The Art of Attacking Chess

Description

All chess-players love to play a smooth attacking game, flowing from start to finish, and sprinkled with spectacular ideas and sacrifices. However, few can do so regularly, and for most players, their collection of brilliancies missed far outweighs their creative successes. Innate talent plays an important role, but many of the skills needed for attacking chess can be learnt by study and practice. Here, one of the world's most experienced annotators has selected 33 superb examples, and explained them in a way that strips away the mystery. We see how the decision to attack is made, and which positional factors led to that decision being justified. We observe either a gradual build-up, or a lightning-fast storm, and understand why one approach or the other was necessary. Finally, we witness the final execution of the tactical blows. To check that we have truly grasped the ideas, Franco presents us with plentiful exercises, where it is we who have to perform the heroics. Review: This is a very in depth and through book. - For the player who has grasped positional, strategic and sacrificial nuances of chess, we face the conundrum: how do we get there to use this? (to paraphrase Spielmann on Alekhine) This is my first book I have encountered that goes in depth from opening to preparation for attack in the middlegame down to the prosecution of attack. Basic themes are concentrated upon (eg K in middle, same side castling, opposite side castling) alongside positional features: (the evaluation of hanging pawns in Polgar vs Karpov is masterly) and the strategic (eg Horwitz bishops, knight on f5). There is much thought when he groups certain positions into the tabiyas and explore the attacking plans from there. I learnt more about QID in the afternoon spent with that particular chapter than playing though QID positions from Kasparov's "My Great Predecessors" Certainly I can remember some of those games now and realise some features I didn't appreciate. I believe that is the beauty of this. Kotov's Art of Attack in Chess is similarly titled but in my humble opinion is not describing an artistic venture at all but a technical manual. This similarly titled book is more aptly named with a much clearer approach and writing. There is thoughtfulness to the supplementary positions to illustrate major points raised in sidelines of the major games. There are positions at the end of each chapter to allow you to test your understanding of the themes presented. This allows quite a bit of "replay" value. On a personal note while I shy away from classic positions due to poor understanding, this has rekindled a strong desire to go back to them. Review: Five Stars - Thank you.