1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners: The Tactics Workbook that Explains the Basic Concepts, Too

by Franco Masetti, Roberto Messa, Richard Jones (Translator)

Chess is 99% tactics! This well-known maxim may sound strange but is really just an exaggerated basic if you want to win more games, nothing works better than training combinations. Solving many tactical puzzles is what makes the difference for beginners and casual players.

There are two types of books on tactics, those that introduce the concepts followed by a some examples, and workbooks that contain numerous exercises. Chess masters Franco Masetti and Roberto Messa have done they explain the basic tactical ideas AND provide an enormous amount of exercises for each different theme.

1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners is a great first tactics book. It helps you in identifying weak spots in the position of your opponent, in recognizing patterns of combinations, and in visualizing tricks.

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Mathematics

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 2012

Reviews

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book on basic tactics, which includes a healthy combination of motif-based exercises (starting with mate-in-one and mate-in-two positions) and then mixed motif positions. For me, it's in the sweet spot where I get 80-90% of them right without guessing. For me that has been the level for reinforcement of tactical patterns (others have a different difficulty level recommendation). I know purists (like me from 5 years ago) will say that you should set the positions up on a board and solve them, but I don't have that kind of time. If I want to do that, I will get out a book on Studies like 888 Miniature Studies. My first pass was using Chessable or looking at the diagrams in the physical book. My second pass is also using Chessable. I find that if I do a dozen or so, I feel warmed up to play online chess. The positions feel better than the computer-discovered puzzles on some of the online sites I use, like Chess Tempo or Lichess.

[Vlad Veen · Rating 4 out of 5]

1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners is exactly what the title suggests: a compendium of instructive chess positions (often studies or positions from actual games) that illustrate important tactical motifs and combinations for new and lower-rated players, ranging from common checkmate patterns, double attacks, skewers, deflections, and drawing opportunities. The puzzles are assorted by theme and each theme typically begins with a succinct introduction/explanation of the concept, including a brief hint for each problem.

I started the workbook as an 1100-1200 rated player (having played for about 4 months) and I found this immensely helpful. Author Franco Masetti and International Master Roberto Messa do an effective job selecting informative puzzles that, when known by heart, make similar positions simple to navigate. I was already familiar with the tactics, but the selected puzzles helped iron out my understanding and recognition of them. Taking your time with each exercise, rather than checking the solutions after a few minutes, to find the moves (and anticipating the opponent's response) is where the educational value comes in; some of them even took me a few hours to properly understand. I recommend completing about 12 puzzles per day, making sure to assess the checks, captures, and threats (in that order), and I think anyone will see steady improvement in their play. It's also useful to test some of the puzzles in an engine (I used the one on chess.com) after completing it to test out other candidate moves and why they don't work, especially when it isn't discussed in the solutions section. The only (minor) fault I can really attribute was the lack of presence of a few tactics, namely desperado and interference. They appeared in a few problems, but without any explanation. Not that they necessarily needed their own dedicated chapters, but I think they should've been included in the glossary at least.

Overall, a solid workbook for starting players that anyone 1300 (or less) can find value in. Also easy to find as a free PDF online (at least at time of posting).

[Slow3635 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! 1001 tactical puzzles in one book. Nowadays, you can play unlimited tactical puzzles online for free. But there's something special about learning from a book and getting offline. This book has many more puzzles than most tactics books. A page typically contains 12 small diagrams. The puzzles are grouped into the following themes: mate in one, mate in two, the missing piece, double attack, discovered attack, discovered check, pin, skewer, deflection, decoy sacrifice, pawn promotion, drawing tactics, mixed motifs (White), mixed motifs (Black), mate in three, mate in four, and curiosities. Most of this is very standard stuff for a tactics book, but the chapter called "The missing piece" is unique: you have to place a designated piece somewhere on the board to deliver mate or gain a winning position. The last chapter, "Curiosities," is also unique and a lot of fun. It's also very nice to have the chapters on "Mixed Motifs" where each problem can have several tactical ideas and you don't have a hint like "look for a skewer." For the most part, I think the puzzles are well chosen with a variety of difficulty levels.

As fun as this book is, there is something to beware. Despite the title, this book is definitely not for beginning chess players. Beginning chess players have a hard time seeing when a piece is attacked. This book is much too hard for beginners. Make sure your online rating is at least 1200 on chess.com or 1400 on lichess.org before committing to read this book. My chess.com rating is over 2000 and I found the book enjoyable and I was challenged by many of the problems. The subtitle of the book is "The tactics workbook that explains the basic concepts, too!" First of all, I've never seen a tactics book that doesn't explain the basic concepts of the different tactics. Secondly, this book is actually very light on the explanations. If I were a beginner chess player, I would have rated this book lower.

At eighteen dollars, this book is an excellent buy for an advanced beginner, intermediate, or even strong chess player who wants to do a lot of puzzles offline, something I think all chess players should do. Remember, these puzzles were carefully chosen and/or created by humans that know what they're doing. Online banks of puzzles are created by computer programs and are not hand-selected.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm using the Chessable app and site to go through the puzzles in this book. What that means is that you're never really finished and end up playing over the exercises many times. But that is the point of Chessable. So, I've gone through the book a number of times already. The first part of the book is for beginners. After that though the exercises can become quite challenging but not impossible. A good tactics book.

[Jason Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

These wonderful exercises kept me busy for quite a long time. I could not come close to solving them all and had to give up on many.

Many puzzles I enjoyed enough to discuss with members of my chess club. I feel accomplished having gone through all 1001 puzzles. Hopefully, my playing will also see an improvement.

[Wong Kah Hoong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I consider this a must-have for every chess beginner. This book took me about 5 months to work through, but it was very rewarding. At the end of it, you feel as if you are now a better tactician. I can personally vouch for it and say that I am now a sharper tactician than I was before I started the book and a better chess player overall. Great book, I cannot recommend it enough as a starter.

[Dominik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm beginner player (around 1200 ELO rapid) and I found this book to be very good in learning tactics.
I really recommend buying it through Chassable - the book has many exercises and it saves you putting positions on the board, so you can focus on calculating moves only.

[Eddyn Roe · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good

[Joel Rockey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent set of tactics. Don't let the title deceive you. Some of these puzzles are quite challenging.

[Firoze Cassim · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an excellent book! However, although it is titled Beginners and I am an Intermediate player, I found most of the puzzles to be very difficult.