CHESS TACTICS
Author: Paul Littlewood
142 pages
$18.95
Batsford (2004)

Reviewed by IM John Donaldson

CHESS TACTICS is a new edition of a book that was well received when it first appeared in 1984. IM Littlewood, who is a school teacher, follows sound pedagogical principles as he introduces the reader to the building blocks of chess tactics – pins, skewers, double attacks, discovered attack, back rank combinations, overloading, deflection, decoying, removal of defense, interception, space clearance, zwischenzug and pawn promotion. Each of these themes receives its own chapter where Littlewood starts out with simple examples and then adds progressively more complex ones. The end of each chapter offers the reader positions to test their newly acquired knowledge – there are over 150 exercises in the book.

There are many tactics books on the market today for beginning to club players, making it difficult to choose the right one. I consider CHESS TACTICS to be one of the best. Players in the range 1200-1800, especially at the lower end, greatly benefit from plenty of explanation to explain tactical ideas. Littlewood provides this and well chosen examples.

Consider the following exercise which appears near the end of the book and draws from the tactical themes of removal of defense and smothered mate.

Ferarini - Moresi, Italy 1972

 Black threatens mate but White is to move.

 1.Bd5+ Nb7 2.Qb8+ Rxb8 3.Rxa7+ Bxa7 4.Nc7 mate

It might be hard to imagine your average club player, say 1500, finding this combination over the board, but I think he would have an excellent chance if he had read CHESS TACTICS as White’s play can be broken down into easy to understand themes. The club player who reads CHESS TACTICS cover to cover for a solid foundation and then starts working through various collections of tactical puzzles will be on his way to becoming an Expert (2000).

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