Back to Basics: Tactics (ChessCafe Back to Basics Chess) Paperback – September 15, 2007

Heisman's book is an excellent guide to the various tactics you're likely to encounter in games of chess. Each section of the book briefly introduces a tactic, walks through a few examples then has a quiz section comprised of puzzle diagrams. The prose sections of the book are easy to read and to the point. The book also contains several boxes floating in the text that outline the main concepts for that section; I find this aids my recollection. The puzzles vary in difficulty and number. Some chapters have only a few puzzles others have thirty or more. I especially like this book because I can pick it up and put it down as needed. As an adult with limited time to devote to chess, this book is great since I can squeeze in some learning in brief intervals of time.On the downside, the printing quality is not the highest and the font is rather small. And the text is layed out in two columns per page, which may or may not bother you. But you won't be doing much reading anyway - most of this book is puzzles for you to solve.Overall, the content of this book is outstanding. After reading this book I immediately saw more tactics in my games that I might have otherwise overlooked. I would choose Heisman's tactics book over Seirawan's "Winning Chess Tactics". I found Heisman's book to be more to the point than Seirawan's and for some reason Heisman's just cemented in my brain more permanently. I would say this book looks pretty similar to Susan Polgar's "Chess Tactics for Champions", which I've thumbed through but have not read cover to cover. I've heard her book is also quite good. I am an adult novice chess player rated around 1300. I think this book is appropriate for that level or anyone who has read a chess primer and played several games.

I am relatively new to chess study, and found most puzzle books just a little too hard to really deal with. I bought the Reinfeld books and just felt lost.Then I saw a review of this book and decided to give it a go. MAN, has it helped me. Heisman gives a wonderful primer on each type of tactic complete with a section of puzzles just on that tactic. Then he goes into a section of checkmates, and a wonderful (and difficult) section on defensive tactics.Finally he wraps it up with a long section of puzzles that cover all the various subjects in the book. This is a wonderful book for those who are new to chess tactics and feel a little overwhelmed by the various puzzle books. I know the book is working because while going through this book I would get one of my Reinfeld books and open to a random puzzle and more times than not be able to solve it! Before, I was just staring cluelessly at the Reinfeld puzzles.This a great book written by someone who takes education very seriously! Highly recommended for those who need work on basic tactical understanding.

I should start off by saying if you are a complete beginner to chess, this book is probably not for you. But if you are rated around 1100-1500 I would absolutely recommend it. Back to Basics gives the reader a better understanding of many common tactics/themes in chess. Each section is thorough and provides plenty of practice problems. The difficulty of these problems range from very easy to extremely hard (for someone relatively new to chess). With around 500 puzzles, the reader can spend lots of time carefully analyzing and learning what to do in certain positions. This book has helped me a lot. 5 Stars.

First let me say that the content of this book is great. I follow Dan Heisman's Novice Nook column at Chesscafe.com on a fairly regular basis. I've read several dozen of his articles that have improved my chess knowledge greatly.For Dan's part I give this book 5 stars!Now I wonder what the heck happened with the editing and formatting of the book?Since when are these single words; "eachpiece", "bothsides", "eachmove"? (Page 15)Between paragraphs there are single spacing, double spacing, and no spacing. (Page 12)Sentences are split with a few short words on a line by themselves followed by many blank spaces and the sentence is coninued on the next line. (Pages 8, 18, and 42)There are some unexplainable equal signs ("=") in the text. (Page 32)Lists are numbered 1., 2., and 3. in places (Page 7) and (1), (2), and (3) in other places. (Page 10)For Russell Enterprises, Inc. work on the editing/formatting of the book I give 1 star. This has to be the worst formatting and editing I've ever seen in any book.Overall I gave 4 stars because I didn't want to detract from Mr. Heisman's excellent work in writing this book.

I bought this book in paperback on 1/26/17 and got -as hoped- the 2nd printing, meaning the 20+ instances of errata in the 1st printing are corrected (the author points that out on his web page).The "look inside" feature here shows the 1st printing (the page before the Table of Contents includes the words "2nd printing" in the 2nd printing) but the 2nd printing is what I got. I ordered from Amazon instead of optional new and used sources listed under the Paperback listing because I suspect the cheaper priced other sources are often the 1st printing.Many of the "errata" are actually "enhancements" - where there wasn't really an error, but additional notes were helpful.

434 problems with all the typical motifs: pin, discover check, double check, etc. One thing you won't find in any other tactics books is the counting motif which occurs pretty much in every game.The chapter about seeds of tactical destruction is worth the price of the book and I like that it's full little nuggets of wisdom.