The number of different books published on the game of chess is huge, easily in excess of 50,000 volumes and likely closer to 100,000. Unfortunately few of these are devoted to attacking the king, which seems sort of strange. After all, isn’t checkmating the king what the game is all about? Not too long ago you could count the number of books devoted to attacking the king on both hands.
Growing up in the early 1970s I recall just how slim the choices were. The middle game books of Euwe/Kramer and Pachman touched on the subject and the chapter by Kotov in The Art of the Middlegame (Strategy and Tactics of Attack on the King) was excellent, but books devoted solely to the subject were a short list indeed with THE ART OF SACRIFICE IN CHESS by Spielmann, THE ART OF CHECKMATE by Renaud and Kahn, THE KING HUNT IN CHESS by Cozens (later revised by Nunn), STORMING THE ROYAL FORTRESS by Baranov, THE MODERN CHESS SACRIFICE by Shamkovich, CHECKMATE! by Koltanowski and Finkelstein and THE ART OF ATTACK IN CHESS by Vukovic the only ones that come readily to mind. The first and last are still quite valuable, this is particularly true of Vukovic’s work, the bible on the subject for many years.
The 1990s brought ATTACK WITH MIKHAIL TAL by Tal and Damsky, THE KING IN JEOPARDY by Alburt and Palatnik and the now hard-to-find series ATTACK WITH GM JULIAN HODGSON (No. 1 and 2), but it is only in the last decade that a series of excellent books have appeared. They include Larry Christiansen’s personal approach, drawing heavily from his own games in STORMING THE BARRICADES and ROCKING THE RAMPARTS and IMPROVE YOUR ATTACKING CHESS by GM Simon Williams which offers 250 puzzle positions to train one’s king-hunting skills.
More comprehensive works include:
SECRETS OF ATTACKING CHESS by Mihai Marin
ON THE ATTACK by Jan Timman
GREAT ATTACKERS by Colin Crouch
THE ART OF ATTACKING CHESS by Zenon Franco
The most ambitious approach to the subject is the two volume series by GM Jacob Aagaard: ATTACKING MANUAL 1 and ATTACKING MANUAL 2.
The first of these books was already published in 2008 so it might seem a little strange to see a new edition so soon. Normal practice is to wait for the print run to sell out and then let some time pass, but here GM Aagard, one of the co-owners of the publishing house Quality Chess, was dissatisfied with the physical qualities of the books (the layout and binding) and some typos in the first volume. Many readers might not have noticed these defects but to Aaagard, a well-regarded author who views the ATTACKING MANUALS 1 and 2 as his best work, it was unacceptable.
The first volume, ATTACKING MANUAL 1, now has a more user-friendly typesetting with generous margins on the top and bottom, exceptionally nice binding that allows the book to stay open by itself when studying and no more typos. ATTACKING MANUAL 1 is also sixty pages longer than the first edition. Roughly three quarters of this appears to be due to the new formatting with the remainder attributable to the addition of three new annotated games – the last instructional chapter is now 15 Great Attacking Games and not 12. The price for the new edition of Attacking Manual 1 remains the same.
Volume 1 is devoted to the dynamics of attacking chess. Aagard offers the reader 68 deeply annotated games followed by 50 positions to solve with detailed solutions. The chapters break down as follows:
Chapter 1 – Bring all your Toys to the Nursery Party 27
Chapter 2 – Don’t lose your Breath 57
Chapter 3 – Add some Colour to your Play 89
Chapter 4 – Size Matters! 109
Chapter 5 – Hit ’em where it hurts 137
Chapter 6 – Chewing on Granite 157
Chapter 7 – Evolution/Revolution 173
Chapter 8 – 15 Great Attacking Games 195
Chapter 9 – Watch Yourself take the Next Step 273
Possible Solutions 284
ATTACKING MANUAL 2, the larger of the two volumes, offers close to 150(!) deeply annotated games to instruct the student in attacking techniques. Like the first volume it ends with 50 positions to solve with detailed solutions.
The chapters break down as follows:
Chapter 1 – Understanding Mating Attacks 9
Typical Mates & Focal Points 11
Three Piece Attacks 25
Insurance Policies 30
Transformations 31
Exercises 40
Solutions 43
Chapter 2 – Typical Piece Play 53
The Assault Ratio 57
Deflection 67
Overloading 76
Tempo-gainers 81
Piece Sacrifices for time 84
Transition squares 89
Lines of Communication 101
Vacating Squares 118
Outposts 127
Launching 135
The pin 148
Improving the Circumstances 165
Prophylaxis 170
The f5/f4-squares 178
Chapter 3 – Typical Pawn Play 181
Pawn breaks 183
Pawns as valuable as pieces 193
Pawn storms 208
Pawn sacrifices 237
Provoking weaknesses 243
Chapter 4 – King Safety 251
Destroying the defensive structure 253
Line clearance 264
Cutting off the defences 275
Weak kings 281
Drawing the king into the open 293
Kings on the run 300
Cutting off the escape route 311
The king stuck in the centre 315
Breakthrough in the centre 321
Two thematic sacrifices 346
Chapter 5 – Intuitive Sacrifices and Enduring Initiative 353
Creative play 355
A sudden chance 358
Aggressive opening play 377
Intuitive sacrifices 391
Enduring initiative 399
Chapter 6 – Exercises 413
Solutions 423
Aagaard draws on a wide variety of sources for his model games. Most were played in the last decade but lesser known older examples are featured as well. Some of the games were played by elite GMs (+2700) but there is a lot of variety with many examples of players in the 2500-2700 range. A large number are likely to be unfamiliar to the reader with even the ones that are, like the cult-classic Serper-Nikolaidis, St. Petersburg 1993, subjected to a fresh look. One can also detect the author’s upbringing in the ample offering of games by Scandinavian players.
