The Knight's Notebook Start solving

Upgrade your chess.
On paper.

Sixty printed positions a month, graded to your rating. You meet the same shapes often enough that they start turning up in your games on their own.

Pick your rating

You know how the pieces move. Now the basic shapes — the fork, the pin, the back rank — have to become automatic, and that only comes from meeting them often.

You find tactics when you go looking for them. The point of this level is to find them when you are not looking, in the middle of a game you are trying to win.

You calculate well enough. What is missing is the idea arriving before the calculation does — the combination you see whole, before you check it.

Start training — €60 See inside the book
Free worldwide shipping30-day guarantee Cancel and we refund what we haven't sent
What changes

The move starts arriving on its own.

Now

You see the tactic afterwards, when the engine points at it, and you recognise that you could have found it.

A few books in

You see it while the clock is running, because the shape on the board is one you have already met forty times on paper.

We will not sell you a number. Puzzle ratings and game ratings are not the same thing, and anyone promising you a specific gain is guessing. What this is, precisely, is the repeated exposure that pattern recognition is made of — printed, graded and posted to you so that it actually happens.

What you get

A book, not an app.

Sixty positions a month

Six chapters of ten, ordered from plain to nasty, with every answer worked out in the back.

Graded to your rating

Three bands — 600–1000, 1000–1400, 1400–1800 — and you can move between them whenever you like.

It opens flat

Stapled, not glued, so it stays open on the table while you think and closes without a crease.

One idea per chapter

Ten positions on the same motif in a row, so the shape is still in your head when you reach the tenth.

Room to write in ink

Ruled lines beside every diagram. You commit to a move before you turn the page, which is the whole point.

No screen, no streak

It comes through the letterbox. Nothing to log into, nothing to keep alive, nothing asking for your attention.

Book No. 1 · Beginner

First Patterns

The six shapes that decide almost every game at this level. One pattern per chapter, ten positions each, and nothing that needs more than two moves of calculation.

Sixty positions · 610–997 Elo

01 Mate in one Seeing the finishing square 610–989 Elo
02 The piece left hanging Look before you build 714–985 Elo
03 The fork One piece, two targets 757–997 Elo
04 The pin The piece that cannot move 781–993 Elo
05 The skewer A pin turned inside out 670–986 Elo
06 Mate in two Force it, then finish it 610–991 Elo
Book No. 1 · Intermediate

Tactical Patterns

The patterns stop being single moves and start being combinations. Two ideas chained together, and defences you have to answer before you commit.

Sixty positions · 1001–1380 Elo

01 The fork One piece, two targets 1012–1380 Elo
02 The discovered attack The move behind the move 1011–1364 Elo
03 The skewer A pin turned inside out 1010–1365 Elo
04 Deflection Pull the defender away 1004–1358 Elo
05 The back rank Trapped by his own pawns 1001–1329 Elo
06 Mate in two Force it, then finish it 1011–1347 Elo
Book No. 1 · Advanced

Combinations

Sacrifices that look like blunders, defenders pulled off their squares, and the quiet moves that finish the job. These are the positions strong players miss too.

Sixty positions · 1401–1782 Elo

01 Deflection Pull the defender away 1401–1749 Elo
02 Attraction Drag the king somewhere worse 1401–1707 Elo
03 The sacrifice Material is not the point 1427–1782 Elo
04 Interference Cut the line 1403–1742 Elo
05 The quiet move No check, no capture 1401–1777 Elo
06 Mate in three Three moves, no escape 1419–1755 Elo
Plans

Pay once. Solve for months.

One payment, then the books arrive — three at a time, one for each month. No account to remember, no streak to keep, nothing to cancel in a hurry.

6 months
€90one payment
€15.00 per book · save 25%
  • Six books, 360 positions
  • Free worldwide shipping
  • Cloth bookmark with the notation key
Take six months — €90
Best value
12 months
€149one payment
€12.42 per book · save 38%
  • Twelve books, 720 positions
  • Free worldwide shipping
  • Cloth bookmark with the notation key
  • PDF of every book, to print or travel with
Take the year — €149

Free worldwide shipping · 30-day guarantee · cancel and we refund every book we haven't sent · change level any time, just tell us before the next parcel.

Questions

Before you subscribe.

What if I pick the wrong level?

Email us and we'll switch you before the next parcel, no charge. If the first book turns out to be wrong for you altogether, the 30-day guarantee below applies — we refund the whole plan and you keep the book.

Will this raise my rating?

We don't promise a number, and anyone who does is guessing — they've never met your opponents. What we promise is narrower: sixty positions graded to your level, every solution checked by an engine, and a month of deliberate practice away from a screen.

Solve the first book on us.

If a month of positions hasn't changed what you notice on the board, email us within 30 days of your first delivery and we refund the whole plan. Keep the book — it's yours either way.

Why do three books arrive at once?

Postage. Sending one 73-gram book a month costs more than printing three. Shipping them together is what keeps the price where it is — you still solve one a month.