Luther: Introduction to Elementary Tactics

Chess tactics are the essential basis for any chess training and the safest and most entertaining way to improve at chess. FIDE Senior Trainer and Grandmaster Thomas Luther has developed a course that systematically introduces chess tactics to beginners in chess training as well as chess fans who want to improve their playing strength.

To make it easier for inexperienced chess fans to get started, the course begins with simple exercises that help them to better understand how the pieces work. Then come the first tactical tasks, where the aim is to find checkmate or an advantage in one and soon more moves. It continues with the most important tactical motifs. These are the double attack (skewer and fork), the treacherous knight fork, the pin and how to escape it, overload, the discovered attack (with discovered check, double check and the "dilemma") and a short excursion into the history of chess, after which the reader can show that he is as good or better than the masters of the past in a series of 3-move checkmate tasks. The second volume contains further motifs and an introduction to chess strategy.

All of these motives are explained in detail and in an easy-to-understand manner, and the reader can use the exercises that follow to test whether they have understood everything. The exercise blocks are divided into two parts. In the first part, there are simple positions that clearly illustrate the principle. In the second part, the solutions are longer and sometimes preparatory moves are necessary to bring about the tactical strike.

Solution diagrams for all tasks make it possible for even inexperienced players to solve almost everything easily from the page. In the text and in the solutions, the reader receives a lot of useful advice for his game. Even readers without previous knowledge should be able to start training without any problems. Even advanced solvers can use the simple tasks as a "warm-up test".

The course is suitable for young and old alike - it is never too early or too late to learn or improve chess!