Customer Reviews

Art of Attack in Chess

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My favorite books: books that cover "tactics and combinations" (the reason why most people lose or win at the non-master level), "traps" (tactics in the opening while learning your openings are important) and "building and executing attacks".

This is one of the most detailed (I haven't seen a more detailed one) books on building (from the opening on into the middle game in many cases) and the executing your attack! Many important themes are covered - these are the most common ideas - and often much of the time it will show why an attack idea has a flaw in it!

John Nunn did more than just edit an algebraic notation of the classic: he's gone over Vukovic's original annotation with original analysis that shows that even for grandmasters "chess can sometimes be hard." Vukovic's book is still there: he presents a comprehensive discussion of the art of attack, expounding the most basic principles and most complex forms of the attack on the castled king. Ch. 1 discusses "The Attack Against The Uncastled King." Ch. 2 "The Attack On The King That Has Lost The Right To Castle." Ch 3 "On Castling And Attacking The Castled Position In General." Ch. 4 "Mating Patterns." Ch.5 "Focal Points." Ch. 6 "The Classic Bishop Sacrifice" (with some interesting notes by Nunn. Ch.7 "Ranks, Files, And Diagonals In The Attack On The Castled King." Ch.8 "Pieces And Pawns In The Attack On The Castled King." Ch. 9 "The Attack On The Fianchettoed And Q Side Castling Positions" Ch.10 "Defending Against The Attack On The Castled King." Ch. 11 "The Phases Of The Attack On TheCastled King." Ch. 12 "The Attack On The King As An Integral Part Of The Game." Vukovic illustrates his themes by extensive comments on classic games played by Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, Lasker, etc. This is an easy book to read, a difficult one to master. Personally, I think careful study of a book like this will be worth much more than memorizing yet another opening.

This book is the 6th one to be added to my chess library. I can't say whether it's a good book because it is too advanced for me. I've been playing chess very seriously for about a year and think I'd probably be rated about 1300-1500 if I competed.

Most of the chapters have a small amount of text offering general discussion and then proceed with about 4 or 5 complete games that contain good examples of the chapter's focus. I worked (yeah, that's the right word) through several of the chapters and more or less understood what the author was trying to convey. My abilities might have increased some, but only by a small amount compared to the number of hours that I spent on the book.

I'm not convinced that it's possible to generalize knowledge from this format, but I guess I can't really say. Chess seems to be a lot more about 1st-hand experience than about vicarious learning. This kind of book is definitely in the second category.

I think that players at about my skill level would be far better served with chess puzzle books. I bought a book called 303 Tactical Puzzles or something like that and saw an almost immediate gain in my effectiveness. After going through about 100 of the puzzles I began to recognize patterns and combinations dramatically better than before -- and this took about a week. I play most of my chess on Chessmaster 9000 in the rated games section and beat an opponent that was CM rated 1670 and absolutely slaughtered one rated about 1550. 1600 was the previous record for me, so I'd say that's a dramatic improvement. I could see the computer's 2 or 3 move tactical combinations from a mile away because of my improved pattern recognition. I spent about 3x that much time with Art of Attack in Chess and couldn't see much, if any improvement -- it's just too advanced for me to get much of anything out of it.

Vukovic's work is not intended for the new player. A sound understanding of tactics and positional play is strongly recommended for the reader to be able to access the ideas he espouses. With that said, this book is the 'chess bible of attacking principles'! It will show you the key principles of attack, common and sophisticated patterns present in a successful attack, and it will enable you to develope and take advantage of these attacking positions in your own games. This is a book for serious studying, but the benefits that the average club player will receive from working through it are well worth the effort. No other book on attacking chess that I have read even comes close to being as good as this work. Nunn's conversion to algebaic notation is also a welcome relief as well. I suspect that this book is one of the 10 most instructive books on chess ever written!

I almost feel intimidated trying to review this chess book and not being that much of a player myself. Still for the many amateur players who play chess to have fun (not to reach ratings, etc.) here are some thoughts on why this is a good book to own.

Most chess books that I own delve very quickly into positional analysis and the virtues of having your piece X on square Y. I understand that this is a vital part of modern chess and that most games on higher level are probably won by positional play. This book however, takes a different approach - it systematically explores the most fun concept of all - how to mate the king. One after another, the book develops outrageous strategies for preparing mating nets, sacrificing pieces, etc. and presents the reader with one amazing attack after another. I thought it was tons of fun after all the positional stuff. The analysis of classic games by Alekhine and Capablanca in the context of how to attack a castled king, uncastled king, focal points ofthe attack, piece sacrifices, etc. changed my play a lot.

