Chess books

Eighteen Kindle books by Carl Brodsky, who also built this trainer. They are $2.99 each and they are not a different product from the site: the same puzzles, the same ideas, worked at length on paper instead of a few minutes at a time in a browser.

We publish these, so treat this page as the disclosure it is. Everything on the rest of this site is free and stays free, and nothing here is required to use any of it.

The books

• Chess for Beginners Starts at the pieces and the rules, then the first tactics worth knowing.
• Easy Chess Puzzles Short puzzles with one clear answer, for someone who has just learned how the pieces move.
• Chess for Intermediate Players For the point where you know the patterns and keep losing to them anyway.
• Winning at Chess The tactics that decide club games, worked one at a time.
• Chess Tactics Book: Improve and Win A working set of tactical positions rather than a book about tactics.
• Chess Strategy and Tactics: Win the Middlegame Where the game is usually decided, and what to look for when nothing is hanging.
• Blind Chess Tactics Solve in your head. The position is given, the board is not.
• Club Level Blind Chess Tactics The same idea at club strength, once the easy ones stop being hard.
• Advanced Blind Chess Tactics Longer lines held entirely in your head.
• Rossolimo Blind Chess Tactics Blindfold work drawn from one opening, for players who meet it often.
• Chess Moves to Win The move that ends it, found in your head before you touch a piece.
• Chess Practice Daily practice that fits in your head. No board, no app, no timer.
• Chess Learning Book Learn by finding it yourself, which is the only way it sticks.
• Chess 960 Puzzles Fischer Random. The pieces start somewhere else, so memorised theory is worth nothing.
• Freestyle Chess 960 Puzzles Positions from real freestyle games, cut for club players.
• Fischer Random Chess Puzzles A full Elo climb through Chess960, beginner to master.
• Opening Tactics Chess 960 Puzzles An opening book with no theory to memorise, because in 960 there is none.
• Mate in One Chess 960 Puzzles Mate in one, on a board you have never seen before.

Which one

If you are starting out, Chess for Beginners covers the rules and the first tactics. If you already play and want the pattern work, Chess Tactics Book is the straightforward set.

The Blind Chess Tactics books are a different exercise: the position is given in words and you solve without a board. If that sounds like something you want, try the free blindfold trainer first. It is the same skill and it costs nothing to find out whether you like it.