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Rating: 
Summary: excellent for all skill levels
Review: Bruce Pandolfini has written one of the best chess tactics books I have ever bought. The book contains basic tactical themes such as pin, removing the guard, discovery and so on. There are eleven such themes plus mating attacks. The solutions to the problems are given in back. What makes this book unique is the authors excellent teaching style. He gives advice on mastering these tactics by telling the reader to try to solve them a little quicker each time he does them. This trains your "chess vision" to a high level. At the end of the book he gives some tips on how to improve your tactics, which is some of the best advice I have ever read about chess. The value in this book is its simplicity. The illustrations show no more than ten pieces on the board, making it easier to understand the tactical themes being demonstrated. Although the book is written for beginners,it can be used by all skill levels. The author writes in this book that the great grandmaster Mikhail Tal used to look through beginners books looking for ideas. He did this probably because beginner books boil down chess to basic ideas that show up even in the most advanced chess. Also even the knowledge in beginners books can constantly be perfected, which can make for a very powerful player. This is a tactics book that should be turned to again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: Makes a nice Log for Fire...
Review: I enjoyed this chess primer a great deal. I'd say it has more to offer beginners than "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess," by Bobby Fischer, though not as much as "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Chess," by Patrick Wolff. Still, I'd rank it close to my all-time favorite, "The Right Way To Play Chess" by D. Brine Pritchard. As is the norm with chess primers, Mr. Pandolfini gives brief sections and descriptions of the board, the pawns and pieces, how they move and capture, how a game is won or drawn, etc. Then he engages in brief essays of chess tactics. He discusses the main tactics that beginners should know, including the pin, fork, skewer, discovered attack, and undermine. The section on rules, how to play, and tactics take up the first part of the book, written in 30 short sections. You'll breeze through them quickly. Then you get to the second part, in which you have a chance to put the theory into practice by trying to figure out the best move to 300 puzzles, divided into 30 tests of ten puzzles each. 300 may sound like a lot, but each puzzle has just a few pieces and/or pawns on the diagrams. The idea is to build your tactical awareness and peripheral vision, if I may. If you have time to do one test a day, you can finish in a month. I had to dock this book one star because only a handful of the puzzles have checkmate as the objective. I agree with Bobby Fischer's notion that, since checkmate is the object of the game, it seems the most natural and logical place to start. Had Mr. Pandolfini provided more mating--not just tactical--puzzles to solve, this could have been a truly great chess primer. Alas, it's merely good. For a more thorough study of how to checkmate, I recommend A.J. Gillam's "Simple Checkmates." It complements Mr. Pandolfini's book nicely.
Rating:
Summary: The Best I've Purchased So Far!
Review: Ignore any review that puts this book down. It's a must have! I've read many books on chess and this book was the one that resulted in my playing better chess immediately! Even before I finished half the book, I began seeing better opportunities in my games. This book will be a literal 'eye opener' because you won't believe the things you're missing in your games! Bruce Pandolfini really does a masterful job in training your eye to see things you would otherwise overlook. And you don't even need a chess board in front of you! This book is a must have for anyone whether they've just started learning the game, or have been playing for years as I have. Time flies while working through this book because it is challenging and most of all FUN! It would be a great travel companion! I recommend this book highly along with BOBBY FISCHER TEACHES CHESS. Both are easy to understand and follow, and perfect whether you're a beginner or not. It will be money well spent! YOUR GAME WILL IMPROVE!
Rating:
Summary: The Best I've Purchased So Far!
Review: Ignore any review that puts this book down. It's a must have! I've read many books on chess and this book was the one that resulted in my playing better chess immediately! Even before I finished half the book, I began seeing better opportunities in my games. This book will be a literal 'eye opener' because you won't believe the things you're missing in your games! Bruce Pandolfini really does a masterful job in training your eye to see things you would otherwise overlook. And you don't even need a chess board in front of you! This book is a must have for anyone whether they've just started learning the game, or have been playing for years as I have. Time flies while working through this book because it is challenging and most of all FUN! It would be a great travel companion! I recommend this book highly along with BOBBY FISCHER TEACHES CHESS. Both are easy to understand and follow, and perfect whether you're a beginner or not. It will be money well spent! YOUR GAME WILL IMPROVE!
Rating: 
Summary: collection of VERY simple tactics
Review: The collection of tactical puzzles in this book are the easiest that I have ever seen. Most of the problems are 1 move tactics such moving a knight to fork two pieces. Some of the problems simply involve capturing a piece that is hanging. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but unless you have just learned the game it probably will be too simple for you. But if you have just learned how the pieces move, this will be a great start on the way to starting to solve tactical problems, which are a key to becoming a better player. I am not familiar with many other tactics books that are this simple. A 1400 rated player could probably go through the whole book in an hour. It is probably even more simple than Bobby Fischer Teaches chess. But while that book focuses mostly on back rank checkmates, this covers different positions, with diagram after diagram for you to find the best move. One nice thing is that in the end he doesn't just give the answer, he briefly explains why it is the answer. So instead of just saying "Nf6", he says "Nf6 forking the king and queen". Most tactics books, even for beginners just give the answer, and no explanation about why it is the answer, if you don't see it.
Rating:
Summary: collection of VERY simple tactics
Review: The collection of tactical puzzles in this book are the easiest that I have ever seen. Most of the problems are 1 move tactics such moving a knight to fork two pieces. Some of the problems simply involve capturing a piece that is hanging. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but unless you have just learned the game it probably will be too simple for you. But if you have just learned how the pieces move, this will be a great start on the way to starting to solve tactical problems, which are a key to becoming a better player. I am not familiar with many other tactics books that are this simple. A 1400 rated player could probably go through the whole book in an hour. It is probably even more simple than Bobby Fischer Teaches chess. But while that book focuses mostly on back rank checkmates, this covers different positions, with diagram after diagram for you to find the best move. One nice thing is that in the end he doesn't just give the answer, he briefly explains why it is the answer. So instead of just saying "Nf6", he says "Nf6 forking the king and queen". Most tactics books, even for beginners just give the answer, and no explanation about why it is the answer, if you don't see it.
Rating:
Summary: Makes a nice Log for Fire...
Review: When the fire was about to die, and no logs were left. I looked around the house for something I could toss on. Lucky for me I still had a copy of this book. I would of given this book 1 star, but it burned rather well. Honestly this book is just a bit below average. There are much better starter books to help your chess. The Mammoth Book of Chess and Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess just to name a few... Also perhaps just getting a good puzzle book like the one from John Emms. The huge Chess book from Polgar would be a wiser choice. Least the price is not bad if you insist on buying this book.
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