PRE-ORDER - The Basis of Combination in Chess: A Primer on Chess Tactics

A classic primer in chess tactics, illustrating all possible themes and material constellations.

About this book, Grandmaster Dr. Savielly Tartakower wrote: "A great expert and a great teacher, Mr. J. du Mont, in this book, gets very near to the ideal of instructing and entertaining at the same time Profound ideas, emitted without insistence, without preaching, similingly, making light of the difficulties of the subject, in passing, strolling along, but always moving forward hand in hand with the intrigues reader towards the ultimately aim: to improve, enrich, and deepen his game." Then World Champion, Dr. Alexander Alekhine wrote: "It is principally by learning to know and to appreciate the piece from this point of view - marveling at their powers and pitying them in their weakness (poor isolated pawns, poor pinned rooks and knights) - that it is possible to become an efficient director of the tragi-comedies which are played on the 64 squares. Mr. J du Mont has carefully studied his flock, composed of such varied elements. He is a master of his subject. He knows the teams which work well together (e.g. the two bishops)and those which do not get on so well (e.g. two knights which cannot effect a mate), the units which are in absolute need of the assistance of their companions (as the united pawns) and those which of their ownpower are often able to work miracles (the queens in queen endings, the king in pawn endings). He knows all this and imparts it to his readers with a wealth of illustration and dialectical facility beyond compare. Few books will be so useful to the beginner as also to the more advanced amateur as this novel study on the physiology of the chess pieces." The material has been carefully analyzed and updated by FIDE master Carsten Hansen