Just started going through this book for the first time. In the foreword, Nunn mentions that the puzzles are intended to be difficult and solved with a board in front of you, not just casually while traveling or something. He wasn't kidding. This book is really tough. Anyone else worked through it and enjoy it? I think it'll be really helpful, but it's awfully discouraging to get so few correct haha.
I'm not very far into it, but so far the puzzles are really good. Plus, as is the case with all of Nunn's books, his analysis in the solutions is top notch and includes good prose, not just computer variations. I've had multiple titled players recommend this book and say that they also use it as a training tool, so it's plenty challenging.
Starting observations:
- material is equal
- black is attacking white's knight
- rest of white's position looks solid/not under attack or subject to tactics
- black's king isn't super well defended, g7 in particular is weak while white has 1 heavy piece on it and the bishop has a potential discovered attack
Nd6 with the threat of nxf7 looks strong. E.g. something like:
1. Nd6 Rb8 2. Nxf7 Bxf7 3. e6 Qxe6 5. Bxg7+ Kg8 6.Bf6+ leading to mate.
Not sure about other defenses but it looks like the Nxf7 sac is good to me.
Therefore black has to remove the knight with his e7 bishop:
1. Nd6 Bxd6 2. exd6 f6
Then I don't see anything better than Bxb6 Qxd6 and black has a pretty weak pawn structure and white can continue to build up pressure vs. the dark squares on the kingside while black kind of just has to sit there.
Hmm, I missed Rxg7 before moving or capturing with the e5 pawn, taking advantage of the fourth point I made when I started. Ooops.