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Chess training, books, and writing for the improver crowd — by Martin B. Justesen. Home of The Tactics Ladder: 5,000+ puzzles, free, with spaced repetition that makes the patterns stick.
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The Tactics Ladder — free online trainer
Training that actually sticks
1. Pick your rung
Ten books from Beginner (800) to Master (2600+). Start where you are, not where someone else is.
2. Solve real puzzles
5,000 hand-picked positions from real games, curated from the Lichess puzzle database.
3. Repetition locks it in
Puzzles return at 1, 8, 24, 60, and 122-day intervals — spaced repetition turns solutions into instinct.
The book series
Train free online.
Own it in paperback.
This site is the online companion to the Tactics Ladder paperback series — 10 books, 5,000 puzzles, one ladder from 800 to 2600+. The same puzzles, two ways to climb:
- ✓ In paperback — solve from the page at a real board, away from screens and distractions.
- ✓ Online — adds spaced repetition, progress tracking, and review scheduling the printed page can't.
- ✓ Own the books already? Train the same ladder here with spaced repetition — free.
More books by Martin
From classic fundamentals to blindfold calculation training — a library for every kind of improver.
Chess Fundamentals
100th Anniversary Edition of Capablanca's classic — modern notation, extra diagrams
Blindfold Endgame Visualization
50 positions to train calculation without sight of the board
Blindfold Opening Visualization
100 puzzles from real opening positions, 4–10 moves deep
Blindfold Chess Problems
1,160 blindfold mate-in-two problems
100 Headachingly Hard Mate in Two
Fiendish puzzles composed by the legendary Sam Loyd
Very nice book with a variety of checkmates in 2 — some of them are simpler, some are... well, insane.
Martin B. Justesen
Chess author · Adult improver
Built by someone who climbed it himself
I went from 1,474 to 2,007 blitz on Chess.com over a decade of deliberate, honest work — plateaus included. Along the way my puzzle rating climbed from 1,500 to 2,707, and one lesson stood out: structured tactical training, reviewed at the right intervals, beats grinding random puzzles every time.
The Tactics Ladder — the books and this trainer — is that lesson, systematized.
Chess writing for the chess improver crowd
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Create Your Free AccountAlso by Martin: Chess Opening ROI ↗ — find your highest-value opening to study next.