What do you think?
Rate this book
A Field Guide to Chess Tactics #1
Predator at the Chessboard Book I
This book is the first in a two-part set which contains over a thousand examples organized in unprecedented detail. Every position is accompanied by a commentary describing a train of thought that leads to the solution; these books thus are the ideal learning tool for those who prefer explanations in words to long strings of notation. This volume provides an introduction to tactics and explains forks and discovered attacks.
- GenresChessNonfiction
312 pages, Paperback
First published March 28, 2007
48 people are currently reading
297 people want to read
About the author
Ward Farnsworth
24 books255 followersWard Farnsworth is Dean and John Jeffers Research Chair at the University of Texas School of Law. He formerly was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at the Boston University Law School. He has served as a law clerk to Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court and to Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and worked as a Legal Adviser to the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in the Hague. He received his J.D. with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, and his B.A. from Wesleyan University.
Farnsworth is the author of books on law, philosophy, rhetoric, and chess. He also has published scholarly articles on the economic analysis of law, constitutional law, statutory interpretation, jurisprudence, and cognitive psychology. He serves as Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement Third, Torts: Liability for Economic Harm.
Farnsworth is the author of books on law, philosophy, rhetoric, and chess. He also has published scholarly articles on the economic analysis of law, constitutional law, statutory interpretation, jurisprudence, and cognitive psychology. He serves as Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement Third, Torts: Liability for Economic Harm.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 1, 2017
If there were one beginners book to chess I would recommend above all else it is Wards Farnsworths Predator at the Chessboard. Which besides being the best Chess Book I have ever read, it is one of the best books I have ever read period, certainly the best non-fiction book I have ever read, and launched a love of chess for me that lasted many years, while greatly improving my game.
Farnsworths book takes you step by step a thought process he developed to help you identify and exploit Tactics in chess. His tone is conversational, the same language you would get from somebody who was standing next to you giving you advice on what to look for. He also avoids the use of chess notation, which helps make the book more readable especially to the beginner. This helps make the book easier to get through and less dry. In addition, the lessons are broken into small portions you can learn from in isolation, allowing you to learn one relatively short lesson, put down the book, play some games, and be surprised when almost immediately what you learned becomes relevant.
He will give you a variety of examples to help familiarise yourself with tactics. It teaches you the most important tactical patterns to recognise, and breaks them into different categories, to allow you to identify slight modifications on the original patterns. He shows you how to find them in a real game, how to realise what pieces on the board are likely to be used and exploited by a tactic, and how to prevent tactics from being used against you. He goes from teaching you how to identify a tactic with all the other pieces stripped away, to how to identify it in a real game. He then explains how, when you discover a board has multiple tactics open to it at once, but none of the tactics on the board leads to an immediate advantage, how to think through string several tactics together to gain an advantage. He gradually builds on his concepts until he has built a comprehensive yet concise way to deal with tactics at the chess board, with none of his lengthy book being unnecessary fluff.
Once you've read his books on tactics, that's all you need, and I would suggest it's more useful to from thereon "drill" tactics by doing a variety of chess puzzles one after another to memorise the patterns. As time went on, I read this book some years ago, I found myself using Farnsworth's system less and less and relying more on shortcuts to find tactics I developed over years of play and practising chess puzzles. However his book was absolutely a huge stepping stone as it gave me a base of competency at the game that make it easier to understand more nuanced knowledge, which resulted in my online rating at the time combined with other practice of ~1200 elo to raise to ~1350 elo. Now Farnsworths book was the first I had read, and I was the ideal person to benefit from it having never studied tactics independently before, but nonetheless it was hugely helpful to me.
There is no easier way for the beginner to improve quickly than to improve in tactics, as most chess games are won and lost due to tactical deficits at the beginner to intermediate level. There is no better beginners book on tactics than Wards Farnsworth: Predator at the Chessboard.
Farnsworths book takes you step by step a thought process he developed to help you identify and exploit Tactics in chess. His tone is conversational, the same language you would get from somebody who was standing next to you giving you advice on what to look for. He also avoids the use of chess notation, which helps make the book more readable especially to the beginner. This helps make the book easier to get through and less dry. In addition, the lessons are broken into small portions you can learn from in isolation, allowing you to learn one relatively short lesson, put down the book, play some games, and be surprised when almost immediately what you learned becomes relevant.
He will give you a variety of examples to help familiarise yourself with tactics. It teaches you the most important tactical patterns to recognise, and breaks them into different categories, to allow you to identify slight modifications on the original patterns. He shows you how to find them in a real game, how to realise what pieces on the board are likely to be used and exploited by a tactic, and how to prevent tactics from being used against you. He goes from teaching you how to identify a tactic with all the other pieces stripped away, to how to identify it in a real game. He then explains how, when you discover a board has multiple tactics open to it at once, but none of the tactics on the board leads to an immediate advantage, how to think through string several tactics together to gain an advantage. He gradually builds on his concepts until he has built a comprehensive yet concise way to deal with tactics at the chess board, with none of his lengthy book being unnecessary fluff.
Once you've read his books on tactics, that's all you need, and I would suggest it's more useful to from thereon "drill" tactics by doing a variety of chess puzzles one after another to memorise the patterns. As time went on, I read this book some years ago, I found myself using Farnsworth's system less and less and relying more on shortcuts to find tactics I developed over years of play and practising chess puzzles. However his book was absolutely a huge stepping stone as it gave me a base of competency at the game that make it easier to understand more nuanced knowledge, which resulted in my online rating at the time combined with other practice of ~1200 elo to raise to ~1350 elo. Now Farnsworths book was the first I had read, and I was the ideal person to benefit from it having never studied tactics independently before, but nonetheless it was hugely helpful to me.
There is no easier way for the beginner to improve quickly than to improve in tactics, as most chess games are won and lost due to tactical deficits at the beginner to intermediate level. There is no better beginners book on tactics than Wards Farnsworth: Predator at the Chessboard.
January 5, 2015
Outstanding. This breaks down the basic tactical themes in a way that just fit perfectly for me -- whenever I finished a chapter, I would immediately start to see those ideas popping up in games. I read this online from his website.
October 23, 2016
A few days ago I decided to play a game of chess. During my school years I was very adept at the game, and was even nominated to lead the chess team for a brief spell before moving onto sports. It has been years since I've played yet for some reason I felt as though I'd pick back up where I'd started. Big mistake.
So much has evolved and adapted within the chess community that it's almost impossible NOT to be steamrolled. I was watching, mouth agape, as new techniques were being used before my eyes and I was unable to counter them, simply because I hadn't seen them before -- they certainly weren't being used in chess club!
However, this book changes all that. It provides you with ways to attack AND defend; how to counter these new techniques and how to perform them yourself. It's a neat pickup if you're into chess, and even if you're experienced it's no harm blowing away the dust on some alternative tactics.
So much has evolved and adapted within the chess community that it's almost impossible NOT to be steamrolled. I was watching, mouth agape, as new techniques were being used before my eyes and I was unable to counter them, simply because I hadn't seen them before -- they certainly weren't being used in chess club!
However, this book changes all that. It provides you with ways to attack AND defend; how to counter these new techniques and how to perform them yourself. It's a neat pickup if you're into chess, and even if you're experienced it's no harm blowing away the dust on some alternative tactics.
October 13, 2011
I am reading this book through Mr Farnsworth's excellent and attractive free website, which presents a complete graded course in chess tactics (forks, pins, skewers etc) with exercises. Each page presents a single diagrammed challenge to work out, with a paragraph or two of explanatory text.
With the logical layout and expert analysis, I am enjoying learning more about chess tactics and honing my skills at spotting opportunities to use them. I'm struck over and again by how the author maintains a perfect tone: clear, concise and entertaining. I've given this book a provisional 5-star rating; the bite-sized lessons are the chess-world's equivalent of a page-turner thriller.
With the logical layout and expert analysis, I am enjoying learning more about chess tactics and honing my skills at spotting opportunities to use them. I'm struck over and again by how the author maintains a perfect tone: clear, concise and entertaining. I've given this book a provisional 5-star rating; the bite-sized lessons are the chess-world's equivalent of a page-turner thriller.
March 2, 2020
A must read if you wish to be taken seriously at chess and break through the 1200 plateau on the Elo rating.
December 31, 2021
Exhaustive but comprehensive (and comprehendsable) introduction to chess tactics. I will be returning to this work frequently in the coming years
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2021
I read this book with great pleasure. It explains everything clearly and with lots of examples. I wish I had read this book a long time ago.
May 15, 2022
The best tactic explanation book for beginners.
January 6, 2015
Very well organized, flexible in progression, and geared toward anyone who wants to learn some formidable chess tactics. The text is written in a more casual format than what I've seen in other chess tactics books, making it very easy and accessible to people new to the game. You are also not expected to follow the book in chapter order, and can skip around to learn the different sections any way you choose. The only thing it assumes is that you know how all the pieces move and can read some minimal notation. This information can be read for free on the author's website, but I prefer to have a paperback copy to get my eyes away from the screen once in awhile. I recommend this one to anyone new to chess who wants to improve their game and understand the reasoning behind their moves, and plan to get the second book.
July 3, 2013
An excellent review of tactics - in this case the double attack and the discovered attack. I have seen my game improve, by recognizing these patterns and organizing my vision and moves. This book is written well, with engaging conversation, and little notation. For me, the "plain English" descriptions are very useful and welcome.
August 9, 2016
The best introduction book to chess tactics, period.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews