Prolific author and book reviewer FM Carsten Hansen returns to Perpetual Chess to talk chess improvement, chess publishing, and to provide a rundown of standout recent chess books. We start with a listener question about plateauing in tactics training. How do we know if we’re just hitting a speed bump, or if we’ve reached our ceiling? From there, we dive deep into chess books, sharing recommendations with both a biographical and improvement focus. Lastly, we discuss Chess Openings for Dummies and Carsten’s many other book projects. I still don’t know how Carsten puts out so much chess material, but it’s always fun to hear about it. EP 468- FM Carsten Hansen on Tactics Plateaus & The Best Recent Chess Books  Prolific author and book reviewer FM Carsten Hansen returns to Perpetual Chess to talk chess improvement, chess publishing, and to provide a rundown of standout recent chess books. We start with a listener question about plateauing in tactics training. How do we know if we’re just hitting a speed bump, or if we’ve reached our ceiling? From there, we dive deep into chess books, sharing recommendations with both a biographical and improvement focus. Lastly, we discuss Chess Openings for Dummies and Carsten’s many other book projects. I still don’t know how Carsten puts out so much chess material, but it’s always fun to hear about it. Thanks to our sponsor, Chessable.com, you can sign up for Chessable Pro here: https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro Check out their new courses here: https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/ 2:00 – Welcome  Prior FM Carsten Hansen interviews: Episodes 84, 206, Book Recap #30 4:00 –Carsten joins:  Patreon mailbag question: tactics plateaus and adult improvement Mentioned:  The Chess Wizardy of Wotowa  Invisible Chess moves Forcing Chess Moves  12:00 – Carsten’s own chess goals and IM aspirations 19:00 – Carsten’s favorite chess books of the past few years Mentioned:  Tiger’s Chaos Theory The Stories, Games and Intrigue of Capablanca and Alekhine  Gideon Stahlberg: An Epoch in Swedish Chess Korchnoi Year by Year Hubner Year by Year Alexander Alekhine: The Russian Sphinx IM Cyrus Lakdawala: Becoming an IM Converting an Extra Pawn in Chess Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual: 6th Edition Endgame study books by GM Jan Timman and IM Yochanan Afek 29:00 – Carsten discusses his newest project with FM James Eade, Chess Openings for Dummies Download the Chess for Dummies bonus content here: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Chess+Openings+For+Dummies%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781394345014#downloadstab-section 41:00- Carsten’s other projects: Mentioned: Mazukevich’s Madness Carsten’s Newly Edited Capablanca books: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=carsten+hansen+capablanca&crid=E42JM4JTS3CX&sprefix=carsten+hansen+capablanc%2Caps%2C114&ref=nb_sb_noss Coming soon: The Canal and Prins Gambits Inside the Mind of Bobby Fischer  53:00 – Closing thoughts and wrap-up  Thanks to Carsten for rejoining me! Here is how to keep up with him: Website:  https://www.winningquicklyatchess.com/ Email- carstenchess at gmail dot com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices