A guide for chess-players to help them spot unlikely-looking tactical tricks and launch cunning attacks. Readers are shown how to hunt the enemy king and how to seize the initiative with surprising sacrifices. LeMoir shows that the key factors in becoming a deadly tactician are motivation (having the willingness to sacrifice and to consider tactical ideas during play), imagination (being aware of tactical concepts that lead to ideas which other players might miss) and calculation (being able to analyse and calculate effectively).

This user-friendly and humorously written book contains many outstanding examples of seized opportunities, together with guidance on how to spot surprising tactics and handle positions of material imbalance. Throughout, there are exercises for the reader to tackle.

David LeMoir is an experienced chess player and writer. He twice won the championship of the West of England and was runner-up on four occasions. In 2000, he was Champion of the English county of Norfolk. In a successful career as a business strategy consultant, he has made good use of the strategic and decision-making skills that are developed by playing chess. This is his second chess book: see also How to be Lucky in Chess and Essential Chess Sacrifices.

Download a pdf file with a sample from the book.

"For most club-level chess players, winning a game with a spectacular sacrifice is the stuff of dreams. This book is written especially for them" - Bab Wilders, Nederlands Dagblad

"My advice is to buy it and settle back to an exhilarating read, more exciting games and an improvement in your grading." - Bill Frost, www.chessdevon.co.uk

"Expect plenty of anecdotal tips from top players. Also there are numerous excerpts from brilliant games... all in all a very professional publication" - Mark Robertson, Weekend Chess

"Hardly a page goes by without at least two diagrams. There is an extensive tactics test at the end with equally extensive solutions. It is all written in an engaging style. The bottom line is, in a world of overpriced chess books, $19.95 qualifies here as a bargain." - Daniel Lucas, Georgia Chess

"This is LeMoir's second book for GAMBIT (the first was How to be Lucky in Chess) and already it is apparent that the publishers have discovered yet another good new author.... Lemoir offers us a cornucopia of rich tactical positions that can be simply enjoyed or used as material for training in imagination and calculation. There are many practical tips along the way and there is also some interesting discussion of how to learn to calculate better, and the role of intuition. LeMoir writes entertainingly and I challenge any player not to enjoy this book. " Phil Adams, 3Cs website

"I absolutely loved this book... his approach to explaining, categorizing, and reinforcing the tactical ideas is unique enough enough to make them easy to recall and apply when those themes arise in your own games" - Peter Connor, Chessville.com

"LeMoir has selected his chess material extremely well - there are a huge number of startling examples which I'd never seen before - and his comments are always entertaining or instructive" - GM Matthew Sadler, New-in-Chess

"A royal feast of chess fireworks... After reading this book I decided that I ought to try and put into practice what I had read... read it and you too may be similarly inspired!" - Alan Sutton, En Passant

"He begins by going back to the days of Morphy and Anderssen and tracing the history of tactics to the present day. Other topics include silent sacrifices, brilliant blunders, and how not to calculate combinations. At the end of each topic there are three different levels of exercises (78 total) and it finishes with a series of three tests containing 36 exercises. Recommended for all players." - Mark Donlan, Chess Horizons

"How to Become a Deadly Chess Tactician by David LeMoir makes you want to do something about your tactical skills. Read it and you will be more dangerous than before. To solve the tasks in the book and to read the text is as much fun as just looking at the illustrations which make the book very pleasant to read. " - Martin B. Fischer, KARL

"...combines instruction with humour in a handsome volume, illustrated with hundreds of examples" - JJ Walsh, Irish Times