The purpose of this book is simple - it is intended to raise your rating (or just greatly improve your game if you're not a rated player). Rather than go into a lengthy explanation of why practicing tactics is so critical to improvement, I'll just tell you about my own experience. I started playing tournament chess in the 1980's and spent about 20 years rated in the 1500-1650 range while I studied opening books, endgame books, and strategy books to no avail (you can see my rating graph here: http: //main.uschess.org/datapage/ratings_graph.php?memid=12413721). Over the years I had read...