I’m currently proofreading Chess Puzzles for Heroes, a puzzle book designed for players between about 1000 to 1500 strength.

The puzzles in this book are taken from my Richmond Junior Club database. The book is designed to teach and reinforce different thinking methods you might use when calculating tactics in your games.

Chapter 2, for example, Trick or Treat, presents you with a series of positions and a suggested move.

Very often you might see a tactical idea, such as a sacrifice, which looks good, but you have to stop and calculate to make sure it works. For each question you score points for correctly identifying the move as a trick (bad move) or a treat (good move) and further points for providing accurate analysis to support your view.

Here’s an example. It’s Black’s move. Is Qxf3 a Trick or a Treat?