A Word About Methodology:
Chess Assistant 11 is used to generate grist for the puzzle mill at this website. When I started solving chess puzzles, my rating rose 400 rating points. Unfortunately, many puzzle books present puzzles by tactics, ie knight forks, skewers, etc. Imo, this simply tells the student what to look for. Solutions are checked for uniqueness.
The Author (Christchurch, NZ)
Quick Kills: Practice Crushing Your Opponent Out Of The Opening - Alapin Sicilian: If you play chess for blood, it makes sense to learn the violent tactics that feature in the openings that you play. More practical than taking in tactical themes by general category – knight forks, clearance, back-rank mates, and so on – is to learn them in the context of your openings. Your knowledge of the lines makes these combinations much more interesting, and in turn the combinations teach you about the dangers that lurk for both players in that opening system.
Combining opening study with tactics practice, Quick Kills is an e-book series devoted to the tactical ideas that crop up when theory runs out. Each title contains hundreds of puzzles by high-rated players, set in a specific opening. The first screen contains the citation, game score, and diagram, while the second screen presents the diagram with the solution. The positions build on each other, yet without becoming repetitive. You will learn tactics best in the field where you already do your best work – in the opening you employ.
Mongoose has posted a review of my book on gambits: The Gambit Files: Tactical Themes to Sharpen your Play.
I've been creating the puzzle column for the Postal Chess SIG for Mensa over the last ten years and sending out puzzles to subscribers every two weeks about that long too. For about a dozen years, I taught a chess class in a Washington, DC junior high school. For several years I took weekly lessons from the Virginia State Champion, Steve Greanias. I've completed an extensive series of courses on collections development taught by Dr John Sherrod, former Director of the National Agricultural Library in Washington, DC.