Customer Reviews

Attack with Mikhail Tal

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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There comes a point in a tournament chess player's development when they are familiar with the "standard" tactical [and positional] themes: they know to go for the kill on, say, f7/f2 against a king stranded in the center (to me a "stranded" king is a stronger precondition for an early attack than an "uncastled" one). They can find (or at least know when to look for) "King's Field" sacrifices and combinations. They can find "Mate in X" when the position requires it.

To me, this brilliant work is about COMPENSATION for sacrificed material in the form of much greater COORDINATION of one's forces than the opponent has of his. And often, the disparity of coordination that pops up is not immediate; rather, the attacking side has a greater ABILITY to develop/coordinate their pieces in the ensuing battle. The opponent's pieces may find themselves sealed off on one flank, or unable to rush to the defense in time.

The thread running through Rudolph Spielmann's THE ART OF SACRIFICE IN CHESS (which I reveiewed previously) is the notion of COMPENSATION when the sacrifices are not of a decisive nature. Upon looking at his examples, the reader can rationalize the material investment as being entirely justified.

With ATTACK WITH MIKHAIL TAL, however, this notion of COMPENSATION is much less clear for, I suspect, most of us. The 8th World Champion (1960) was adept at "Making it Work." The defensive resistance put up by Morphy's opponents was, generally, pathetic. By contrast, Tal stormed his way to the top by hacking to pieces many of the greatest chess players the world has ever seen (for example, he went 4-0 against Bobby Fischer in the 1959 Candidates Tournament, and beat Mikhail Botvinnik by 4 points in the 1960 World Championship Match).

The attacking prowess of the Magician from Riga becomes understandable when reading this work, because he and Damsky explain the thought process behind it so well. All of this said, it takes a great amount of study and boldness to try and integrate this into one's own play! I know I certainly haven't been able to do it yet, but will continue to try!

This book is structured into nine chapters.
1. Enemy King in the center - shows how to keep the king in the center and to attack it.
2. Breakthrough in the Center - The theme still revolves around trapping the enemy king in the center for material sacrifice.
3. The Assault Ratio - Shows how to tear apart the enemy fortress
4. Invasion trajectories - Shows how to attack on the diagonals
5. Lines of Communication - Shows how to break the enemies lines of communications to set up an attack.
6 Outposts - Shows how a piece outpost beyond the 4th rank is a thorn in the enemies army.
7. Eliminating Defenders - Shows how to get rid of those pesky defenders when attacking.
8. At the Royal Court - Shows how to break apart a castled position.
9. Destroying the Fortress walls - summs up with bxh7+ and double bishop sacrifices when the enemey pawn cover has not been touched. Also nxf7 and nxg7 sacrifices.
There is a chapter missing on queenside sacrifices, but alas the magician from riga passed away before completing the book, so it's not his fault.

When playing over the games of Mikhail Tal's, it is often very difficult to understand where he finds his ultra-aggresive moves. In this book, Tal almost scientifically shows how to think in this fashion. This is a book that belongs on every serious chess player's shelf, and it should be read and re-read whenever a player even thinks of playing positionally.

A real chess player can't avoid this book for long. This book has the most instructive and thrilling games,diagrams and stories TAL has to offer!!! I recomend would this book to anyone but most of all to players between the rating range of 1500-2200. Hope you enjoy this book as much as i did.It has current example of players like Kasparov,Karpov and The Great Mikhail TAL himself!!! THE MAGICIAN FROM RIGA!

This book, is a new level of attacking manual, interesting position, there is no one tipical sacrifies, like greek gift, doble bishop sacrifies. Sacifies in f3_f6

New profesional examples, new level of tactical, very far for the rest of books.

Tal selected the most unique sacrifies, but he joined acourdin new themes, that you enjoy.

The tactical moves, in fact is very easy, or original, that you can taste. but are some position very tricky.

This book has diagram, and how the granmasters, exploit this position, there are a few puzzle, to result.

My experience with this book, are some games didn't survive the computer analysis, (sacrifies very expeculative) but is not very easy to resolve. (very few!!!!!)

Even that there are sacrifies, that even the computer, aprove.I took a Tal's line in Alekhine defence, a premature knigth sacrifies on f7, even the computer improve the line, and i now i used this line. Always.

Great recomendation, you will enjoy the new level of tactical manoeuvres.

Awesome book, written very conversationally so it's very accessible. Very interesting insights into a more aggressive style of play (which personally suits me, as I hate boring positional games). Recently purchased another Tal book, if that indicates at all my impressed response to this book.

Even from reading the first few pages my abilities as an attacker on the board has gotten better. To those who ever wonder how he manages to find the right time to attack, this book will show you how. my only complaint is that the book does not discuss attacking on the queenside.

This has got to be one of the best chess books ever!The games,the examples,the analysis,the commentary,everything is simply superb.The games and examples are full of the most amazing sacrifices and combinations you will ever seeYou just must buy this book!

This book is broken down into sections covering a variety of attacking themes and prerequisites for launching decisive attacks on your opponent's king. By playing through the many fantastic examples presented in the book, one sees over and over the beauty of sacrificial, tactical chess. I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to anyone who loves the game.

First id like to say that my opinion on this book is quite emotional. This book is simply beautifull in the way it shows so clearly the main elements necesary to carry and attack on the king from one of the greatest attackers if not the greatest. To give some objective information for the buyer the book is divide by stages ( as much as an attack can be divided in stages ) and carrys the reader through them quite clearly , even if you didnt understood the explanations , you would get the knowledge from doing your homework of analisying yourself along with the analisys of the authors. Mikhail Tal died before finishing this book and therefore theres one chapter missing on queen sacrifices , but nevertheless the book is great , specially if you find yourself toothless when the matter in hand is carrying an efective attack on the king and in general. To be honest i had to read the book twice , the second time i read it backwards ( it simply clicked when i did it that way ). I carry the book most of the time with me to do some quick reviewing when ever i can. At the time i read the book i was already the champion on my club , but mostly in account of the poor positional and tactical decisions of my oponents , now im just bringing them to their knees. Last game i played ( against a german player ) i threw an attack on the kingside ,even though there was no outposts or lines (based on the assault ration concept Tal exposes in the book ), and then after making my oponent become completely passive i redirected an attack on the weakenesses left on the queen side and winning an important piece and the game. The diference in that game is that i was so clear and what was there and was not that i was able to come up with a more complete plan and enjoy more thorough understanding of my attack posibilities. Enjoy