots of tactics puzzles, youll find little to no overlap with what youve solved before. If you work through this book, your skill in both key areas pattern recognition and calculation will significantly improve.

Max Illingworth Sydney January 2020

A n essential part of improving at chess is tactics. Tactics occur at every level of chess but once the players become stronger the elements involved in spotting the puzzles tend to become more complex and deeper, whereas among weaker players elementary skewers, forks and deadly pins are more frequent visitors. This book is no instruction manual in chess tactics, but rather a representation of some of the best tactical shots from master games played almost exclusively in the first second half of 2019. On Twitter, Instagram, as well as my Facebook page, Winning Quickly at Chess, the puzzles are presented at a rate of two puzzles per day (one in the morning and one is the afternoon, both US East coast time) and thousands of chess enthusiasts, from almost beginners to strong grandmasters, are joining in to solve the puzzles. Some of the puzzles are relatively straightforward, but there are also some rather tricky ones where even very strong players have gotten it wrong or failed to solve them, so do not despair if you are struggling with some of them. Remember that any improvement, whether in chess or other things in life, starts right outside your comfort zone.

I want to thank everybody who have taken part in solving the puzzles online, without them, the solutions presented would have looked very differently. When writing the solutions, I have tried to take into account most of the relevant, but wrong suggestions that have been made online. If you find errors or other things that should be corrected, kindly submit these to me on email: Should you have enjoyed this book kindly leave a review, no more than 10-20 words are needed. Reviews mean a lot for an author as it tells other potential readers why a book did or did not make a difference for them. Thanks for picking up this book, I hope you will enjoy solving the puzzles as much as I have selecting them and putting this book together. Carsten Hansen Bayonne (NJ) February 2020 How to work with this book This is not your usual tactical puzzle book.