Three Books on Attack

HOW TO CRUSH YOUR CHESS OPPONENTS
Author: Simon Williams
Gambit Publications (2008)
111 pages
$24.95

THE ART OF ATTACKING CHESS
Author: Zenon Franco (translated by Phil Adams)
Gambit Publications (2008)
255 pages
$31.95

ATTACKING MANUAL 1: BASIC PRINCIPLES
Author: Jacob Aagaard
Quality Chess (2008)
260 pages
$34.95

Reviews by John Donaldson

When I started to play chess in the early 1970s there wasn’t the body of chess literature there is today and very little on the subject of how to attack. Fortunately what was available was excellent. The chapter by Alexander Kotov “Strategy and Tactics of Attack on the King" from THE ART OF THE MIDDLEGAME and Vladimir Vukovic’s classic THE ART OF ATTACK can still be read with benefit today. One could make a strong case that the latter, which systematically examines how to attack the King (attack against f7, attack against g7, attack against h7 and so on) is still the best introduction for players rated below 2000 even if the computer checking of analysis by John Nunn for the algebraic version of the book proved that there were many analytical errors in it.

These books were first published in the early 1960s so it’s a little surprising that nothing of lasting value appeared for several decades, but fortunately things changed for the better the past ten years with game collections by Julian Hodgson (ATTACK WITH GM Julian Hodgson, Vol. 1 and 2) and Larry Christiansen (STORMING THE BARRICADES: LESSONS IN ATTACKING CHESS from a Top American Grandmaster and ROCKING THE RAMPARTS: A GUIDE TO ATTACKING CHESS), Colin Crouch’s short but to the point ATTACKING TECHNIQUE and Mihai Marin’s SECRETS OF ATTACKING CHESS. Recently three worthwhile new books have appeared.

HOW TO CRUSH YOUR CHESS OPPONENTS by the young English GM Simon Williams who is known for energetic and uncompromising play, is the slimmest and least expensive book of the three. He offers thirty annotated games arranged in seven thematic chapters:

● Ch.1 Opening to Middlegame
● Ch.2 Keeping the Initiative
● Ch.3 Harmonizing the Army
● Ch.4 Locating the Weak Point
● Ch.5 Changing the Tempo
● Ch.6 All-in!
● Ch.7 Playing to Your Strengths

Williams’ annotations are a combination of prose and variations. He tends to use words to explain the lead up to the attack and becomes more concrete when things heat up. The games, which were played between 1993 and 2006, are well chosen. The World Shogi champion Yoshiharu Habu’s win over Peter Wells can be found in HOW TO CRUSH YOUR CHESS OPPONENTS as can young Canadian GM Mark Bluvshtein’s spectacular win over Alexey Shirov.

Note there are no exercises to solve in this book but the author has written another volume for Gambit – IMPROVE YOUR ATTACKING CHESS – which consists of 250 king-hunting puzzles to solve.

THE ART OF ATTACKING CHESS by the experienced writer and trainer Zenon Franco is smoothly translated by Phil Adams. Like HOW TO CRUSH YOUR CHESS OPPONENTS, Franco’s book is based around well-annotated complete games – in this case 33 with numerous supplemental games. What makes it a more substantial book are the 73 training exercises with detailed solutions.
The material is arranged as follows:

● 1 The King in the Centre
● 2 Opposite-Side Castling
● 3 Attacking the Castled King (Same-Side Castling)
● 4 Exploiting Temporary Advantages
● 5 Horwitz Bishops
● 6 Miscellaneous Themes

The chapter on Horwitz Bishops (two Bishops raking adjacent diagonals often arising from positions with h anging pawns) is excellent and the game Gulko-Ehlvest, Horgen 1995, particularly instructive (13…g6!, 14…cxd4 and 15…Nh5!). One nice thing about older writers is they often have entertaining and instructive stories. One that got my attention was Franco’s relating how even Anatoly Karpov had trouble handling Najdorf’s e3 and b3 treatment against his Queen’s Indian when playing Don Miguel in blitz games in Argentina in the early 1980s – games Franco likely observed first hand as he grew up in Paraguay and played with both of the greats at Mar del Plata 1982. He concludes by noting that, “Karpov made a thorough study of this line and began to play it himself with White, gaining some beautiful victories with this setup.”

The first two books have more in common with each other than ATTACKING MANUAL 1: BASIC PRINCIPLES the first in a two volume set on the subject by the Danish-Scotch GM Jacob Aagaard.

Several years ago Aagaard produced two CDs for ChessBase which are well worth hunting down – they are completely independent of his new book.

ATTACKING MANUAL 1: BASIC PRINCIPLES is intended to be an instructional manual and consists of 65 annotated games and game fragments and 50 exercises with extensive solutions ranging from half a page to sometimes close to two pages.

● The principles Aagaard discusses are:
● Include all your pieces in the attack
● Momentum
● Color Schemes
● Numbers over Size
● Attack the weakest point in your opponent’s position
● Attack the strongest point in yours opponent’s position
● Evolution and revolution
A lot of the material that Aagaard presents is quite challenging and to avoid having the reader just look at the solutions without engaging themselves he has done something new and quite useful. Each chapter starts with diagrams of eight positions that are to be discussed. Aagaard suggests the reader examine each position for ten minutes and in some cases to play it out against a computer, before beginning reading.

Throughout his books Aagard stresses that to improve in chess one must be willing to do plenty of work and put in some real effort and his very personal ATTACKING MANUAL 1: BASIC PRINCIPLES is no exception. Certainly his progress should serve as inspiration. Rated 2440 in 1997 (age 24) he was 2343 in April of 2003 before his hard work kicked in and brought him to 2535 and the GM title in 2007. It’s not often a player gains almost 200 points after their 30th birthday.

Whether many readers will have this kind of drive is doubtful but for those that are inspired ATTACKING MANUAL 1: BASIC PRINCIPLES will be a most useful book.

Keeping in mind that the lower-rated hard worker should not treat the following rating ranges as absolutes, I would see HOW TO CRUSH YOUR OPPONENTS as most useful for players 1800-2300, THE ART OFATTACKING CHESS for players 2000-2400, and ATTACKING MANUAL: BASIC PRINCIPLES for players 2000 to IMs and GMs. All three are excellent books and interestingly the games the authors chose are all different – a good indication of the richness of modern chess.

I should say one final word about price. The days of new chess books under $20 are gone. The three books reviewed may seem expensive but if you actually read them from cover to cover they are a bargain. Each of them uses an oversize (9 ¾ by 6 ½) two-column format that while not crowded is certainly packed with material. Even Williams’ book at 111 pages should keep one busy for several weeks.

Click to buy (or get more information about):

HOW TO CRUSH YOUR CHESS OPPONENTS

THE ART OF ATTACKING CHESS

ATTACKING MANUAL 1: BASIC PRINCIPLES

Other excellent books mentioned by Mr. Donaldson:

IMPROVE YOUR ATTACKING CHESS (by Simon Williams - $19.95)

THE ART OF THE MIDDLEGAME (by Keres & Kotov - $12.50)

ROCKING THE RAMPARTS (by Christiansen - $10.00)

STORMING THE BARRICADES (by Christiansen - $19.95)

SECRETS OF ATTACKING CHESS (by Marin - $24.95)