My recommendation - read Modern Chess Tactics by Ludek Pachman. 

I'm also quite weak at calculation and tried several things to improve, but this book is the only thing that helped.

It's actually two books since it's two volumes.

I've got quite a lot of chess books but these are the best.

Smyslov_Fan wrote on 04/19/12 at 20:40:55:


As the "original poster" I can only thank you for your help, I will look for the Soltis book first. Some suggestions I already knew, as Weteschnik, which was not exactly what I was searching for.

Stigma wrote on 04/19/12 at 15:46:31:


For this sort of thing I found Beim's How to Play Dynamic Chess very helpful.  It's not exactly about tactics or attacking; it's about that hard to describe quality of dynamism that permeates so many of those unclear positions and that people like Kasparov, Fischer, et al excelled at.  The only drawback I can see is that the material is presented in well-annotated games without exercises and very little questions.  Still, I read it solitaire-chess style (covering up the next move and trying to figure out what I would play in an actual game) and I think it helped my play in unclear, dynamic positions very much.   

At least, I'm much better at sensing when the moment to strike has come than I ever was before; unfortunately, I don't always strike in the right way!  I guess I need tactics practice now??

To say something on topic too: I like Hertan's "computer eyes" approach in Forcing Chess Moves a lot. A lot of tactical opportunities go unnoticed because the players didn't take even a few seconds to consider the most forcing moves available (for either side). But still he only deals with positions where there is, in fact, something tactical going on. So perhaps his method is most useful when you "feel" there ought to be something in a position.

I'm also looking for books that go beyond tactics and raw calculation, actually. I often find myself chickening out and "playing safe" in positions where both sides have dangerous play (king attacks, passed pawns or something else) and it's hard to calculate everything. I've probably thrown away a couple of wins recently by not going in for complications.

Any good books on how to develop the right mix of calculation, prophylaxis and confidence for these situations?

I saw Burgess writing about going beyond the comfort zone and claiming to mix in many puzzles without a tactical solution in his recent Gambit Book of Instructive Chess Puzzles, has anybody used this for training?

ErictheRed wrote on 04/18/12 at 15:26:32:


Most of Heisman's writing is aimed at a (much) lower level than mine of yours. I've still found a few of his articles useful for me, like "Breaking down barriers" on training and motiavtion.

Where Heisman is most useful is in spelling out all the things beginners struggle with that strong players know so well they just don't think about it (unconscious competence). 

When I look at a positon, I automatically see how many pieces attack and defend a weakness. I know whether either side's king safety is likely to be a factor. I instinctively know that tactics and material almost always trump "tiebreak criteria" like doubled and isolated pawns and other positional niceties. The first things that come to mind after my opponent moves, are "why did he do that?" "What are all the things he's threatening"? I take for granted that the most important thing the move I intend to play can achieve is to not lose; not allow some unanswerable tactic or threat.

...and so on. I would have a hard time helping a student develop these skills if I'm not even aware of them in myself. So just pointing them out and stressing their importance (and the fact that most beginner's books overlook them and move straight to basic tactics) is an achievement by Heisman!

You can argue that his approach to actually developing these skills is too wordy, that chess is more about seeing and doing than about verbalizing, and so we should just show the beginner lots of actual positions that require these skills to solve. I agree. But in fact Heisman does give loads of ecercises in his books "Back to Basics: Tactics" and "Looking for Trouble", which I use a lot in my work with youngsters.

He also describes the many problems with time management at lower levels ("Never play a bad move quickly"! etc.) very well, and he stresses the value of repetitive tactical exercises for rapid improvement, which I also know from my own improvement journey.

I would suggest Weterchick
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/140/chess_tactics_from_scratch_-_uct_2n...
I have the first edition which is very good. It is not a puzzle book, but more about how to build up pattern recognition.

I have had a look at most of the recommendations here and my comment is that Watson's books are quite advanced. Timman's and Nunn's books are more of "how/why" you play using complete games and is aimed at general improvement in play.

My suggestion is Valeri Beim's How to Calculate Chess Tactics. A bonus is that he has written a series of books extending into strategy as well. I find him easier to understand and the examples quite appropriate.