Ebook: One Thousand and One Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations

Excellent book chock-full of tactical exercises, from pretty easy to quite difficult. Only drawbacks are:

a) book is categorized into "themes". Best to take a magic marker and blot out the theme below, or just open it at any page and cover the theme. It's easy enough to know there is a tactical blow (unlike our games!); no need to help us further by telling us what KIND of tactic to look for!

b) some of the positions are too "swarming" with pieces. Usually, our games are not so full of 4-piece attacks on the king where tactics are obvious.
I think many of the positions are "elaborations" from game situations, and not realistic. However, many are quite realistic-looking.

c) descriptive notation--oh well, very minor drawback.

Lazlo Polgar's huge combinations book inclues 600 "miniature games" where there is a tactical shot that is usually a bit harder to see than Reinfeld's positions. But that book too also lists themes like g2/g7 or f3/f6 at the top of the page.

But becoming a tactical chess wiz is all about recognizing tactical patterns, so this book is a classic and must-have for tacticians.

Just once, I'd like to see a book of random positions, where you must choose the best move (and the best move is very clear, chosen by masters), and the move can be strategic or tactical. Larry Evans comes close, but he still gives 2 choices in his books, and many of his positions are a bit too challenging.