The Top 5 Chess Puzzle Books for the Intermediate Player

Let's talk chess puzzle books! Here's my top 5 recommended chess books for the intermediate/club player.
Benedictine on Chessable. Channel for adult chess improvers, beginner/intermediate chess players (800-1800). Content creator, Chessable author and writer.
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I played my first chess tournament aged 36 and achieved my aim of 1800 OTB. I am a Chessable community author - author of the popular courses Common Chess Patterns and the Visualise series and others. I am also a writer of fiction. Writing historical murder mystery comedy in the form of the Lavender and Brown series. See the links below:
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[@benedictineonchessable]

Can you get to 1800 with just THESE two chess Books? kzbin.info/www/bejne/roGZaXSMr5mniJY

[@MarpleExpress]

Bought the Laszlo Polgar puzzle book recently. Really impressed so far. It’s also a good price on Kindle!

[@benedictineonchessable]

Oh, I didn't know this was available on Kindle. Thanks for the info!

[@joeldick6871]

Book 2 of Manual of Chess Combinations is very different from Book 3. It even has a different author. Book 3 is organized by type of calculation skill: long variations, candidate moves, etc. Book 2 is organized the same as Book 1: increasingly difficult "stages".

[@benedictineonchessable]

Oh, is it? That makes sense actually.

[@joeldick6871]

Coakley's Winning Chess Exercises for Kids isn't quite an "intermediate" puzzle book. Granted, it's distinctively harder than Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids, Volumes 1 and 2. The author even makea sure to note in the book that beginner players should start with Winning Puzzles before Winning Exercises. But objectively, it isn't THAT hard. I'd put it at 1200-1300 and no higher. Also, it has quite a few puzzles. I think abkut 900 or so. All that being said, its a great book.

[@joeldick6871]

Just looking at my copy now. It has 100 sets of "Best Move Contest", which are each nine puzzles: three mates, three material-winning puzzles, one defensive problem, one "general" best move problem, usually more positional in nature, and one endgame problem. Plus, it has a tenth problem, which is just like a fun question to think about and answer, like "is it possible to give a double check by moving your king?" or "how many ways are there for a bishop to get from c4 to g6?". So that makes 900 puzzles plus 100 questions. Plus, there are twelve "Lily's Puzzlers" which are each two positions, a mate-in-one and a mate-in-two, and they are usually more like artificial compositions rather than real game situations. So that gives you another 24 puzzles. Plus, in the solutions he throws in some extra ones. Also, there are some great short lessons on general improvement advice like how to spend your time studying, using your brain, etc. Overall, a great book, especially for kids. It might be difficult for a seven-year-old who hasn't yet done an easier book (like the Winning Puzzles books in the same series), but you you and I, intermediate adult, it's fairly easy, like the level of 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners (which is not really that easy) or Susan Polgar's Tactics for Champions. As I said, not super easy, but not quite rising to the level of "intermediate".

[@benedictineonchessable]

Ah, thanks for the clarity. Yes, I thought it was bottom-end intermediate somewhere, but I didn't know how many puzzles it contains. That's more than I thought actually. Probably better in the beginner section then though.

[@benedictineonchessable]

Thanks for the additional info. It sounds a great book for beginners then. I like the format structure and no. of positions is very good.

[@joeldick6871]

You might consider adding Evaluate Like a Grandmaster by GM Evgeny Perelshteyn and Nate Solon, but that book is more aimed at positional training, especially evaluation, so not a true tactics luzzle book.

[@benedictineonchessable]

OK, thanks. Yes, I was thinking more tactical puzzles/traditional puzzles, but evaluation is interesting. Something that's overlooked quite a bit I think.

[@stewste4316]

great video

[@benedictineonchessable]

Cheers.

[@mikecantreed]

The chess school problems are captured in those chess king apps. I think its tactics for beginners and manual of chess combinations for the more difficult volumes. At least in the iOS store.

[@benedictineonchessable]

Yes, that's right. I think they have 1 and 2, but not 3 or maybe they do have 3 now but they didn't in the past. Book 3 is very mixed. There's some nice problems (I used the easier ones for the 3-5 Minute Chess Puzzle videos I did) but those are few. The majority are much harder calculation exercises.

[@neilpreece3791]

Think like a Super GM, is about how you think rather than training pattern recognition...well the clue is obviously in the title. It does illustrate convincingly the differences in how players at different levels think. Based on these limited anecdotal examples, it si clearly not just about having a bigger store of known positins.

[@benedictineonchessable]

Right, thanks it sounds interesting it feels like I need to read it now. Maybe it is in having a larger store of patterns that make you look/think differently, I don't know?

[@Socrates...]

Look for a book by M Blokh Combinational Motifs , 1200 problems. This material was the basis for the computer program CT ART

[@benedictineonchessable]

Cheers, that sounds good.

[@lachlanblack8882]

Soon as you defined your criteria, my first thought was: the brick has to be number 1!

[@benedictineonchessable]

Ha, ha yes.

[@user-np1ym6jt7r]

The step method steps 1, 2, and 3 are sold as computer programs from Shredder

[@benedictineonchessable]

Ah, are they? That's decent then. I think these would be better online.

[@johnnyirish9852]

I have Polgar's book as Kindle book, so it does not feel then that much big, but the contrast in the ebook is not perfect, so sometimes it's hard to see if the queen is a white or black one. Would you still recommend me to get the other books, or if I worked through the Polgar book, those would not give me much more?

[@benedictineonchessable]

Ah right. I would say the Lev Alburt book is basically a must buy. Definitely a great book. I did another video about it here:kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqOmZYuLbb9nj8ksi=jY5FpPSlnkt7jBzU

[@user-np1ym6jt7r]

Yes, just the first 3. Each is under $20. They are well done and each has numerous problems and instructions concerning each set. For step 2 there are 13 basic lessons each with about 140 problems. Eight advanced lessons with 120 to 140 problems, and 2 games sections with 11-12 game set ups in each. Except for the fact that they do not go past step 3 these are better than using the workbooks.

[@benedictineonchessable]

Oh that's a lot more problems than I thought they had! Yes, much better than the workbooks which are a bit flimsy to say the least. I think I have step issue four somewhere. I think I left it at work. I'm going to try and find it.

[@user-np1ym6jt7r]

I have taken an absence from chess for a year or two and as a 76 year old adult improver I am working my way through steps 2 and 3 on the computer. By the way I enjoy your podcast.

[@benedictineonchessable]

@@user-np1ym6jt7r Cheers. Best of luck with your chess.

[@user-np1ym6jt7r]

Thanks-Keep up the great podcasts