Chess Heroes: Tactics

There are many books on the market for beginners, and very many more for established tournament players. The Chess Heroes project offers a series of books providing novices with the knowledge and skills they need to become successful competitive chess players. The books are written for chess teachers or parents to use with children, but they can also be read by novices of all ages. At this level, tactics is by far the most important aspect of chess. This book introduces basic tactical ideas such as forks, pins, discovered attacks and deflections before teaching you how to play combinations by putting these ideas together. The book includes 516 tactics puzzles, graded by difficulty, all based on games played by children at Richmond Junior Chess Club. Working through these puzzles in order will familiarise you with basic chess tactics and help you spot opportunities to win pieces in their games. The author, Richard James, has been teaching chess successfully in the London area for more than half a century. For thirty years he ran Richmond Junior Chess Club, many of whose members, such as Luke McShane and Jonathan Rowson, became Grandmasters or International Masters, and many more of whom developed a lifelong passion for the world's greatest game. Richard is the author of the Amazon best seller Chess for Kids, The Right Way to Teach Chess to Kids and Chess for Schools. Previously, he was the co-author (along with the late Mike Fox, the co-founder of Richmond Junior Chess Club) of The Complete Chess Addict and The Even More Complete Chess Addict. He is well known internationally for his views on how children learn and play chess.