Almost every chess book has a section with problems or puzzles to solve, but those devoted purely to problem solving are rare, especially the ones worth getting. I have compiled a list of what I think are 10 best chess puzzle books. Unlike in the other lists you can find on Chessreads, the order matters very little here, and almost all 10 books are of equal value. I have included books that focus on tactical puzzles, strategic puzzles, and endgame puzzles. Most chess books and online resources that provide puzzles focus on tactics, especially checkmating attacks. That is why I have tried to provide a variety of resources which will cover positional play, strategic play, planning, endgame strategy, as well as defensive problems.
The Giant Chess Puzzle Book is a great resource for beginners and advanced players alike. It begins by covering every important tactical theme, concept and pattern one needs to understand in order to solve puzzles successfully and efficiently. It continues with a set of elementary, introductory problems, many of which are accompanied by written hints, something many tactics books lack.
From here, things get more difficult. The rest of the positions are harder, in increasing difficulty, finishing with problems on Grandmaster level, but still accompanied by hints to start with, making each chapter easy to approach, and each set of problems more understandable for inexperienced players.
Read The Giant Chess Puzzle Book
Calculation is a collection of exercises Jacob Aagaard had prepared while he was working with Boris Gelfand and helping him prepare for the 2008 World Cup and Candidates cycle. It’s the best selling and most popular book in the GM Preparation series with 5 reeditions so far. The book is around 90% the exact training material Gelfand had solved while preparing. After that, he won the World Cup, won the 2009 Candidates, and almost became the world champion. The exercises are high level, but they are doable for mortals like you and me.
I’ve recently had the pleasure to interview GM Aagaard. Among other topics, we discussed calculation and how to improve it.
Read GM Preparation: Calculation
400 Chess Strategy Puzzles trains your positional and strategic understanding. Unlike most puzzle collections, it will teach you how to improve your position gradually, by asking the correct questions, and “talking to your pieces”. Kravtsiv explains each position well, annotating key parts of every important variation. He provides more than enough detail for advanced players, perhaps less so for those new to complex chess strategy. The book features positions from recent games played on all levels, it doesn’t focus on Grandmaster play alone, which makes it very unlikely you’ll encounter a position you’ve already seen. It’s divided into three sections: Pawns and structure, Pieces, and Mixed themes, each subdivided in increasing order of difficulty.
Solve the 400 Chess Strategy Puzzles
The largest puzzle book ever written, Polgar’s 5334 problems include 306 mates in one, 3412 mates in two, 744 mates in three, 144 simple endgames, and 128 complex combinations. The guy raised three best female players of the 20th century. He was a brutally strict coach from what I’ve read, emphasizing hard work over natural ability, and he has proven his theories correct. He highlighted problem solving in chess development, same as many other authors and coaches, and his collection of puzzles is the result of decades of work. Personally, I don’t find mate in one or two problems as interesting as those that don’t have a clear solution required, but I also tend to miss mating combinations in my own games. Thus far I have completed around 30% of the problems. Some are quite hard but all of them are manageable for anyone above 1800 fide.
Solve 5334 Problems and Combinations
Strategic Play is Jacob Aagaard’s manual of how to solve complex positions. In the introduction, Jacob introduces us to four types of decisions; automatic decisions, simple decisions, and finally, complex decisions – the hardest positions of all. They require intuition, calculation, planning, and an understanding of general strategic and positional concepts. Strategic Play focuses on making complex decisions. It is divided into five chapters; Squares, Pieces, Prophylaxis, Dynamics and Fighting the tide. Each chapter is accompanied by very difficult problems. In a way, Strategic play combines Calculation and Positional play into one book.
Read GM Preparation: Strategic Play
Supreme Chess Understanding explains the difference between static and dynamic advantages, highlighting the importance of being able to do so while playing, and how knowing where your advantage (or disadvantage) lies enables you to evaluate, plan, and play precisely, according to what the position requires. Moranda goes over each problem in great depth, ensuring proper understanding of all the features of the position one had to appreciate in order to solve it. For everyone who’s already covered the basics of calculation, strategy, and positional play, this book will be a great tool for improving understanding of different types of complex positions.
Read Supreme Chess Understanding
If I had to choose one puzzle book from the list I’d recommend to every chess player, regardless of strength, it would be Perfect Your Chess. The concept is new, refreshing compared to almost every other chess book, and incredibly useful.
The book is divided into three sections, each different in nature. The first section is very similar to actual play, as you’re just given a position and asked to make a move. The second section requires you to find a winning move, making it, in my opinion, way less challenging than the first, as you know what to look for. But the third section is pure brilliancy. Solving it is like having a 100-hour lesson with a GM coach. You are given 98 positions with 98 specific questions you must answer. That method of teaching is what makes chess lessons useful. Having the same resources in a book is wonderful. I wish someone would write a dozen more books like this one.
Attack and Defense is a result of Aagaard’s work with Sam Shankland and Gelfand in 2014. Aagaard is a Grandmaster, one of the best chess authors, but, most of all, a chess coach. He has worked with some of the strongest players in the world, and this book is a result of that work. A series of exercises for Grandmaster level preparation in offensive and defensive positions. The book is structured according to advanced attacking principles. Not themes such as h-file attacks, or attacking a fianchetto, but concepts that apply in any position. Attack and Defense is a book for advanced players who want to become more efficient at calculation, attacking, converting positions, and defending worse positions.
Read GM Preparation: Attack and Defense
Conceptual Rook Endgames Workbook is meant to teach you how to recognize and navigate recurring patterns in themes essential for understanding and playing rook endgames well. It does a very good job of introducing, explaining, and, most importantly, forcing you to become skilled at playing rook endgames. It consists of 208 problems of varying difficulty. The difficulty increases with each chapter. As Aagaard puts it, “…chapter four is challenging to Grandmasters, and chapter five is simply brutal.” The first three chapters are easier. My completion rate for the 208 problems was 77%, and only 49% for the fifth chapter alone.
Endgame studies are what most strong Grandmasters have used for their early training. They are difficult, and require you to develop keen senses in both calculation and imagination, something that no other learning resource can provide. I used to solve them on arves, a great free resource, but the endgame studies there tend to be less useful as they are not handpicked, and you often end up solving a very poorly composed problem. Kasparyan is probably one of the most famous composers and collectors of endgame studies in history.
No one has come close to creating a collection as wonderful and as brutally difficult as his 2545 studies. They are well analyzed, with very few mistakes (it was written in the age of weak engines), and with great explanations. If you solve them all, your vision will expand, you will play more imaginatively in all stages of the game, and your calculation will sharpen dramatically.
Solving chess puzzles is among the most important areas of chess training, alongside playing and analyzing games. It recreates near tournament conditions, and makes you pay attention to details, plan ahead, calculate, visualize, and evaluate resulting positions. GM Aagaard is of the opinion that we should be solving both easy and difficult problems. The easy puzzles should be solved quickly, intuitively, and they will serve to improve our pattern recognition. The hard ones, that require deep focus and precise calculation, should be solved precisely, paying attention to every detail. I have compiled this list making sure it included both types of puzzles.
