Chess Exam and Training Guide: Tactics: Rate Yourself and Learn How to Improve

   This book is designed lo provide information on understanding tactical ideas and evaluating tactical skills, as well as various training methods.

   Please remember that you are taking a test, not reading yet another puzzle book. You will face positions of varying degrees of difficulty. Some of them may be familiar to you, while others might offer a serious challenge. The more experienced you are, the greater is the number of ideas or complete positions you will recognize. And this is since I am testing your knowledge base as well as the skills you use to apply it. A combination of well-known and new positions gives you the best chance to identify the areas you need to focus on in your training.

   While answering, be on the alert and do not make any presumptions. The order of the questions (i.e. level of difficulty and type) was purposely randomized. Thus you may see an easy endgame position, being followed by a very difficult one from the opening. This makes "home" testing a bit more realistic by actually resembling a game situation, where you never know what to expect.

   Statistical analysis is only as good as the data used. I am relying on the data collected over the years by offering the same set of positions to players of all levels from beginners to Grandmasters. The data showing the level of test-takers' knowledge is expected to have discrepancies due to various intangible factors. Among these factors would be: the time spent on each question, the seriousness of effort, and different rating scales, just to name a few. Additionally, some people perform better or worse than their official rating would show in a real game environment vs. doing the test at home. Finally, a 1790 rating (for example) can mean a very different strength level when comparing a club player in a rural area with a "professional" World Open participant trying to win $10,000 in the Under-1800 section.

Author: Igor Khmelnitsky
Title: "Chess Exam and Training Guide: Tactics"
Released: 2007
Format: rar/pdf
Quality: good
Number of pages: 209
Size: 3 Mb