British Champion Jacob Aagaard explains the rules of attack (the exploitation of a dynamic advantage) in an accessible and entertaining style. This groundbreaking work is well balanced between easily understandable examples, exercises and deep analysis. Five years in the making, this book will surely not disappoint. Volume I deals with bringing all the pieces into the action, momentum, colour schemes, strongest and weakest points, evolution/revolution.
This is the first thorough examination of the nature of dynamics in chess, and the principles explained in this book are relevant in every chess game played. In lively no-nonsense language, Aagaard explains how the best players in the world attack.
Preface to the second edition
Confession: I used to be a serial writer. From 2000 to 2004 I wrote more than twenty books; some of them with other people, some of them alone, some of them with my name on the cover, some of them not. I was doing so without a true goal or direction, simply pleasing people, or helping the publishers to fill a hole in their schedule. I think these books were not too bad in general and some of them even a good deal above average. One of them even picked up an award, while another was nominated for one.
But deep down I knew that my books were not as good as they could be. I felt that the work I was doing was pleasing a lot of people, but not me. It was somewhere during this period, in 2001 to be a bit more exact, that the idea of this book came into being. I was very interested in generalisations in chess (despite this having been unfashionable for a long time) not because I believe that there are any shortcuts to playing good chess, but because I believe that there are recurring strategic themes in chess, and to know them will help you to develop your chess intuition.
I had written a few chapters in 2003, when I decided that I wanted to set up a chess publishing house, and in this way move to a different place in the chain of people creating chess books. I had clone so mainly because I had produced 35% of the Everyman Catalogue that year, but felt that I had very little control over the final product. With Everyman still going strong six years later, and Quality Chess not doing too badly either, it seems that it was mainly a matter of taste.
In 2004 I finished all my contracts with Everyman and co-founded Quality Chess. At first I was working as an editor and trying to make a living without writing for other companies, while Quality Chess struggled through the always tricky first years of business. I wanted to finish this book, but it was difficult to find the time and then I got distracted, and wrote Practical Chess Defence, which was always meant to be a small quick project, along the lines of what I had done with Everyman. However, it had become clear that once released, it was not possible to cram the beast back into the cage. That book was big, difficult and almost anti-commercial. I still love it dearly.
It was only in 2008 that I finally finished this book. I have to admit that over time I became very emotionally attached to this project, because of what it meant. I had left Everyman and founded Quality Chess because I wanted full control over the look of this book, and because I wanted to publish Questions of Modern Chess Theory and The Berlin Wall. The latter two were published in the autumn of 2008 to great critical acclaim, while the Attacking Manual 1 was a bit of a disappointment - not least to the author.
The first edition of this book was written from the heart. It had a lot of interesting ideas, I think. However, the typesetting and the proofreading had gone all wrong and this ruined the experience many readers, as well as for the author.
1 am not sure that this book can justify a second edition, nor if what I feel are valuable insights into chess strategy and dynamics are really so, but because of its history, I was able to talk my editor John Shaw into having it printed.
One of the questions about this book is if it is truly original. To some extent yes, and to some extent, no. Obviously there has been a lot written about dynamics in chess in general. However. the books I have read have all mentioned dynamics as a self-explanatory phenomenon, or even confused tactics with dynamics. I have yet to come across a coherent theory of dynamics, which is why I decided to bring some often-described elements together with some observations of my own. It is very difficult for me to evaluate to what extent this has been a success or not, as no one has challenged this theory. I hope the reader will make up his own mind, but most of all, I hope he will find this book helpful in understanding the great mystery which is chess strategy.
Jacob Aagaard
Glasgow, September 2009
004 Key to Symbols used
007 Preface to the second edition
009 Bring it on - an introduction
027 1 Bring all your Toys to the Nursery Party
057 2 Don't lose your Breath
089 3 Add some Colour to your Play
109 4 Size Matters!
