Practical Chess Puzzles - by Lin Dachey & Edward Song & Guannan Song (Paperback)

About the Book

This puzzle book is specifically designed to aid practical play by focusing on typical "game-like" situations rather than standard combinations and checkmate themes.

Book Synopsis

Chess puzzle books are undoubtedly popular - and with good reason. Solving chess puzzles helps to sharpen a player's tactical and combinational skills. This ability is absolutely fundamental for chess development. You won't get better at tennis until you can consistently hit the ball with accuracy and you won't get better at chess until you improve your ability to calculate. It is that simple and there are no shortcuts. Many puzzle books take a far too simplistic approach and offer endless positions where the solution is nearly always along the lines of: queen takes something check, king takes queen, check, check and a pretty mate. Aesthetically pleasing perhaps but of minimal use for actual improvement as the patterns are so familiar. Practical Chess Puzzles avoids this pitfall. The positions chosen are far more like those that actually appear on the board during the vast majority of games. Furthermore, at all stages, the puzzles are ranked, enabling the student to gauge progress and identify and correct weaknesses.

Review Quotes

In summary, the content lives up to the title and any tournament player from say 1200 Elo to perhaps 2200 will derive much benefit from working through the content. It is good to find a whole tranche of new material and ideas from real games played by mostly amateur players.--John Upham "BritishChessNews.com"

Practical Chess Puzzles largely delivers what is promised. The authors say that they are writing for players from 1200-2200--quite a range!-- and the puzzles in each section track from less to more complex... there is an overt effort to present lesser known, diverse examples, featuring North American players and a full range of position types. All this serves to keep solvers on their toes. 4 out of 5--John Hartmann "Chess Life"

This is a high-end puzzle book which will offer a tough test, even to experienced players. I think it will be most useful as a book to dip into rather than running the risk of breaking your head over a torrent of tricky positions.--Sean Marsh "CHESS Magazine"

About the Author

Guannan Song is a FIDE Master (with one International Master norm) from Canada. He has won the Canadian Youth Chess Championships and has scored bronze at the North American Junior Chess Championships. He has also played for Team Canada on the international stage at the World Youth Chess Championships and the World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad. Guannan is a chess teacher with over seven years of experience and represents Western University on board one of its Championship team.
Dachey Lin is a FIDE Master from the United States, having attained the title in 2016. He is a seven-time All American Team member and participated in three World Youth Chess Championship events, tying for ninth place in 2009. Though he is not as active as the other authors, he enjoys following and helping other chess players and watching them develop and succeed.
Edward Song is an International Master from the United States. He won the 2014 US Cadet Championship, the 2017 Supernationals (tie) and the 2017 Denker Tournament of High School Champions (tie). He is also a four-time All American Team member and played two World Youth Chess Championships, achieving top ten both times. He is looking forward to making further progress towards the grandmaster title.