As a result of a series of books I have studied, my play was slowly becoming very boring to myself. I spent most of my time before the endgame trying to develop a particular position on the board and endlessly trying to calculate if the opponents moves are not leading to some attacking combination that would disrupt my nice positional setup. I probably won more games that way than I do now but it was boring. Now I boldly attack whenever I see an opportunity and although I loose more often I have played some games I am really proud of.

I am no chessmaster and my interpretation of the approach of this book versus other books is probably not very educated. But still, this was a lot of fun for me. Try it.

As you can quickly realize by reading the other reviews about this book, it is one of the best books ever written on attacking chess. Nevertheless, I disagree with the people that claims that this is the first instruction book you should get. I would recommend those players with a rating below 1600 to go through other more basic tactics books first. A good book for this is Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player by Alburt and Palatnik. Once you master the basic tactics the Art of Attack in Chess will put you through to the next level.

You will also love this book if you are one of those players that was disappointed after trying to study Think Like a Grandmaster by Kotov and realized that it was way too complicated for you.

Hope this helps!

Apparently, a lot of players weaker than I have found this book extremely helpful. I am a Class "A" player (1800+), and I found this book slow, tough going. It is quite helpful in teaching how to attack, but I personally found it difficult to see the forest for the trees: there are long variations in many positions, and often there are errors (duly pointed out by editor John Nunn). When the errors contradict the author's point, what are we to think? And even when they don't, the wealth of detail can often lead you away from the principles Vukovic is trying to illustrate. So, in my opinion, this is a good book, but to use it, one must:
1- work hard at going through all the variations, and then try to correlate them with the points the author is trying to make;
2- be willing to make allowances for the mistakes and errors.

This is a great read to get a solid grounding in the entire attacking process. This is coming from a 1300 player who took about two and a half years (off and on) to trudge through this one. Even though it might be a lot more helpful to higher-rated players, if you're willing to tackle it, I believe you will benefit. Just having concepts crucial to any attack such as focal-points, mating patterns, and preconditions for an attack explained has broadened my idea of what an attack is and how difficult it is to undertake correctly. The chapter on the classic bishop sacrifice was one of my favorites. Vukovic gives the reader a strong guide as to when the sac works and when it doesn't with clear examples and ideas. This was an idea I had not been aware of and now I'm better prepared not only to defend against it, but also to carry it out. There were many parts of the book that I did not fully grasp, particularly the later chapters (Defending Against the Attack on the Castled King and The Phases of the Attack on the Castled King). Even so it was an introduction to the depth that one needs to go to successfully attack at the highest levels of chess. I would recommend this book to anybody who loves chess, is aggressive over-the-board and is willing to put in some hard work.

I like to call this book a work on positional tactics. If tactics are the loops, then this book is the thread. He dissects the positional aspects of tactics during an attack. For example, when breaking down a certain type of attack he'll discuss first the squares that will be important and then move in to how the attacker begins to manipulate control of these squares. In other words he talks about all the things that happen before a tactical shot: how a player sets up for them, even going into conditions (which happen QUITE OFTEN in real games) for which tactical set ups can become possible. He outlines basic positional conditions that will make the success of an attack more likely. Ever feel like a virgin in bed when it comes to an attacking position? This book walks you through step by step how an attack is conducted. And lastly he covers some extremely common attacking positions that will greatly expand both your tactical AND positional vision.

Some great advice I've gleamed from this book: the power of a pawn on e5, the advantage of a closed center during an attack, great quiet moves (taking away squares from the king, connecting the back rank), anticipating the king's escape (and cutting him off), the tempo of an attack, thematic tactical shots. All of which cannot be learned very easily from just a book on tactics. However, tactics are the bedrock of everything below 1800.

And lastly, this book must actually be read and practiced for it to be useful. I know it sounds obvious but I swear people review things without even using it.

I agree with the reviewers before me who said that this is a great book, but I don't agree that one has to be a strong player to find it useful or worthwhile. I found it increased my enjoyment of the game tremendously and I am NOT a very strong player - not yet at any rate. To anyone who is afraid to launch a sacrificial attack on the opposing king without calculating it to the end - please read this book.