137 5 Hit 'em where it hurts
157 6 Chewing on Granite
173 7 Evolution/Revolution
195 8 15 Great Attacking Games
273 9 Watch Yourself take the Next Step
284 Possible Solutions
320 Index
REZENSIONEN ZUR 1.AUFLAGE:
"Attacking Manual 1" von GM Jacob Aagaard befasst sich mit den verschiedenen Methoden, einen erfolgreichen Angriff auf den gegnerischen König einzuläuten. Für die meisten Schachspieler ist ein erfolgreicher Angriff das Salz in der Suppe und so verwundert es nicht, dass sich ein Großteil der neu erscheinenden Schachbücher um Kombinationen, Taktikaufgaben und dergleichen handelt. Doch Aagaard gibt sich nicht mit einfachen Aufgaben und Tests zufrieden sondern geht gewissermaßen einen Schritt zurück und stellt sich die Frage: "Wie erreiche ich überhaupt Stellungen in denen es etwas zu kombinieren gibt?" Ich kann unzählige Taktikaufgaben lösen, aber was tun, wenn ich in meinen eigenen Partien niemals dazu komme, weil ich keine Angriffsstellungen erreiche, meine Angriffe sofort abgewehrt werden und/oder gar vollkommen inkorrekt sind? Hand aufs Herz, uns allen ist es doch schon so ergangen, man glaubt sich in der Rolle des Angreifers und spielt munter drauf los, opfert hier und da vielleicht einen Bauern oder sogar eine Figur, nur um am Ende festzustellen, dass zu einem Angriff a´la Tal eben doch etwas mehr gehört. Genau dieses "etwas mehr" versucht der Autor seinen Lesern zu vermitteln anhand von über 60 ausführlich kommentierten Partien. Nebenbei finden sich im Buch unzählige Partiefragmente und natürlich ... auch Aufgaben zum Selbststudium! Glücklicherweise bringt Aagaard überwiegend selten publizierte Partien als Anschauungsmaterial, in nachfolgender Partie demonstriert Weiß den perfekten Angriff:
Wippermann,T (2446) - Weiss,A (2209, Schwaebisch Gmuend 2006
1.e4 c5 2.Sf3 e6 3.b3 d6 4.Lb2 Sf6 5.e5 dxe5 6.Sxe5 Le7 7.Ld3 Sbd7 8.f4 0-0 9.0-0 Te8 10.Sa3 Lf8 11.Df3 g6 12.Sac4 Sb6 13.Sxb6 Dxb6 14.Lc4!! Lg7 15.f5! Tf8 16.fxg6 hxg6 17.Dxf6!? Lxf6 18.Txf6 Dd8 19.Taf1 b5 20.Lxb5 a6 21.Ld3 Ta7 22.Sxg6! fxg6 23.Txg6+ Kh7 24.Txe6+ Kg8 25.Tg6+ Kh7 26.Tg7+ Kh6 27.Txf8 Dxf8 28.Txa7 Df4 29.Th7+ Kg5 30.h4+ Kg4 31.Tg7+ Kh5 32.Tg5+ Kxh4 33.g3+ 1-0
Daneben gibt es auch ein Wiedersehen mit solch bekannten Angriffspartien wie zum Beispiel Kasparov-Gelfand, Linares 1993, Euwe-Keres, Niederlande 1940 oder auch Anand-Adams, San Luis 2005. Bemerkenswerterweise sind im Buch auch Partiebeispiele aus dem GM-Turnier von Wijk aan Zee 2008 vertreten, das spricht für höchste Aktualität.
Aber kommen wir zu der Frage zurück, wie man denn nun einen erfolgreichen Angriff plant und durchführt. Dazu geben vielleicht alleine schon die Kapitelüberschriften Auskunft: Bring all your Toys to the Nursery! (damit meint der Autor, man solle alle Figuren am Geschehen teilhaben lassen), Hit 'em where it hurts!, Don't lose your Breath!, Add some Colour to your Play!, Great Attacking Games, etc. Die meisten Beispiele kannte ich noch nicht und so war auch das Lesevergnügen mehr als ungetrübt, im Kapitel "Chewing on Granite!" beispielsweise ist eine Partie aufgeführt, die als Musterbeispiel für einen Angriff auf eine relativ feste Stellung wie geschaffen ist:
Ortega,L (2448) - Khenkin,I (2644)
Lido Estensi op 4th 2003
1.e4 c5 2.Sf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Sxd4 a6 5.Sc3 Dc7 6.Le2 Sf6 7.0-0 Lc5 8.Le3 d6 9.Dd2 0-0 10.Tad1 b5 11.Lf3 Lb7 12.e5! Dieser Zug ist der Beginn eines genialen Angriffsplanes 12 ... Lxf3 13.exf6 Lxd1 14.Sf5!! Jetzt wird die Hütte abgerissen!14 ... gxf6 15.Sd5!! Dd8 16.Lxc5 Sd7 17.Ld4 Lh5 18.Sde7+ Dxe7 19.Sxe7+ Kg7 20.g4 Lg6 21.g5 Tfe8 22.gxf6+ Sxf6 23.Dg5 e5 24.Sf5+ Kg8 25.Dxf6 Lxf5 26.Le3 1-0
Aagaard schreibt wie gewohnt locker und witzig (Once you pop you just can´t Stopp!), zugleich aber immer voll auf der Höhe des Geschehens. Seine Erläuterungen beschränken sich dabei nicht auf Verallgemeinerungen sondern versuchen, schwierige Themen so zu verpacken, dass es auch für den "Ottonormalschachspieler" verständlich und nachvollziehbar bleibt. Im Anhang gibt es dann noch 50 Stellungen zum Selbststudium, wobei hier der allgemeine Schwierigkeitsgrad doch recht heftig ist.
Nachfolgend ein kleines Interview mit dem CEO des Quality Chess Verlages und Autor des vorliegenden Buches, GM Jacob Aagaard:
1) Mister Aagaard, your new book \ " Attacking manual 1 \ " treats the attack in a chess game, was this subject neglected in the literature up to now?
There are many books on the attack already, most famously one by Vukovic, but also by Tartakower, Dvoretsky, Tal, Lane, Crouch, Christensen and others. The problem with all of these books is that they only deal with the situation where you already have an attack. Also, they tend to show examples of attacking chess without having a larger theory of dynamic play. Since the end of the 19th century we have had theories of positional play, but no one have ever sat down and collected the various ideas existing about dynamic chess. This is what I have tried to do in this book, it is up to the readers and reviewers to evaluate if I have done a good job.
2) What do you mean: Who was the best Attacking player of all times and why?
It would be strange not to say Garry Kasparov. And the reason is obvious, he has mated the best defenders!
3) Personally, I think the book is very well, but I (my ELO is only 2163) think the tasks are partially very difficult. For which strength would you recommend this book?
I do not believe that good books that explain things well have a fixed audience. If you found the exercises difficult you did not treat them in the way I suggested in the book! I suggest that you think for 10 minutes and compare your thinking to the "possible solutions" in order to learn about your thinking. If you put your ego on the line when working alone with a book, you will collect more defeats in this life than I find pleasant. I try to avoid putting too much pressure on myself when I am training, after all, I am training.
I think you can read and understand this book from the level of 1200 to 2700 and take something from it, though the ability to do it in practice will differ.
4) Our readers may expect what in part 2?
Where part one is dealing with the big concepts of attackin play, part II will deal with the techniques already dealt with in the books mentioned earlier. The readers can look forward to an update on these techniques, some new ones and most importantly, games and analysis they have not seen before. I have an aversion against this tradition of laziness in chess literature, where games from Zurich 1953 are used again and again, rather than including some of the great games that are played almost daily into the new books written.
5) Quality Chess has published books in top quality, could this level stability in future?
This is not entirely true, unfortunately. Out of our 26 books there are two that I would wish we had not done. I hope that we will have better taste in the future and avoid such mistakes, and then I think that we have not published our best titles yet. I really believe that. We will publish both ambitious books like San Luis 2005 and Learn from the Legends (the latter is now out in German), opening books that do not suggest that you play variations that lose by force - as with some of our competitors - and instructional books of high quality for players of all levels.
Fazit: Angreifen wie die Großen? Mit diesem Buch kommen Sie diesem Ziel einen großen Schritt näher!
Martin Rieger, April 2008
Jacob Aagaard
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