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

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

Aagaard, the newly minted British Champion (a tremendous performance by Jacob!), is one of those rare players that puts out a lot of good (sometimes excellent) books while simultaneously getting better in his over-the-board competitive results. His written work stands out for its thoughtful, copious prose and his obvious desire to actually teach the chess hopeful something of value. His ATTACKING MANUAL 1 continues this instructive stance, while also stumbling here and there with habits I consider slightly annoying -- stories that often seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with the subject matter, Dvoretsky worship, and a tendency to berate the ideas of other authors and players while often talking down to them in the process. This last critique is the most bothersome of the "negatives" since Mr. Aagaard isn't giving his targets any chance to defend themselves. It would be far more interesting for him to contact these players and writers while the book is being written and allow them to share their counter-arguments with the reader. This creates fair play and also a dialogue that, while rare in books, would be useful to the reader and ultimately more fulfilling for all involved.

In ATTACKING MANUAL 1, Aagaard goes after his favorite target, John Watson, in the very first sentence of his Preface: "I first started to work on this project back in 2001, when I was thinking about why I disagreed with one, and I stress one, of the ideas in John Watson's monumental work SECRETS OF MODERN CHESS STRATEGY: ADVANCES SINCE NIMZOWITSCH. The idea I found a little hard to swallow was the notion of 'Rule Independence.'"

While it's fine to discuss another writer's ideas, Aagaard seems to disagree with Watson in almost every book he writes. Leave poor Mr. Watson alone already!

In this case, you would think he would state his position against Watson's concept of "rule independence" and move on. But no, he beats the idea into the dirt, repeating himself over and over.

Before exploring the more pleasant aspects of Aagaard's excellent new book, I'll do some beating of my own. Aagaard's propensity to talk down to various players and writers is really something he should learn to avoid. No other author that I can think of does this kind of thing in an instructive book. In his notes about a grandmaster's mistake (in another of his books), he says that the GM didn't understand the position. However, the position was something every grandmaster would understand. Instead of the GM not understanding something I (and certainly the countless players who are far superior to me) find obvious, the error was almost certainly caused by time trouble, him having a bad day, calculations that convinced him that his normal view of such a position didn't have validity in that particular case, a simple miscalculation, or any number of other things. These are safe options when seeking an explanation for some poor decision. To latch onto the idea that an exceptionally strong player "doesn’t understand" something is pure hubris.

An example of "talking down" to someone can also be seen in the book under review. On page 21 of ATTACKING MANUAL 1, Watson (again!) is his target. He repeats (almost verbatim) his misgivings about Watson's "rule independence" idea, and says, "I had a problem with this notion for several reasons. One is that Watson is an American and that the strongest players in the US do not have the kind of chess culture players in Eastern Europe (and even some in Western Europe) have." Apparently, Aagaard can't see how insulting his blanket assumption is concerning Americans and their supposed lack of chess culture.

Okay, let's move on. For all my complaints, ATTACKING MANUAL 1 is a very nice book that succeeds in both teaching and entertaining his audience about the ins and outs of attacking chess. It offers excellent examples, and every game is filled with instructive prose and just enough variations to prove a point without drowning the poor reader in streams of variations. Even his chapter titles are entertaining metaphors that help ram his content home: "Bring all your Toys to the Nursery!" "Don't lose your Breath!" "Size Matters," "Hit 'em where it hurts!" "Evolution/Revolution," etc.

The back cover claims that, "This is the first thorough examination of the nature of dynamics in chess." Wow, that's quite a statement. I think this is just typical cover PR, but the author makes it clear that he is indeed claiming that the rules he will give in this book "are all related to getting a feeling for general dynamics."

I discussed this topic in my HOW TO REASSESS YOUR CHESS, though my main focus was on statics. Watson addresses the philosophy of dynamics in his own books. Dvoretsky discusses dynamics in some of his books. Euwe's classic two books on the Middlegame also address it (in fact, the 2nd book in that set is titled DYNAMIC AND SUBJECTIVE FEATURES). Dynamics is a topic that's been given some attention by just about every chess writer. Aagaard has created a very nice addition to the existing literature with his ATTACKING MANUAL 1, but saying it's the first thorough examination of dynamics is patently absurd. Personally, I find the ultimate work on Attack and Sacrifice (and obviously dynamics) is Vukovic's two classic volumes, THE CHESS SACRIFICE and ART OF ATTACK IN CHESS.

To be honest, every subject in chess has been explored by all those who have come before us. What most modern writers try to do is update some of the material with present day games. Others, who care more about non-masters, take existing ideas and make them more accessible and palatable to this huge group of chess lovers. Aagaard's ATTACKING MANUAL 1 does both these things in style: he gives us many new attacking games that are bristling with energy, and he presents them with notes that make many complex situations something the non-master can both grasp and enjoy.

If you like dynamic, attacking chess, and if you appreciate an author that goes out of his way to explain the how’s and why's of this exciting topic, then you'll be happy to own this book.

Click to buy (or get more information about) ATTACKING MANUAL 1

Click to buy a SIGNED COPY OF ATTACKING MANUAL 1

Other books by Jacob Aagaard:

CHESS SOFTWARE: A USER'S GUIDE (WITH JACOBS & EMMS)

DUTCH STONEWALL

EXCELLING AT CHESS

EXCELLING AT COMBINATIONAL PLAY

EXCELLING AT POSITIONAL CHESS

EXCELLING AT TECHNICAL CHESS

PRACTICAL CHESS DEFENCE

QUEEN'S INDIAN DEFENCE

RIGHT DECISIONS - IMPROVE YOUR DECISION MAKING IN CHESS (With Esben Lund) [DVD]

NIMZO-INDIAN DEFENCE, THE EASY WAY [DVD]

QUEEN'S INDIAN DEFENCE, THE EASY WAY [DVD]

ATTACKING IN CHESS VOL. 1 [DVD]

ATTACKING IN CHESS VOL. 2 [DVD]