Balogh Csaba. 365 Greatest Puzzles. Part I (diagrams)

Chess evolution, 2012. — 42 p. — ISBN: 978-83-934656-2-0.It's not news that daily tactical practice should be part of everyones training regime - regardless of level. As the cover says, there are 365 puzzles from real games. This volume contains:1. Easy (109 Puzzles)
2. Medium (122 Puzzles)
3. Hard (74 Puzzles)
4. Tests (50 Puzzles)
5. Top 10 (10 Puzzles)The positions are sorted by date, so you get no hints on motif - which makes the positions harder and more realistic. As GM Csaba says in the introduction the Easy are a warm-up with some tough nuts thrown in.The author uses a unique device to act as a guide: there are "smiley faces" next to some positions. One says "there are two ways to victory", another says "there is a quite move here related to a tactical idea", a third says "It is impossible to calculate this to the end - use your intuition - feel your way" (wow), and a fourth that says "plan to spend the rest of the afternoon on this one" (actually the author says "it is really the time to have a deep thought" - he means it). Most positions have no smiley or hint of any kind besides 1. +- (white to win) 1...-+ (black to win), or even the occasional -/+ or +/- (better) or = (to draw).The book is bound well, the cover and pages have a nice feel and good production quality.I worked through the Easy section of the book using Dvoretsky's method of putting 20 minutes on a clock and working until I either get the position, or run out of time. There are also four positions per page, so you could also use the method of setting a time for the page and giving yourself a penalty for a wrong answer. I moved to the Easy section of Part II (Greatest 501 Puzzles From Practical Games of 2012, Part II), since Medium looked like it was for advanced players and the Hard section looked like it was for masters (not that I could really judge the real level except that they were over my head...).