This is brilliant, thanks!! -- I'd missed these.

Interesting point about separate 'Calculation' section. But which others in my orig. list, if any, do you think should go there? What should be the criterion for deciding when inevitably there's 'overlap'?

Pergamon I think was different -- it was based in Oxford and owned by Robert Maxwell. (Years ago I did some editing work for a journal of theirs, but that was a completely different wing of the company.)

Brilliant -- thank you! This is really shaping up. I'm on my 12th page!

Yes you are quite right about Livshitz. But confusingly, the Grandmaster Challenge volume was pub. in 1993 (according to Amazon), by Everyman, before the Cadogan reprints of the original Pergamon Press volumes. I don't quite follow what's going on here but I shall see my friend Ken Neat in a few hours' time so I shall ask him!

My all-time favorites on tactics (not on your list I believe):

L.Pachman: Modern Chess tactics
L.Pachman: Attack and Defence in Modern Chess Tactics

Both advanced level and absolutely great. The best chess books ever written as far as I'm concerned.

Atm I'm working through

József Pintér "1000 Combinations"
310 pages, hardback, Magyar Sakkvilag 2008r.


Here parts of the text from the "Chess Shop":
Using the same languageless approach as Informator the book presents a thousand combinations split into thematic sections and graded by difficulty so that they gradually get harder as you progress through the sections. The solutions (in algebraic notation) give multiple variations of defence.

All the material for the book has come from actual chess games, ranging from 1850 on to 2007 - but with a slightly heavy bias towards positions from the 1990's. Aimed at players rated between 125 ECF (1600 elo) up to 212 ECF (2300 elo).

Going through it the text seems correct. If you have one edition of the informator books on combinations you get more combinations for the buck but you must be willing to work three times as much to get through the whole book.


Should be another great book for more advanced players than 1850 Elo imo:

Ghenrikh M. Kasparyan,Domination in 2,545 Endgame Studies,  Translated from the Russian by A.
Krivoviaz, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1980, DJ HB 542pp

When I go into this book every year and then it's fascinating to see motives and possibilities of piece coordination. Probably a book to study after the great book from Van Perlo. If someone loves endgame tactics s/he should get both.

German:
Neistadt - Zauberwelt der Kombination

This book is sometimes cheap to get. It's the basis for the new book from NIC - Neishtadt - Improve ... in your list. Seriously going through it will help you getting above 1800. When I did it each day 15 min. at the age of 30 for 6 month I jumped from ~112 Ingo to ~95 Ingo (~1900 Elo to ~2050 Elo). It wasn't the only training, but an important part.

Thanks, Smyslov_Fan, this is exactly the sort of comment I'm after!

Haven't got into phone apps at all myself as you can see, probably 'cos I don't use a (mobile) phone! Is there a good website from which I could cut & paste a few names of these for the bibliography do you think?

I shall certainly add van Perlo! Any other endgame tactics book titles?

I'm meant to be giving a talk down at the club tomorrow evening about the above subject, and wondered if I might tap people's minds about the bibliography I'm preparing, which I've attached. As you can see, at present a lot of info (mainly publishers) is missing, but when it's finished I hope it might be a useful resource.

Obviously I'd welcome any comments pro or contra about any of the items listed -- some of my comments, as you may recognise, derive from previous comments on ChessPub! But also I'm interested in questions of organisation. For example: Have I placed the books on tactics in the right category? Should there be a separate section for 'puzzle' books, and if so should this be subdivided by level also (with what going where?)? Should there be a separate section for books specifically about calculation/analysis/thinking processes? -- not the same as 'tactics', obviously, but obviously related. A lot of questions I know, but hopefully the bibliography might be of use to others besides just me.