A Free 700-Page Chess Manual Explains 1,000 Chess Tactics in Straightforward English

Image by Michael Mag­gs, via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons

FYI: In 2011, Ward Farnsworth pub­lished a two-vol­ume col­lec­tion called Preda­tor at The Chess­board: A Field Guide To Chess Tac­tics (Vol­ume 1Vol­ume 2where he explains count­less chess tac­tics in plain Eng­lish. In this 700-page col­lec­tion, “there are 20 chap­ters, about 200 top­ics with­in them, and over 1,000 [chess] posi­tions dis­cussed.” Now for the even bet­ter part: Farnsworth has also made these vol­umes avail­able free online. Just vis­it chesstactics.org and scroll down the page. There you will find the con­tent that’s oth­er­wise avail­able in Farnsworth’s books. With this free resource, you can start mak­ing your­self a bet­ter chess play­er when­ev­er you have the urge, or espe­cial­ly as you watch The Queen’s Gam­bit on Net­flix.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

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Gar­ry Kas­parov Now Teach­ing an Online Course on Chess

A Human Chess Match Gets Played in Leningrad, 1924

Man Ray Designs a Supreme­ly Ele­gant, Geo­met­ric Chess Set in 1920 (and It’s Now Re-Issued for the Rest of Us)

Play Chess Against the Ghost of Mar­cel Duchamp: A Free Online Chess Game

A Beau­ti­ful Short Doc­u­men­tary Takes You Inside New York City’s Last Great Chess Store

A Brief His­to­ry of Chess: An Ani­mat­ed Intro­duc­tion to the 1,500-Year-Old Game


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Comments (14)
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  • John Gibson says:

    Preda­tor at the Chess­board is a flat-out ped­a­gog­i­cal mas­ter­piece. Each tac­tic is intro­duced in the sim­plest pos­si­ble cir­cum­stances, fol­lowed by a sequence of incre­men­tal­ly added com­plex­i­ties, until you’re look­ing for the tac­tic by pat­tern recog­ni­tion, or a few moves ahead, as you would in a real game. Each game board is accom­pa­nied by a para­graph explain­ing in clear terms what you should be look­ing for and think­ing as you scan the posi­tion.

    I worked through these books over eigh­teen months, about half an hour a night. If you’re look­ing for a place to learn tac­tics and see the beau­ty of the game, there’s no bet­ter resource.

  • Gas says:

    I only find a link to ama­zon. Not a free down­load link.

  • Don says:

    Please for­ward the down load please.

  • Rogelio P Caacbay says:

    Request to have a free copy of the said chess man­u­al

  • Larry Hardison says:

    Links do not take you to any “Free” books. Links take you to Amazon.com = 1st Book @ $20.00; 2nd Book @ $25.00.

    Have triple checked to ensure com­ment is cor­rect.

  • Dr.T says:

    I know moral­i­ty is all but out­dat­ed. But this shame­ful mar­ket­ing scheme will ulti­mate­ly meet its con­se­quence.

  • George Burgoyne says:

    I used to be a keen chess play­er in the past, but haven’t played for many years. I would love to fresh­en up my for­mer skills.

  • Growing Pains says:

    To every­one won­der­ing why the links point to Ama­zon where the book is avail­able for pur­chase. As I under­stood the arti­cle the con­tent of the books is being made freely avail­able on the web site. It was nev­er stat­ed that free books were avail­able. I under­stand the desire for free stuff but this is still a gift nonethe­less.

  • Josh Brown says:

    Chess is the most per­fect game from the pieces, how they move, to the pawns’ under-rat­ed pow­er, all the way to the light and dark 64 squares you play on

  • Josh Brown says:

    Chess is war

  • Alessandro says:

    mis­lead­ing adver­tis­ing

  • Thad says:

    You’re click­ing the wrong link then accus­ing some­one of immoral tac­tics.

    Moron.

  • Thad says:

    You’re shame­ful

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