“The easiest, quickest and most effective way to improve your overall game is to increase your tactical vision. Many good positions are lost because a key moment is passed by and a player misses the opportunity to win by a beautiful combination. This book is designed simply to help you improve your play by seeing tactics better.” – Martyn Kravtsiv

Written along similar lines to Gambit’s earlier Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book, this new work presents 600 puzzles, mostly from the last two years, that are chosen for instructive value and maximum training benefit. To ensure that few will be familiar to readers, Kravtsiv has deliberately chosen positions from obscure games or from analysis. If you find the right answers, it will be because you worked them out yourself!

The solutions feature plenty of verbal explanations of the key points, and cover most of the logical but incorrect answers. The book is completed with a set of ‘no clues’ tests, and an index of themes that will be useful to coaches and those looking to focus on specific aspects of tactics – or just seeking extra clues!

Martyn Kravtsiv is an experienced grandmaster from Lviv, Ukraine. His tournament results include tied first places at Cappelle in 2012 and the 2015 Ukrainian Championship, as well as being blitz champion of the 2008 World Mind Sports Games (at age 17). He represented his country at the 2017 World Team Championship and was a coach for the team that won silver medals at the 2016 Olympiad.

Download a pdf file with a sample from the book.

Watch a YouTube video in which GM John Nunn presents a sample from this book.

“The book’s diagrams are large. I did not have to strain to see the chessmen, which is good. Each puzzle’s solution is clearly explained. If you are looking for a challenging and well-formatted puzzle book, 600 Modern Chess Puzzles is a great choice” – WIM Alexey Root, SparkChess.com

“And this will be music to ears of any chess trainer: the author has listed the themes associated with the exercises in a neat index at the back of the book” – IM Herman Grooten, schaaksite.nl

“There is no better way to improve your tactical skills than with this book from Martyn Kravtsiv!” – John Elburg, chessbooks.nl

“Has innovative ways to train tactics such as practicing choosing between two similar moves” – Miguel Ararat, Florida Chess Magazine

“Offers 600 well-chosen puzzles organized by theme and degree of difficulty. The exercises are accompanied by hints, comprehensive solutions and an index of themes. This is a superior puzzle book” – IM John Donaldson

“The fact that these are recent positions makes it more interesting and the fact that the reader won’t have seen most (any?) of the positions brings new life into the puzzle studies. Books such as this are perfect for taking with you on a trip to read in a car, on a railway platform, in an aircraft or in my case waiting to see a doctor!” – Carl Portman, Carl Portman Blog